early game expansion tactics

What are you going to use them for initially?

Earth to Alchemize for Money?
Nature to cast Mother Oak?
Nature to cast Gift of Health?
Forging Magic Items?
Earth to Summon Elementals?

It's very nearly as important to know where you are going with your Gem Income as to get it

For me how fast I need my gems and for what reason dictate how fast and how hard I search provinces. As most of the time I have to weigh my resources against research and expansion.

[Andy]

I don't have a firm enough grasp on the range of spells available yet - my plan was to get the hang of the initial land-grab then get serious about spells.

maybe I need to rethink and pore over my spellbooks a little earlier.

[Saber Cherry]

It is odd that nobody mentioned mercs. Grab mercs ASAP! Mercenaries on turn 2 can double your expansion rate (on some indy settings) and ultimately mean the difference between winning and losing.

Well with your current setup, you only have 3 options.

Earth, Nature, and Blood.

Take a look at what is availiable and see what you want to go for. You start with a 5 Nature Gem Income.

How reliant are you going to be on your national armies? At what point are you going to have to suppliment your national gold based armies with some sort of magical/summons troops, SC's in order to dominate/survive?

What are the inherent strengths and weaknesses of your nation? What holes are in your armies that can be exploited by your enemies?

Those are questions you should look into as it can mold your nations path, research, expansion and gem use

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
It is odd that nobody mentioned mercs. Grab mercs ASAP! Mercenaries on turn 2 can double your expansion rate (on some indy settings) and ultimately mean the difference between winning and losing.

Well, doesn't this depend on a lot of factors, such as if any are available, cost of the available mercs, type of the available mercs (a single merc leader with no troops isn't going to be worth it, odds are, nor someone with cannon-fodder-grade troops that won't be good enough to help you take out that indy 7+ province next door with your possibly weak starting troops), player desire to recruit an expensive magical researcher, etc. You have to look at your situation, what you want to accomplish, and what's available to see if mercs are a good solution to getting there faster. Very often they are, but not always.

Not to mention that 99% of the troops have an additional cost to Pangaea. I always consider mercs for Pan, but I never seem to get Obscuro or Dagon, the one that would really help Pan early

[Norfleet]

The problem with mercs is that, without the ability to actually look at what you're purchasing, the hiring can be a total crapshoot. Some of them are quite good....others have less than memorable names and less than memorable performance. Mercs tend to be a lot more useful in multiplayer than singleplayer as well: The AI tends to aggressively grab every merc in sight, whereas in multiplayer, many human players will likely neglect them. Some of them are neglected for good reason, being that they cost too much and aren't very good, but I've noticed that the prices on mercs can get really low if they've been unemployed for awhile. I've picked up fairly useful and decent ones like Terminus or Obscuro for the low, low price of $8. That's what I call a real steal.

Somebody ought to write a Complete Dom2 Guide to Mercs: who rules, and who drools.