[sum1lost]

I played against MA ermor, which was played much like you describe in a recent game, and managed to beat them. How?

First, MA ermor isn't terribly good against lifeless troops, including undead. They have powerful death magic, but they use a lot of undead themselves, so many of their counters will take out their own troops as well. Same goes for golems, etc.

Second: Ermor has some very powerful, very expensive mages with astral. They don't have very much astral compred to their actual cost, though. This actually makes them fun targets for magic duels- most other mages with astral will be a much better deal compared to the amount of damage they do. I saw a game where Jotunheim dropped an ermor advance by recruiting sages and vaetti hags with astral, and mind dueling the tar out of ermor. Any astral nation, or nation with decently priced astral indies, can do an excellent job at this.

Third: Old humans. Ermor mages are old, their troops are human, and often old. They have undead, but without their human back up, the undead aren't nearly as scary. If you can afford a burden of time (playing as pangaea, or ryleh, or vanheim), a few turns will devastate Ermor. This is really a late game strategy, and only works for a few nations.

Fourth: Chaffwalls. Ermor relies on its chaffwalls to protect its powerful communions, especially midgame. If you can get through these- I've tried tramplers set to attack rear, my own chaffwalls, mass flying, and battlefield wide spells (earthquake and solar brilliance), you can stop them.