Final Newbie Question (or compilation of questions!)

[happygeek]

Thank you! I must have read the wrong stuff then.

Well I started a new game with CBM and Better Independents, and am liking it. Fun! Some new questions however:

- Luck: The very first province I conquered had that site I found with my ArchTheurg whose name I forget but it lets you recruit sages and lore masters. Wow! I seem to have a huge advantage! Luck seems to play a really prominent role in this game, more so than in others I know. Is there any consensus on this as to how to deal with that?

- Blood and Magic: I'm not really sure I know what to do with Pangea MA, they have some great stealthy troops, but only two real mages, both really expensive, and one has B3. I suppose I miss the magic point, I am overwhelmed by the number of spells and what they do, so I simply build troops (I understand that!) and let the mages pretty much decide on their own. But what's that black Pan guy supposed to do? He costs a fortune, and I have to use him for blood hunting to even get anything to do with his magic powers. And I get some ok summons for that, eventually, but until then, I seem to waste a lot on getting slaves, and I cant really use him in battle. What am I getting wrong?
Here's another thing I dont understand about magic. I scripted my ArchTheurgs to cast some things like air shield and personal luck etc., and then they usually cast smite and things like that, very nice -- until I saw a few of them disappeaering suddenly -- and dying at the end of the battle. I watched the replays closely, and oddly enough, my little old men seem to be doing just fine -- until the enemy routs! Then they cast "blink", teleport themselves into the middle of the routing enemy, and get bashed to bits. NO NO NO! WHY!?!? They could have cast anything else, even the low-level-spell "Bruise My Own Shins", they can smoke cigarettes or have a nap for all I care, but why must they do that? What can I do about it, it happens frequently now?

- Communion: I researched Thaum1 to get C-Master and C-Slave, sounds nice for Pythium. Seems to work as expected, except that I do not see the power of my mages increase. When I click on their avatar in the middle of battle, their paths are still the same as at the beginning. Is there a trick?

Thank you in advance again!