[Ferrosol]

I would suggest something like this (all written for CBM 1.6)

Awake Great Enchantress

Dom 6 (5 or 6 is the minimum I would consider taking in an MP game)

Order 3 (gold for your mages castles and temples)
Sloth 3 (all your troops are low resources and you need the points)
Heat 2 (your hamayas are cold blooded and you never want them fighting in cold domain + you need points)
Growth 0 (no point taking a growth scale you only have one old age mage who is inferior to the rest and you don't really blood hunt)
Misfortune 1 (perhaps I am being overcautious here but Yomi's pd is crap and the last time I took Mis 2 with Yomi I ended up with 2 bad events on turn 2 crippling my game)
Magic 1 (you want the research boost magic will give you but magic 3 is not worth it)

now paths are debatable but I would recommend you makes sure to get A2 E1 and W2 N1 to exploit yomis excellent summons (a A3E1N1 Dai tengu and a W3D1N2 Nushi)also I would recommend taking some astral for forging and end game stuff and at least N2 to forge thistle maces so your hannayas can site search.. (for reference the paths I took with this build were A4 W2 E4 S5 N3)

expansion

Turn 1

Set your pretender researching Enchantment Jack taxes up to 170% or whatever you feel comfortable with. Set your starting army to patrol. Prophetise your other bandit leader. Recruit mercs if you can get away with it.

Turn 2

Mix in Bakenomo Archers with Bandit archers and position them behind your melee troops put them under the command of your prophet bandit, Set your Oni General to stand just in front of your melee troops and cast spells. Attack the weakest province near you.If you managed to hire decent mercs send them against the next weakest province. recruit a hanya and as many Bakenomo archers as you can.

Turn 3

Sit back and admire the province you have taken with minimal losses. (and possibly the extra province your mercs have) order your army to attack a province that is connected to capital and adjacent to your newly conquered province. order your starting army to attack it and have your other bandit commander lead the archers you have recruited to attack it. Recruit another Hanya and have the first one start researching by now you should have enchantment 1 and script your Oni General to Raise Skeleton x5.

Turn 4

you should now have another province. Recruit some more archers and another Hanya. you should hit enchant 2.

Turn 5 and onwards

keep expanding at a steady rate with your main army while recruiting a new one consisting of as many Bakenomo archers as you can a few Kuro-Oni or Bandit Spearmen and an Oni general to act as arrow catcher. Continue recruiting Hannyas and researching till you hit Enchantment 3. Enchantment 3 gives you skelly spam which is a good counter to bless rushes and an early pretender SC so you want it asap.

other general tips

do not recruit a Dai Oni till you can equip and buff him properly. Find him some better armour and have him cast fire shield and Iron/stoneskin and he is a solid thug/sc.


Early Research goals in no particular order are

Enchant 5 (flaming arrows)
Cons 4 (Thug Gear,Skull Mentors)
Thaum 2 (remote site searching)
Conj 3 (remote death searching,Phoenix power,Summon earthpower)
Conj 4 (ghost general a great cheap thug for 6d gems yes please!)
Alt 3 (buffs for your Dai Onis)

Slightly Longer term reseach goals
Alt 6 (soul vortex)
Cons 6 (lightless lanterns)
Conj 5 (national summons for magic diversity)
Evo 5 (Shadow Blast Blade wind Falling fires)