[AreaOfEffect]

Pretender Design
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I'm not one for telling people what they should use as their god. At the same time I understand that some people just want to be told what works. The book has suggested that Man can use a stationary god if given good scales. I personally think that Man benefits best from a god that is mobile. The more mobility the better. The reason is that Man's god should add battlefield options that don't come naturally to the nation. Spells that your magisters can cast won't always do the job or the enemy might have powerful astral mages and can pick apart your communioned magister arcanas. Now a stationary god can support by casting some of the nasty army killing spells from afar, but, more often then not, it becomes more cost effective on your gem income to show up and cast spells in battle. I will continue to insist on taking Order 3 and Growth 3, yet that's because I prefer to take the money aspect of the strategy to it's extreme, thus taking the castle aspect as far as it can go.

A rainbow god, or simply a god with a few strong magic skills, is what Man really needs in my opinion. This means avoiding gods like the Wyrm and Manticore. I generally avoid designing a bless around Man's sacred units. The wardens are great at stealth raiding, but they are also slow and capitol only. You could amass a lot of the sacred hounds, but I'm not a fan of the bless options for these units and I think the gems could be spent elsewhere more effectively. Death and nature gems are always in short supply and could be used to make powerful magic items and powerfully diverse mages to supplement your national ones. Yet, while I'm talking about nature and death, I will say that I am in favor of a small bless that aids your magister arcanas via Shrouds of the Battle Saint (Construction 4). A nature and death bless, even at it's lowest levels, are both a great boon to the magister arcana. The nature bless can help them avoid getting diseased and thus extend their usefulness. The death bless is the only bless capable of adding effectiveness to damage spells by having them cause greater affliction. A death bless can make Rain of Stones horribly effective against unarmored opponents and even a ritual like Seeking Arrow can be transformed from a lame assassination spell into a reliable long range affliction spell usable on any SC.

It would likely be wise to place some nature magic on your god anyhow as independent nature mages can sometimes be hard to find and most aren't capable of much. Man is probably the only nation that gets gem income that doesn't correspond to the magic skills that have available. Nature is also a good magic paths all around. An once of air magic combined with death magic could also provide greater mobility via Cloud Trapeze (Enchantment 4) and increase the number of effective battlefield spells your god can have at his/her disposal. If your desire is to bolster the magister arcana and keep them from being Magic Dueled to death, you could also take a powerful, yet mobile, astral god. Every magic skill has something to offer, but I think it best to focus on ways your god can cripple invading armies and bolster your national mages.


Tips on Expansion
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Now I've said that production, as a scale, was an option. By the mid-game you will have an abundance of castles and, therefore, little need for high levels of production. As you fight off other factions you will want to exercise the full spectrum of your units, and so you shouldn't always be buying the highest resource units anyhow. That said, their is no doubt in my mind that some level of production will speed up early game expansion and remain helpful later on. An expansion army of a dozen or more defenders, backed by just a few longbowmen will defeat almost any indy province. The late age variety of indies is bland. Barbarians are easy to deal with and the defender can hold a line against heavy cavalry and win. Just remember to place your defenders in the middle, place your longbowmen behind them and your commander out of harms way.

Your starting army will not have any defenders in it to start with. I find that for this army it is best to hold a turn, declare the Castellan your prophet, and hire as many longbowmen as you can. For the first few rounds you should target lightly armored provinces. Place the longbowmen a bit back and have the spearmen hold and then attack from midfield. Finally I just script the prophet to smite every round. This army should only need to be supported once during expansion. Just have a judge deliver several defenders in a round or two and have the remaining spearmen take the flank.

Expansion should flow smoothly barring any disaster. You can always average 12 provinces before the first year is through. MP games have proven to me that 12 provinces by turn 9 is not all that difficult with only 2 levels of production. In my opinion, that's good for any human faction who doesn't expand on the first turn and who doesn't use an awake god.


Tips on Stealth Raiding with Man
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I have argued that the wardens aren't ideal for a strong bless because they are slow and national only, that of course doesn't make them useless. In fact, they might become your most useful secret weapon when done right. You still need your normal forces in order to defend yourself, but I prefer to use them as rouse. Your big army is a distraction from what they should really fear in my opinion. A small number of wardens, lead by lord warden make great PD killers. This is true even without a bless. Once I have researched some construction I find it helpful to forge Bows of War (Construction 6), and other cheap magical ranged weapons in order to increase their effectiveness. They can also be supported by magisters and thus gain magical support. Magisters with astral magic can help the stealth army avoid Mind Hunts as well

If you need more power behind your stealth army, you can have them attack the current province while you Cloud Trapeze in mages. Normally a stealth army will attack the current province in normal attack rounds, but if a unit of yours starts a battle in the post ritual round, they will participate and you will have a fight before the unit can normally move. This is especially helpful when you need to support your magisters long enough for them to cast Gifts of Heavens against an SC.

There is no doubt that Man has great options for surprise assaults and for exercising 'dirty tactics'. With enough judges casting frighten you can make a more powerful army run away while your wardens capture the surrounding provinces. The warden and the lord warden are your only national units, so you shouldn't be conflicted about purchasing them almost every round. Use them and abuse them is what I say. I would not place Man as the best stealth nation in the late age, but they are certainly not the weakest.


Conclusion
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Given the proper investment in judges, magisters, and national troops, Man can grow, expand, and build like no other nation. They can hold any province indefinitely and tear down the enemies infrastructure in a matter of turns. Invited into the cold arms of Man, every army that enters never leaves. If someone survives, they retreat only into lands no longer theirs. Lands thought to be safe from the enemy are instead assaulted by crossbows and great swords. Bit-by-bit the world is consumed by the agents of Man. Each province is processed to maximize profits. For Man, there is no excuse for an unprotected temple to their god. The dominion of their god pushes wide and far. In the end, Man pulls the world into their reality. A reality where nothing is certain, except for death and taxes.