[Tuidjy]

1. With Caelum/Vanheim, I have one or two Air Queens around turn twenty. They
get a wraith sword and a pendant of luck for sure, and a Jade armour, amulet of
anti-magic, astral cap depending on whom I am fighting and what gem income I
have. By the way, if I have Air Queens, I am fighting someone :-) I do not
believe in being at peace when you are prepared for war.

- With Pythium, I do not always use SCs. I have won two or three games where
the only SCs I had were GoF former enemy SCs. Pythium could get an Air Queen
just as easily as any Air nation, but my research priorities are different.

- With C'tis, I do not bother with SCs until late game - about turn 40. I go
for Tartarians. I rely on Drain life/Raise skeleton before that.

2. I deploy them against whatever my enemy uses. I very seldom care about whose
domain I'm fighting in, with SCs. I avoid facing other SCs or mage teams,
unless I have a clear advantage. These I take out with mage teams of my own.
As for armies, big or small, it is all the same. SCs kill armies, that's part of
the definition of SC.

3. Buffs and a lifedrain weapon are a must; even Soul Vortex is only an added
buff, not a substitute for a lifedrain weapon. The only time I do not charge is
when the enemy has a critical mass of D4 mages. Sometimes, I throw wrathful
skies as well, but that's only in special cases... yes, like D4 mages.

4. I consider losing a SC a serious screw-up. In my last five games it has
happened three times. Once in a winner-takes-all battle against a superbly
equiped Vanheim horde, once to a teleport attack from a backstabbing ally, and
once through sheer stupidity - I bought province defense, and then changed my
mind and told the SC to search for sites. I lost a D3W2E2 Tartarian with two
artifacts to a few barbarians, because there was nowhere to retreat. [Edit]
Make that four. I lost a partially equipped Water Queen to Atlantis, but that
was a feint to draw his main army in the open. On the next turn, I teleported
a mage team on top of his army, and mind enslaved, among others, four mages, a
Water queen, and the enemy prophet.

As for the next SC? If I have the Chalice, I will crank out tartarians, and
gift of reason the good ones. I will keep summoning Air Queens until they run
out. Once I start wishing, I will go for Air Queens, Natajara, and Princes of
Death... but that has happened only once, because I usually play Pythium and
Vanheim, and these two nations have no problems putting together mage teams that
can destroy any Scs who enter the magic phase in the open.

Although I most certainly use SCs a lot, I tend to prefer task force made of
Air or Astral mages. Of course, when these mages happen to be fully equiped
Tartarian Titans or Cyclopses, I don't complain :-)