[Endoperez]

Originally posted by Tuskerlove:
Okay, I've been pining to play this game for over 6 months now and I finally broke down and purchased it.

Some questions for the experienced players:

I like to think I'm fairly experienced, but know that I am not very skilled, so don't read my words as if they were ultimate wisdom...

#1 How do I find, recruit or summon more elite leaders. It looks like you get one automatically after a few turns but I've run into problems fighting with my pretender god (battle afflictions that can't be healed) so I've been trying to use other leaders as generals and use my pretender god as a source of finding magic sites form province ot province. Is this a good or bad tactic?

Only one nation, Ermor, gets units and commanders automagically. (I think, Pangaea theme Carrion Woods might get them too). This depends on their dominion power, the higher the dominion the more units. Most other nation can recruit independent leaders if they don't want to recruit their national ones, and Ermor can summon cheap leaders like Revenant, Mound King (not sure of the name, Ench. 2 or 3) and Bane. Also, not all nations have equal commanders. Arcoscephale has Strategos able to lead 75 normal units, while Ermor's themes' commanders can only lead 25 living units. They can lead masses of undead, though, and Ermor themes do not need living troops as much as they need the gold that goes for their upkeep.

If you want to summon leaders, the above-mentioned units are pretty good at leading undeads, Nature summon Firbolg at Conjuration 5 can lead 75 living units and all mages can lead undead and/or magical units depending on their magics.

If you want to make Super Combatants (ie. commanders equipped to kill entire armies), Firbolg is one of the better unlimited ones, as are Wraith and Vampire Lords. The unique ones are wheer the fun begins, though: Ice Devils can be gotten early, have water magic and one even starts with immunity to fire and life-draining weapon. Blood also has Father Illearth, very powerful Demon Lords at level 9, Archdevils, Heliophagii (atleast one of them is stealthy!)... Conjuration has the elemental lords and ladies, except the above-mentioned Father Illearth. Tartarian Gates at, I think, Conjuration 9 gives you undead pretenders (undead manticore, titan, naga etc. with magic(s), but most of them come with afflictions like feeble-minded and/or as normal units.
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#2 How do I create these artifactss and uber gear everyone is talking about. I have research all branches of magic equally for the 1st 75 turns and now have lvl 5 in all branches of magic. I'm uncertain what needs to be done to create the better equipment.

Better magical items can be made by researching higher i Construction. Levels 2, 4, 6 and 8 give you access to more powerful items. Only one artifact of a spesific name can exist at any give time, so you won't be able to forge two Embers or two Monolith Armors. Not even Wish can double them, it only snags them from the previous owner.

You propably shouldn't research all the magic schools at once. Can your national mages cast spells from, say, Thaumaturgy 4? Blood 5? If not, you shouln't have researched it. There are exceptions, but they all aim for higher-level spells around which you can build strategy around. Nether Darts for Jotunheim theme which gets Nornas and Seithkonas goes as a one great example. 14+ darts giving out good, armor negating damage AND feebleminding enemies they hit with 90-gp mages available from all castles that are able to cast them...

#3 If I have over 600 of each of the gems in the game does that mean I'm doing something wrong? I really haven't empowered anyone but my pretender god and I'm not certain if that is a good or bad idea.

You should use them for something. First you need something to use them for, though. Good idea would be to summon Elemental Kings of Earth and Fire with Queens of Air and Water, that should give you few more mages to play with. Other mage-summons from Conjuration include Mound Fiends, Lamia Queens, Faerie Queens, Wraith Lords and few others. Nice monsters to summon are Abominations at Conjuration 9, Iron Dragons at Construction 9, and generally all level 9 spells are a good choice. You could experiment with Wish if you have nothing better to do, and if you want even more gem income you could cast Acashic Record on all your provinces that you haven't searched already.

#4 Why can't I build fortresses and raise province defense in the water?

Your troops do not survive under water. You have to recruit indpendent troops that survive underwater to defend those provinces. The units that can be recruited from underwater are most obvious choice.
The most land castles cannot be built in water, except by a bugged event. Dark Citadel can, I think, but I'm not sure if land nations can build even that. It propably has something to do with getting plans and architects under water alive.

#5 Re: Fortresses should I build them in every province or only in strategic areas? I have the Castle as a choice but I'm not certain how multiple fortresses benefit or hurt you when placed close together.

Choice of style. In most occassions building forts everywhere is not the best possible choice, however, because it is so expensive. There have been some discussion about this, try searching for them.

#6 Most annoying problem: How can I lose a battle with 100 troops against a neutral territory holding 4 units. One territory holds a mage and some other elite troops and I can't defeat them with my fully equipped pretnder god with over 100 troops (how can this be possible?)

Undead troops are slaughtered by priests if they have time (ie. meat shield in front of them). Units haveing fists for weapons cannot hit through Black Platemails of Ulm, except for Crusher or Golem etc. Units without shield and low protection get massacred by archers. Look that battle and see what kills your units. This game has so many possibilities in which numbers do not mean a thing.

Hope this helps. Someone has propably beated me to it, read them first.