I kept some notes during the first 20 or 30 turns, but not enough to create a proper AAR. Still, I think the game was interesting enough to warrant a little followup.
Given the restrictions (no magic could be added to the pretenders, and only 3 nations with particular themes could be selected), we each approached the pretender choice differently - hopefully Quantum and Graeme will correct me if I'm wrong in what I write.
Myself, I started with New Era Pangaea - my first game with Pangaea of any sort. My choice was the Carrion Dragon. With two magic paths starting at level 1, I felt it gave a certain amount of flexibility on the Pretender's magic. More importantly, it seemed to be a decent combat pretender, with recuperation to heal any wounds picked up along the way, and it could go stealthy in one of its forms. As the game progressed, I decided to Empower him - not so much for increased spell casting, but because 30 points to go to 2 in a path meant I wouldn't have to spend 50 to get back to 1 if I died.
Since I couldn't spend points beefing up the pretender, I wound up having points to spend on Order 2, Productivity 1 (default for New Era) and Luck 3, with a nice Fortress for decent defense and admin (150/30). In retrospect, I might have been wise to have taken a scale of Magic instead of Luck, to boost the research. But still - Luck gave several significant events, such as getting a Sceptre of Authority before turn 16, a nice boost in a game with Very Difficult magic research; later, one of the blood Contract items, and nice bumps to the war chest as I got a 1500 gold event prior to turn 20 or so.
Quantum chose a Titan, going for a high level of ability in a single path. In some ways I think this was a more thoughtful choice than my own - it gave access to some great spells (such as lightning and mistform) and helped compensate for Hoburg's weakness in magic.
But I think Graeme made the craftiest choice : by taking a Wyrm, he had no magic to lose if his pretender died: A supercombatant with nothing to lose but time. Even better, as Serpent Cult Pythium, he was going to have plenty of mage priests sitting around researching, meaning that he wound up taking only a single turn to recall his pretender upon death. In effect, almost a pseudo-immortal.
Crafty and effective - I think his pretender died more than anyone else's (not all too meaningful in a 3 player game). I believe Quantum's choice was sadly nullified by a fairly early, unlucky death against independents, costing him a point of precious air magic. Worse, with Hoburg and war, he couldn't afford the priests to bring his Titan back for much of the game.
My own Carrion Dragon picked up a few wounds over the course of the game, but never died. Possibly a sign that I still wasn't playing aggressively enough, but it was nice not losing what little magic he had.
I'll continue later with the stuff that took place after the choice of pretender and all.