[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Oh... Good point, SelfishGene. Heh. Show no quarter. I'm not used to thinking mercilessly enough, but the enemy troops are loyal enough its now or later.

So, do you do anything in particular to keep them from rushing into battle too soon, or do you give them no special treatment, just flanking or whatnot?

That's an interesting read, MaxWilson. It'll probably be quite enlightening when its not a work break or 3:30 in the morning. I'll definetly read that 8 turn report again. Oh, and yep. It was a lizardmen independent that cursed me right away.

Do you have any particular strategy for getting astral gems (If I'm completely opposed to an astral/rainbow pretender?) It seems almost entirely useless to send shamans around searching. It's gone much easier on my attention span to convert five to ten nature/death gems into astral, than cast the ritual monthly. But if its best simply to reallocate all my shamans and have em search a good portion all at once, I'll give that a try too.

Oh... this might go without saying for more advanced players (but I'm a n00b), but despite being strictly land-dwellers, the C'tis nation does surprisingly well at expanding into the sea. Certainly, many nations can do better, and not just the sea-dwelling ones... But you have ready access to swarms of undead. And while zombies make poor fishies, they don't need to breathe, either. The enchantment path will let you ritually summon skeletons and undead mages pretty soon.

So don't discount sea expansion just because you don't have amphibious troops, water magic, and haven't found a province that offers them. You can get fifty undead in the water by turn ten (does that add up properly? I can get the gems, but the research?), and you'll probably be able to find some entry point that doesn't need fifty undead. However, you can get a lab underwater, and just imagine swarms of undead and shamblers attacking the enemy from their rear flanks. Probably won't be that glorious, but the AI can overlook a small group of water provinces, and when the enemy's pretendder and capital are right at a convenient checkpoint blocking off a section of the map... go around? Or at least, just don't stall for time when your borders meet, expand to new frontiers. So... is this a good tactic?

I've only gone as far as using undead to attck an underwater province- successfully. But I haven't gone on to capitilizing it yet. I'll do that tomorrow. And report on whether I'm full of it, onto something, or stating something completely obvious to anyone but a n00b like me.