Using your pretender early: How?

[MaxWilson]

What kind of games do you play? Big maps, small maps, strong indies? My expectation would be that in longer games, there just isn't any way to make the early turns of expansion (more gold) more valuable than the extra paths from taking dormant/imprisoned (better globals, better item forging, maybe even better path-boosters for your national mages), so the value of an SC lies in increasing your chances of surviving the early turns so that it can BECOME a longer game. I'm eager to see what suggestions the veterans have for what to do besides expansion, though.

-Max