[Verjigorm]

Keep in mind I have read and have access to the guides. These are just a few things that I do. I'm wondering how well any of these would fare in MP (which I haven't done except in 1v1 since Dom2).

1. Augur Elders can be recruited from every province, so I make a habit of hiring LOTS of them. However, they are weak and old. When in siege against castles, they frequently die from arrow fire and various other ranged attacks. To protect them...

I leave an unconquered province within range of my production centers, cast Twiceborn and run the Augur's to the province. Not only does it significantly improve the mage's statistics and prevent them from acquiring afflictions, but it has a chance to give them an additional book of Death magic for just 10 gems. Wight mages are nice.

2. Since my cap-only's are the lovely Equite of the Sacred Shroud and Arch Bishop of the Sacred Shroud (*sarcasm* What's that you say? There's a regular Bishop, too? I didn't know that!).. I hire an Arch Bishop EVERY TURN non-stop except on turn 1 when I hire an Augur Elder. These Arch Bishops form the core of my early armies and provide me with access to a lovely tactic in the future as well (Keep in mind I don't like them as much as the summonable H3 priests that other nations have, but hey... they're good Smiters).

The basic setup with my current scales is to create 4 Arch Bishops, combine with an indy mounted commander, and then as many Equites as I can produce--filled out by Hastatus depending on Holy/Resource ratio, and then Hastatus production for 2-3 turns from two other castles as well as 4-6 Augur Elders. These are nice forces and produce 1 every 4 turns from my main centroid. Keep in mind I make other things, but I find this grouping formidable. My bless is A6D6 which isn't great, but it protects my Arch Bishops later when...

I found that the Arch Bishops FREQUENTLY find their way onto the Hero's board and, thus, I like to make mummies out of them. Keep in mind that having your PROPHET die once he's on the board is a good thing because when you mummify him and reprophetize him, he gets 5H which is bad ***. Once mummified, I use the priests as thugs since Smite loses some of its punch late game and a thugified mummy 3H priest has Holy Avenger spreads leprosy and is an all around great guy especially if they get HP boost as their red coin ability.

As for what I put on the thuggy mummies...

Frost Brand, Scutata Volturnus, Wraith Crown, Red Dragon Scale Mail (to reduce fire vulnerability), Boots of Quickness (because 2 AP isn't enough), Ring of Regeneration, and then...

I put void eyes on some without thinking and then realized that I wasn't using them to Smite anymore, but to thug... and decided to use Amulet of Anti-Magic or Pendant of Luck instead. They seem to have lowered magic resistance but they get +3MR with the bless, so I think I favor Anti-magic, but not sure.

My research targets were:

Enchantment 2 for Skele-spam.
Conjuration 2 for Dark Knowledge
Evocation 2 for Arcane Probing
Thaumaturgy 2 for Site Searches
Enchantment 4 for Behemoth and Twiceborn (I went heavy on the Enchantment because I picked up a Nexus (Ench-20%) early on).
Conjuration 8 for Well of Misery
Construction 6 for magic boosters and thug equipment.
Enchantment 8 for Lichcraft, Eternal Pyre, and Stellar Focus (that I put up just because it's hard to pass up for 20% off).
Construction 8 for Dimensional Rod, Sceptre of Dark Regency, and the Chalice all of which I made within 2 turns of reaching Con8. I might have needed to do this earlier in MP...

Now I'm contemplating:

Enchantment 9 for Arcane Nexus
Thaumaturgy 8 for various battle magic, Black Death and Stygian Paths
but I think
Conjuration 9 is probably the best way to go for Tart gate especially since I have the Chalice and GoR already.

I like the Behemoths when they only cost 8 gems, whereas when they cost 10 gems, i was reluctant to take them. I'm sure that those gems would probably be better spent on tarts or liches instead, though...

Liches + Thaumaturgy seems like a powerful defensive combination since my dominion is pretty good, and tarts are so "usual". The wight mages and non-upgraded augurs are pretty good, too though and more versatile.

Thoughts?