[Burnsaber]

Warhammer said:
4) The Evo path makes the most sense so that my Astral mages can start casting Mind Hunt at Evo-6. Is this a good mid-game strat?

I'm not really familiar with Marignon, but you should take into account that Mind Hunt attacks with either Mind Burn or Soul Slay, depending which you have researched, so it basically requires you to have Thau4 as well. You'd also need Con6 for Starshine Skullcap so that your S3 Grand Masters can cast it. (Spell Focuses wouldn't also hurt)

But if prepared correctly, Mind Hunting is an awesome stragedy. But it takes some time to set up so you won't fend off any rushes with it. When I play Abysia (which also has the Astral + Fire combo to some scale), I start with evocation 3 to get fireball (this also gets you Astral Probing quickly) and then Thaumaturgy 2 to get Radars (Augury, Auspex you know). The more early you find the gem sites in your territory, the more gems you get from them during the game. Then I see who my neighbours are and change my research accordingly to get the right spells.