[Agrajag]

Originally posted by Boron:
that is only because the ai can't cope with ermor .

since 2.12 ermor may not use the vq anymore so it has lost even more of its danger .

in a 8-10 player mp game ermor is nasty but it will normally be far behind in research or only small .
his freespawns can get killed quite quick even with banishment .

have you ever seen wither bones , dust to dust , holy pyre and the other undead killer spells in action in battle ?

he will attack with a legion of e.g. 1000 freespawns your 50-100 troops but when you can cast one of the above mentioned spells + have some priests your odds to win the battle are good .

if you are not his direct neighbor at start ermor is normally not the biggest problem .
ermor is still a good nation , perhaps even top 5 but not too strong .

you will soon notice this yourself too
have you scoregraphs on ?
leading in troop sizes for ae ermor is normal but normally he should be behind in research and only about nb 3 in gem income but normally not number 1 .

in your game your friend was just lucky because the ai can't cope with ermor .
i think though that perhaps your friend has summoned lots of priests for more reanimations and is far behind in research and not top in gem income .

ermor is nasty but has its issues . research and almost limited to death are the 2 biggest .

Why should Ermor be behind in research?
It starts with the possibility to summon a dusk elder every second turn for an average of 4 new RPs per turn, not too bad (yet not very good), with a bit of research and site-searching they can easily crank that up to even more through cheap summons with small research values strengthened by Magic+3.
Anyway, while I agree AE Ermor is pretty strong, the Anti-Undead spells are just too much for them.
I remember a game I had with the VS the AI, I had to conquer the Last enemy province on the entire map (which happened to be the AI's captiol).
I had ~500 units, he had ~40 IIRC.
One "Grind Bones" and I lost...
I never completed that game (And ended up deleting it after the post patch savegame cleanup I made).
One thing though, if R`lyeh and AE Ermor are forming enemy camps in a MP game, be sure to take Ermor's side ^^