Raiders have always (historically) been a problem to those being raided, and they still are (spec. forces). The best way to beat raiders is not (as suggested) to follow them around until they starve and slowly die out (as this will cost you lost income and time) but to trap them. There are many ways of doing it. Uncastled temple provinces make an excellent trap. The enemy will be drawn to your uncastled temples like flies to honey. What the enemy doesn't know is that you're moving lots of flying units, or you're building lots of province defence, or you have lots of hidden units, or your pretender is flying in. Of course, one way to effectively beat raiders is to cripple their leadership. Seeking arrows (air 3) are optimal for this, as you know that the enemy doesn't have any dome of protection in a province without a lab. As mentioned by norfleet, ghost riders also work quite well against weaker armies (armies not heavily protected by priests, wizzards, SC's). Assassins also work well, as they force the enemy to divert some of his forces to 'guard commander' - which means that you will have fewer enemy units to fight on the front line. If you're fighting mages, equip your assassins with elemental protection. Raiding will always be a problem, so make more of a problem for the raiders than it is for you
