Thanks for the comments and we (my friends and I) may take you up on that offer ironhawk.
@quantum_mechani
The flying boots are certainly a good idea that I hadn't played around with much for the engineers at least.
I almost always take Magic +2/3.
I guess the argument I was trying to make earlier was essentially what you said in your third point - don't use the troops. I agree - to expand you really cant use your troops too well. Since mages dominate the mid and late game, why did I give up my astrologer to get troops I'll never use? IMO the engineer and the philosopher aren't worth it on their own when you factor in the loses. Recruiting mystics / astrologers for research in the default is very fast anyway with magic +3. Yes it is more expensive per RP but I get a useful mage out of the deal that allows me to find those desired randoms as well. Without being able to utilize the flying troops to a greater extent than their being capital only, I just don't see myself ever picking GE Arco and that is really a shame if many feel this way as they have some interesting troops. I guess I'm one of these people who likes national troops though
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About mercs - Personally I find them very unreliable in a competitive game and to rely on them as a primary method for expansion besides my pretender concerns me. If others outbid me early on, or no good ones show up, that could be as devastating as an early earthquake.
@PashaDawg
I find the Shedu interesting as well and have had no problem expanding solo with it. It would be better without trampling but that's another rant... Anyway using a Shedu alone in default Arco, I can expand with both my Shedu and my elephant / hypaptist teams very quickly.
My experience with competitive multiplayer games show that a player can usually take 1 province between turns 2-5, and then 2 a turn afterwards ever ramping upwards after that. On indep 6 I can often be taking three provinces a turn in default arco by turn 8-10 as I find I only need 4 elephants per team. Comparatively you tend to need a lot more wind riders - around 10 - and that drastically slows expansion to the point that I'm still only taking 2 provinces a turn by turn 10.
Perhaps I need to just play around with them more as I find them fun too... just not as competitive as default.