[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Blitz:
It's neither troop based, nor mage based (losing astrologer). That's basicly they key right there isn;t it?

I feel that the Philosophers, Engineers, and Sceptic makes up for the minor loss of the Astrologer's one random. You can cover most of your bases there just by taking ze death or ze blood on your pretender, both of which are easy to then jumpstart as a result. Combined with the superior research efficiencies of the Philosopher, who is cheap enough that you can easily churn them out one a turn from turn 1, GE is very much a magocracy.

Besides, with sloth, you can't really afford to buy enough of your troops to do more than serve as bodyguards, anyway.