[shovah]

black servant mini thugs are good and easily made with TC. summon a black servant with a master of the dead (they are only around 3 death gems i think), give him a lucky coin (luck+a shield for 5 astral gems is a bargain by anyones standards) and if you want give him some armour (i suggest marble armour/dragon armour which are both cheap and effective).

make sure to make boosters for your mages as magical versatility is your main power. always remember that all of your recruitable troops suck (the horsemen are mildly useful but not really) and all you should be recruiting are: mages, strong indies and maybe some nobles (a noble with a lucky coin, reinvig item(s) and a horror helm makes a decent thug but not that good).

take a high magic scale and a rainbow pretender to get those boosters+dwarven hammers out quicker and for your main armies try lots of easy to get summons (massed dispossesed spirits combined with fire demons can work well)

try to be first in research and gem income or as close as you can be to it (use site searching spells quite alot) and try to be the first or atleast one of the first to start churning out sc's and thugs (banelord+wraithsword+horror helm+boots of flying/quickness+pendant of luck+ring of regen is a high end thug/decent sc that should be useful right through the game)