Re: Getting started..............
 

There are magic Paths and there are magic Schools. Fire, Blood and Astal are something a mage can be skilled in, and these are path. Evocation, Thaumaturgy and Blood are something that are researched on a national scale, and allow mages to use more effective spells if they have the paths required for them.
Blood is both a path and a school because all spells of Blood path are in a single school, also called Blood. It's mostly about summoning.


Evocation gives most paths some combat spells. The four elemental paths are very well covered by evocation. As an example, if you can recruit mages with level 3 in one of the four elemental paths, they can use spells such as Blade Wind (fires 52 or more low-damage missiles), Thunderstrike (AN attack at a target and stun damage at enemies close by), Falling Fires and Falling Frost (heavy damage to an area, very deadly with just a couple of casters). These are good research targets for strong elemental mages.

For Death, research Enchantment instead. Several D3 mages scripted to cast Raise Skeletons (a combat spells) five times will create an army, and you get a new one for every battle. Pale Riders is a good Death summon, especially if you get a high-level death caster. The + after it's number of effects (20+) means that more powerful Death mages will create more Longdead Horsemen per casting.

I'm not sure what Nature mages should use in the early game. Perhaps researching Thaumaturgy would be best; you could use Sleep against strong single targets like enemy pretenders and Panic against numerous weak units. You won't get much killing power from Nature, but it has lots of utility uses, and Charm from high Thaumaturgy is very nice.

Re: Getting started..............
 

* Don't expect too much from PD. 10 is a good value (11 is slightly better IIRC at deterring the AI because it's the difference between "an officer and a few henchmen" and moderately well-defended in the spy reports) and will stop Cal of the Winds, Arouse Hunger, etc., most of the time. It won't stop a barbarian attack unless you get very lucky, and it won't stop a real army. PD + a mage is much stronger than PD on its own.

* As with Axis and Allies, much of the game is won or lost during the purchasing phase.

* Thunderstrike does real damage as well as stun to adjacent enemies, by the way.

-Max