[IndyPendant]

Thanks you two. I hope my guide proves useful to others as well.

Good point about Fanaticism, Saxon! I had somehow forgotten that it (and Sermon of Courage) or only good once on a unit. I will edit my post accordingly.

I'm afraid I don't agree with Skull Mentors and Reanimating Longdead, though. Skull Mentors require Const-4 to craft; by the time you get there, it is either Turn 25+ or you have sacrificed other strategies significantly to get there. The Mentors also cost 10 death gems (or roughly 7 death gems + 3-4 earth gems each, if you can get hammers), plus 6 Horsemen each to craft. And those death gems become far too useful in mid-to-late game to 'waste' 7-10 a pop on Mentors. They just are not worth it imo.

Similarly, for Reanimating Longdead, your research is already going to be dead last for almost half the game. Pulling out Thaums to reanimate when Principes can be used instead, would cause you to fall too far behind in research, even for Ermor. You would just be entering mid-game when everyone else is solidly end-game! Mentors can make up for some of that--but then, again, you're researching Const-4 too early and using up precious death gems. I use my thaums for research and fighting, that's about all I can afford.

Ming, Hammers are definitely useful. But again, by the time you start crafting with Ermor, you're into the mid-30's in turns, minimum, and usually later. By then you will most likely have found at least one indy E1 mage. Empower him to E2 if you must, craft the boots, and start cranking out the hammers. Even without Earth on your pretender, you will most likely have it on someone by the time you need it for crafting. Earth is definitely useful, don't get me wrong. But I don't think it's required on your pretender.

And I'm not sure what you mean by "Sacred Statue". Perhaps Telestic Animation? If so, there are many problems with this. The units have mapmove 0, and require Thaumaturgy-7 and S3 to summon. Which means by the time you can cast them, you're most likely at or near end-game--and your Grand Thaum is not Reanimating horsemen for a number of turns in the process as he limps/teleports to the province you want them at. I can't think of a single use for this spell, where the time and gems involved would not be better served elsewhere. Or am I missing something?

Thanks for the feedback! (And sorry it took so long to respond. I've had an unexpectedly busy week. ; )

--IndyPendant.