[The Panther]

I am currently playing Miasma C'tis on turn 90 in what was (at the time it started) my third MP game ever. That theme is far stronger than I ever thought possible.

I took dominion 10 in my pretender design, but really only needed 9. Even 8 might do, but that is the absolute minimum for this theme. The extra income from the dominion will rock your socks off.

The biggest drawback in your pretender design is the watchtower selection. The problem with that is that people in MP may be inclined to take you out early to avoid the troublesome disease spreading action later on. In a 1-on-1, this does not matter. But in a true MP game with many opponents, you could easily die early to annoyed opponents ganging up on you. With the lack of mobility for C'tis, watchtowers just do not delay enough.

I went with the Hill Fortress in my game. Those 250 defense things are extremely hard to take out. And no enemy wants to sit on them without disease immune troops and commanders for the many turns it takes to drop the walls. Put city guards behind every fortress and it will truly hurt them while crashing the gates. If they eventually win, their troops are likely already dying.

So, how did I get the pretender points to do all this?

Simple - I did not use an SC pretender. I choose the immortal saurolich, who seems exactly designed for a Miasmi theme with high starting dominion. I gave him only death 4, researched the raise skeleton/dead spell, and never once lost him to indy 9 neutrals. Of course, I never sent him in alone either. Several times, he was the only troop left after my lizards routed, but he never lost a battle. I even three times crashed on a neutral at the same time as an opponent and won every single time.

One of the things to worry about is finding the correct summons to match this theme. Demons and undead do not catch the disease. Cold blooded folks like lamias and draconians do not either. I tested a lot of summons over the course of the game to see which died and which didn't. There are plenty that don't, so it turned out to not be that big a problem.

Anyway, the Miasma sauromancers are extremely cool. They all come with 1 water for quickness. The 2 death, 2 nature base magic seems very strong. The one random is incredibly useful. And the best thing about them? You can recruit them in any castle.