I tried a better mobile pretender at first, but I noticed each point of dom that I lose really adds up a lot later when I'm making Jaguar Warriors in 4-5 forts (I try to get 5 temples up if I have the extra $$$ for that extra point). I didn't even know there was a blood bonus with the fountain... where would these hidden bonuses be listed?
Also dominion spread usually isn't a big deal. My scales are trash and as long as there is no risk of dominion death I just let everything but the core of my empire have whatever dominion happens to be there.
I'm usually very close to summoning my first Ice Devil by the time my pretender wakes up anyways and his main job is to make a blood booster and then make disease demons for a couple turns while I get con6. Then once I get con6, a rain priest makes a cheap water booster, I give him the blood booster my pretender was using to make disease demons and he calls an ice devil. He gets various easy to make items: demon whip, shield of the accursed, the cheap nature helmet w/ an extra attack, bless shroud, boots of the messenger, luck amulet, amulet of regen. Research alteration while the items are being made/he is being summoned (so he can quicken self), and send him out to wreak havoc.
After that I go for blood 7 then evo 7. Once I get those then I can summon phoenix pyring arch devils and those guys are hardcore
In my current game (with that independents mod installed) I'm doing much much better. Going f9/s9/b4 this time. The w9 seemed less important later Move doesnt matter when you fly w/ no lance right? large portions of my armies fly later on and the s9 protects my summoned devils from banishes and the big guys from annoying stuff like blind. There's also the bonus of being able to cast astral corruption, which seems to be devastating for everyone but me. If my pretender is s10/b7 when he casts it with 200 slaves, does he get the +5 bonus for each point he is above the spell requirement in each school or is it averaged?
Also, is there any way to get more messages at the start of each turn? (items crafted, troops trained, etc)
And for early thugs from conjuration, which ones should I go for? Normally I just get a devil or 2 from "hordes from hell" and they seem to do ok, and as an added bonus they can lead a big contingent of demons too. Normally I just ignore conjuration until later, maybe getting up to conjuration 3 for voice of aspu. Of course if I'm fighting someone from the water then that changes and I go straight for school of sharks/shark attack (those 2 together seem to be really really powerful)