I'm currently playing EA Agartha in "Legends of Faerun", so don't want to comment too much yet (probably will once the game is over for me. Which may be one week or one year depending on what happens). But a few things to point out.
- The national Heroes are ok, but don't offer enough because they don't give access to non-Agarthan magic paths. High Earth pathed Heroes mean little to Agartha, and high Water paths have limited use in general for any nation. I certainly wouldn't give up a N4/6 bless for it as you have no easy way to get regen on your SC's then (and regen on SC's is mostly always a must)
- While the Fire Plate does negate the encumbrance effects of the severe heat scale, it doesn't help with encumbrance overall as the armour itself has +2 encumbrance (which is what the severe heat gives you). Plus it actually has an overall negative effect on encumbrance as it adds a further +2 to spell casting encumbrance (which the severe heat doesn't do). Although the positive value of putting some armour on a SC is another matter although (I just thought I'd point out it has a negative effect on fatigue).
If you are just after the effects of the E9 Bless and LoS, then equipping just Bracers covers both of these. As the Bracers act as 'armour' for the purpose of these spells, and so allows the protection buffs (Bless, LoS) to take effect.
- You will struggle to survive a proper MP game with a Dominion scale of only 4. Even access to H3 preachers won't stop your life being a misery, and probably very short. You would have to play on a very big map (+25 provs per player) to get away with a Dominion scale of 4.
- Death 3 - Definitely a good idea. I avoided it in "Legends of Faerun" and took Growth 1, as I was concerned of the effects of Death 3 over the course of a game that was likely to last well over 100 turns. (didn't care about my old age mages either. Sucks to be them as you say
). But I regretted not taking Death 3 before the end of year 1. Taking Growth 1 has certainly turned out to be 160 wasted design points
- I have some concerns for your early research. With your Pretender forging each turn (as he should do), and your other mages going out as SC's and/or forging Bracers/Fire Plates/Stars of Heroes, you are really going to fall behind badly in the research game. And new reasearch centres will cost you at least 1700gp (fort+temple+lab).
- You will really struggle for money with your build. The effects of your Order 3 scales will be minimum outside of your capital as your low Dominion will mean it won't spread very far. Unless your H3 SC's stop to preach. And if you run up against some Dom9/10 neighbours, you will be lucky to see your Dominion outside your capital.
Your Luck 3 scale might help with the income, but I have two games on the go right now where I took Luck 3. In one of them I didn't have a single money event inside the first 18 turns, and in the other it was the first 23 turns before a money event occured. So you can't, or more accurately, you shouldn't rely on the Luck scale for money (at least not in my recent experience). Although the Luck scale is far more reliable for money under Turmoil 3 than Order 3. But then obviously you get less money again due to the effects of that scale change.
Edit: One thing I certainly agree with you on though is that Agartha are the worst EA nation. Some claim it to be Atlantis, but Agartha can out crap them any day IMO.