My opinions only, take it for what's it's worth:
I avoid Vine men/ogres as they eat up too much mage-time to cast.
I suggest:
Manticore - 6 astral
Order, prod, growth, misfortune, all +3
Drain +2
Wizards tower
Don't invest in wardens, they are not very worthwhile as "bless effect" troops (IMHO).
Make Crones, they are great mages.
Research:
Alteration - 3
Enchantment - 3
Have the manticore cast body ethereal, luck, astral shield, astral weapon, resist magic, and then attack (rearmost). This should rip up most armies unless they have mage back-up.
Research:
Conj - 3
Summon Wyverns with air gems and Prides of Lions with nature. In multiplayer consider holding nature gems for mass Call of Wilds.
Research:
Evocation-5
If you need mage power in battle bring in crones.
Have them cast eagle eye if they are shooting lightnings. Use Orb Lightning and Poison Clouds on the enemy. Practice with the clouds... don't want to kill your own troops!
Place the crones near each other. Bring in a few bards. Have them sing soothing songs. This will relieve the spell fatigue of the crones.
Research:
Enchantment -4
Now you can use Cloud Trapeze to move Crones fast.
Research:
Thaumatugy -7
Use sleep and charm to round out the crones arsenal.
In addition you can try:
Wrathful Skies (evo-6) with a mage that comes in with air-3, or Foul Vapors (ench-5) with a crone that comes in water-1. These will lightning bolt or poison the battlefield every turn. However to do this in safty you will need to protect your own troops from lightning and poison. The wards are enchantments, but the low level ones only affect a limited number of troops. Take care and practice this sort of thing so you cut back on friendly casulaties.
Beyond this just use a mass of Tower Guard backed up by longbow. It's not flashy, but performs just fine.
If I encounter size 3 tramplers (minotaurs or shamblers) I counter with knights, which are too large for the small tamplers to slam through.
Once you have good income and some crones, don't hesitant to send some out to do site searching. Exploit whatever you find.
Put down a wizards tower on any province that has 20K+ population or is a big resource producer.
If you must use Vine men/ogres then mass a lot of them. Back them up with crones casting sleep clouds and poison clouds, neither or which will affect the vine creatures.
[ December 04, 2003, 19:33: Message edited by: apoger ]