[ywl]

Originally posted by 1000yd_stare:
Well, after doing my turn, I must be doing something vastly different than what is being suggested here. I have, on turn 23, a total of 24 research points. No way in heck would I have been able to make it to conjuration 6 with my strategy of alternating dusk elder and archbishop purchases; instead I have covered most of the school's level 1 and 2 spells.
I think that I am concentrating more on the 'vast legions of chaff undead' than I should be.

Very illuminating discussion, much more than I expected.

As for an AAR, that is an intriguing thought, something I will put my mind to.

It's actually normal and that's why I mentioned that Ermor usually has a slower research. The reason is because in the early game, you can at most summon one Dusk Elder every two turns. Each of them has only 6 research points. Most players choose a Drain scale, which make the situation even worse. You pretender has tons of research points but he needs to split his/her attention on site searching, fighting and research.

It's probably a bit late but there are several ways that could have alleviate the problem:
1) Use a Magic scale. The MR of your undeads will be decreased by one but who care about them.
2) Skull Mentor. Go for Construction 4 quick. It gave you Skull Mentor and the Bane Venome Charm. Both are necessary for your survival.
3) Summon the less fancy undeads like Spectator and Acolyte. Spectator has death 2, enough to cast a lot of spells. A Spectator & a Skull Mentor cost a total of 20 gems and has 13 research points. Acolyte is half the cost of an Archbishop. They're less powerful but if it's ghouls that you want, two can summon more than one Archbishop - at least in Dom 1.