[Cainehill]

Getting the better beasties : as a mage is successful in summoning from the Void Gate, its void summoning skill goes up. As the skill goes up, the chances get better that a more powerful creature will be summoned, up to a point ( I believe other people indicated that around skill 20, the chances go down again slightly ).

Priestly starspawns do have a better chance not to go insane (after all, they are sacred to the insane deity beyond the gate), and are less expensive than mage starspawns.

Scales : I won a game on the world map with them, scales were something like Heat or Cold 3, Sloth 3, Death 1 or 2, and I might have taken a point or so of turmoil. Neutral or positive luck and magic scales, and a very powerful rainbow mage (void lurker, 15 point new paths) who was able to easily get a-wishing, then forge many artifacts and cast many globals that R'lyeh has a hard time getting otherwise (GoH, Chalice, Gate Stone, etc).

Swarms of cheap lobos (mindless, so they never retreat) backed up by a couple starspawn mages and a rank of 5-10 illithid troops allowed for early expansion until I got teleport and could send my void lurker out as well.