[Squirrelloid]

Well, as long as I have insomnia...

I started a new game as LA R'lyeh with a random medium map with 10 total players. Pretender:

Archmage awake Tu3 Sl3 De3 Co3 Lk3 Mg0 Dom9
A4E4F4W4N4D4

This results in 0 unused points. So i'm willing to step back from Dom10 as an absolute - Dom9 is probably plenty strong enough and a lot more rainbow friendly. I really want to squeeze some Magic in there, but I keep feeling like I don't need the extra research points since my mages already generate a good number, and thus it feels inferior to rainbowing my pretender.

Its probably possible to cut down the magic a little bit (most sites will be found with X3 instead of X4), and since your early site searching will be entirely aquatic you can base it off the possible sites in oceanic provinces, but I like the ability to give a decent rainbow bless to my void creatures, and getting to 4 also enables virtually all the boosters.

You'll note an astral absence - i have plenty of astral without giving it to my pretender, and why tempt anyone to try and mage duel him?

At the end of year 1 I've only got 6 provinces (mostly due to some unlucky battle results and/or independent compositions - shamblers absolutely destroy most of your troops and i've seen two provinces with them), but i've site searched all my provinces and have reasonable gem income, have seen one 3000 gold event rather late in the year (still using that cash, >2000 remaining), and have 3 fortresses (2 from site searching), 2 labs, 11 starspawn mages, 1 starspawn priest, and a national hero (the aboleth). I researched Conj 2/Thaum 1/Evoc 2/Conj 3 in that order, and am header to Conj 4. Have 4 sea serpents as (part of) my main expansion force, and am realizing that rapid expansion isn't critical here - provinces are really only as good as my ability to site search them.

With a little less risky play and less annoying independents, I'd probably have 8 provinces trivially. I'm also way up in the research game because I'm only buying starspawn mages, and haven't bought a non-commander unit since turn 1. (More attention to units and early expansion could certainly have netted me more provinces at the cost of research, which i decided was more critical).

Important tip: Rename all your mages to their magic paths. This'll make finding the right mage *much* easier.

Edit: Also, not being attacked by stupidly strong independents when you have Luck 3 would be nice.