[Jurri]

The Cyclops is an awesome pretender for Yomi (and to any other nation that has it available). E9N4 will give the Cyclops a terrific protection out the gate, the ability to cast summon earthpower to relieve fatigue and Strength of Gaia/Personal Regeneration to regenerate (as well as resist poison, elemental fortitude, iron will if the situation so demands), and provide a blessing that's very useful to the nation's sacred commanders and summons. An awake cyclops like that can even attack the indies from turn 1 if you're willing to risk it; in the Early Age the probability of facing something that can afflict the cyclops is low, but it's always real.

With the blessing mentioned, unequipped Dai Oni in their heavy armor can be scripted to blessing, summon earthpower, fire shield, fire at closest and still have the Oni almost fatigueless when the enemies engage in melee. (Firing missile weapons doesn't cause fatigue.) You should pay careful attention to the dominion in the province, though, since if there's drain you're better off dropping the last two spells.

Thus, early research goals in pursuing this strategy should be conjuration 3 for summon earthpower and enchantment 3 for fire shield and personal regeneration. (Besides thaumaturgy 2 for the site-searching spells, of course, but that's a given with all nations).

These goals are have formidable synergy with other approaches: At conjuration 2 there's the all-important Dark Knowledge and at conjuration 3 there's the Konoha Tengu -summon, which I think is actually rather decent for the cost: 5 sacred fliers with good attacks for 5 gems makes it a very nice spell if you should chance upon air gem sources. Enchantment 3 provides raise skeletons, which is a terrific spell indeed for the hannyas.

As for the early expansion, well, I've had some modicum of success with having a Dai Oni backed by a couple dozen archers cast blessing and then throw flames at the oncoming enemies. It is very durable even without further spells or equipment and can hold the line by itself while the archers deal the majority of the damage: the fear of the Oni make the enemy run soonish I've found, and as long as the hard targets are avoided there should be little chance of losing the Oni, at least for good. A group like that can be further augmented by putting Oni Generals next to the Dai Oni to partake in the blessing and to guard it's flanks: especially fire-random ones are neat since they can cast fire shield once it's available. That's pretty expensive, though, and you might prefer buying sorcerers or hannyas in your secondary castles. (I guess it goes without saying you'll want to start buying a Dai Oni each turn as soon as possible in your capital.)

Later development after the milestones of conjuration 3 and enchantment 3 are done would include:
-Enchantment 4 for flaming arrows. One of the cheapest archers in the game both gold- and resource-wise, and a mage capable of casting this spell recruitable in every castle!
-Alteration 3 for ironskin. Later invulnerability, soul vortex and Phoenix Pyre, but you'll want to equip the Onis by then.
-Construction for lighter armors which will come in handy when you start getting too many spells in your script: soul vortex is harsh to your fatigue even without the added encumberance from armor. Magical weapons and girdles of might won't hurt either.
-Thaumaturgy 3 for Iron Will. I always forget to research this before it's too late, and lose a turn of action just when you need it the most. (You don't want to face Pangaea with Charm without this!)

Some side notes:
-The cyclops will benefit greatly from a weapon, anything will do. A helmet would do good, too. The Dai Oni also reap great rewards from helmets, since they lack one naturally and thus do not get the earth-blessing bonus to the head-protection either without an artificial one.
-The cyclops can forge a thistle mace to give to the hannyas; this will greatly increase your forging possibilities, assuming you have the gem-income. Choice nature items for the Dai Oni are boots of the messenger (only N1 to make), ring of regeneration, amulet of reinvigoration, to name the most important possibilities.
-For scales, Kissblade's ones work nice, although you'll need to cut corners to get the bless. Order 3, sloth 3, heat 1, death 2, misfortune 1, magic 1 leaves you with 5 dominion, which is quite enough. Dominion 9 would of course have synergy with Cyclops's fear, but since you don't have any special reason for high dominion (the cyclops will function just fine even in neutral dominion), it might prove a waste. Dominion 3 would allow to reduce one negative scale, which might be doable since your pretender is awake and thus guarding you from dominion death. Forgoing the N4 would save a lot of points, too.