hm what do you think on the normal national troops of tien chi s&a ?
i like their 2 supermages very much the master of 5 elements and the celestial master .
as tinktank said the master of five elements especially is probably the best standard site searcher
but your national troops are just poor and your best leader is the nobleman with only leadership 25. so you are forced to expand via a combat pretender mainly i think .
forced to take turmoil 1 hurts .
you have most likely the most cost effective mages as tien chi s&a but your national troops are just plain bad .
so in the beginning your opponents will expand in general 1,5-2x as fast as you .
and if you are forced to go to combat in early game i think your chances are very bad .
1. you will have only 1/2 - 3/4 of your opponents money income .
2. if you face opponents with strong national troops ( e.g. man , ulm , marignon ) your normal troops even backed up with lots of mages will have no chance .
your pretender can only be in 1 province / turn so almost every of your opponents should be able to bleed you out in early-midgame .
your 2 special kinds of demons which you can summon from the beginning are perhaps thought to counter that but the problem is only celestial masters can summon them and only 1 / summon so you won't have many in early game and in midgame there are already probably better alternatives .
if you would get a bunch of 5 per summon of them like celestial soldiers with standard tien chi they were perhaps more useful.