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PDF said:
Beware, Markata archers don't have "short" bows, they have "SMALL" bows that do only *6* damage, worse than slings !
Markatas really s*cks *ss big time ... 
Else lots of good advices , but it seems the nation is quite weak and has to rely on ubernerfed overused old gamey strategies... Yet I've found Patala better than the previous Bandar Log ages, that have even crappier troops and no nagas ! ...
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Hehe thanks for the correction.
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Twan said:
... as Markatas cost only 5 gold there is no reason not to use them even if lots die in each fight.
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Sure there is your uber mages cost gold. =) And mercenaries and indies!
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Nerfix said:
Small bows + Flaming Arrows... 
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Sure ... when you recruit those f3 mages, let me know.
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Boron said:
Thematically i like Patala though a lot  .
And good guide Kiss, i only disagree about your god choice, VQ is imho overkill and too expensive.
I suggest the following god for starters:
Awake Cyclops, Dom 6, Earth 6, Order 3, Heat 3, Prod 1, Growth 3, Magic 1, Misfortune 3.
The Cyclops can help with indy expansion and with some trinklet items he should serve well enough as SC and F9W9 bless defense god.
Your mages nicely profit from reinvigoration.
If the map is larger you can set him to dormant and use the extra points to buy productivity 3 and earth 8 or to reduce your misfortune a bit.
Your VQ has several weaknesses:
1. Dormant, someone might have bless/SC rushed you already and kill you before she awakens.
2. Earth 1. This makes buffing her problematic.
Ironskin gives you -75% shock resistence, thus even if you cast resist lightning you have only 25%.
Stoneskin gives her only 15 protection.
3. No fire, thus vulnerable to fire magic too.
So incinerate could easily kill her. Flaming weapons might be an issue too.
...
In short, your VQ is imho rather a papertiger and shouldn't protect you long enough till your hoarding pays off.
So you are not protected till she awakens from an early bless rush by e.g. Vanheim or Mictlan, and when she awakens she only protects you a short while but in the turn 20-40 range many nations should be able to deal with your vq rather easily and she will be your main defense in this timeframe.
Any nation with astral magic can kill your VQ with solar rays.
Some blesstroops might kill her too.
Atlantis+Caelum have magic weapons, they should handle the VQ too, Caelum with an attack fliers script, Atlantis Ice Guards and Arsartuts should do enough damage to kill her with their magic weapons.
Your Mages could forge a black steel full plate though, so you do not need earth magic on your VQ.
It will give you lots of extra fatigue though during buffing.
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Eh I wouldn't worry about all those early rushers. Most early rushers you will have to outmaneveur, out diplomacy anyway but they ARE defeatable. In the event of the uber bless, well those strategies are imbalanced anyway and will probably be fixed. Hopefully. The VQ isn't as fragile as you think once she wakes up, she's stealthy AND flies with huge dominion spread and immortality. Too bad you can't really use the vampires she gives you for anything =). Also you get a lot of free points and you can't really bless anything worth a damn so why not spend them all in the uber SC chassis? An early game pretender isn't a bad pick like Great Bull, Cyclops, Wyrm and dragons etc ... but let's face it, if you can stop a VQ, you can stop those for sure. Also I think solar rays are magic resistable and you can script more defense into your VQ to make magic weapons not as effective against her. Otherwise you can pick off raiding parties of opponents with her easily and that REALLY cripples a midgame war. Like I said, she is meant to be the deterrent, not the threat. Most people don't like the thought of going up against a recyclable SC. =)
As for nations with magical weapons, caelum sucks militarily just as much as you do. And both caelum and Atlantis will have fatigue/armor troubles with your dom 9 heat 2 setting. =)
Edit: Corrected typo, undefeatable = defeatable. Hehe ... freudian slip there!