If you're talking about the game I think you're talking about, the real problem is that you took a Turmoil theme on a map which is already known for its crappy income.
Turmoil is already a major income hit, and on top of the fact that the map is pretty dirt-poor to begin with, it's no surprise that you're starving and broke. This will make it difficult to even afford your admittedly less than wonderful troops. I suspect my capitol makes more money than your entire empire.
Having a battle pretender is definitely a good plan: Not only will it provide you with some defense against rushes, but it'll also give you something to crack tough nuts with. Stupid friggin' knights. Searching, you can probably pull off with just CMs, as they tend to be versatile and capable of performing a wide variety of low-level searches. At least the Cradle map tends to be magically rich.
[ July 01, 2004, 20:08: Message edited by: Norfleet ]