[Felgar]

A good strategy early on is to create 6-8 non-magical commanders with 5-10 troops each. Then place them at the back of the battlefield with cast orders and give each of them a small skull totem (requires lvl 1 death magic to forge).

Then give them cast orders and tell their troops to guard commander. They will create a never ending stream of undead charging forward and rarely will their troops become engaged. You need at least 6-8 commanders to create enough undead to take on moderate sized enemy armies. Any less and the few undead will get overwhelmed each turn allowing the enemy to advance towards your commander line.

This works to some extent with mages and priests as well, but they sometimes start casting regular spells and the undead troops dry up. Non-magical commanders will use the totem each turn to create a new troop as long as you give them cast orders.