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I'm really liking LA Ulm. Just to be different I went with this pretender:

Great Sage (Body 251, 10 hits)
Magic: Fire 1 Earth 2 Astral 4 Death 4 Blood 4
Dominion 6
Scales: Turmoil 3 Growth 1 Fortune 3 Drain 2
Awake

The Sage researches Thaum 2, Enchant 1, Const 4, Enchant 3, and would also kick off blood hunting except with Luck 3 I always get a hero early enough to do that with the hero instead. S4 is dangerous, actually overall the god is weak, but he's a scholar, not a fighter. S4D4B4 is a pretty meh bless for the ghouls, but they're just a little bonus with higher MR, the real focus is on getting xbows, a few more shields if I need them, and Counts Counts Counts! And more Counts!

I grab fortune tellers to start, totally cancels the few bad events I might get from turmoil. Plus the rangers are cheap enough in both gold and resources, and pack enough punch that I can still take a province a turn at the start.

Thaum 2 is for the S2s to Mind Burn anything spectacularly nasty I might run into early.

Drain 2 is nice for the points and for MR. My death gems go into skulls to make up for the low research on my fortune tellers.

I don't recruit a whole lot of 2nd tier dudes, mostly I stick with the fortune tellers. And I find I'm hiring a lot of the H2 priests after the first year to ensure I've got positive dominion everywhere. I haven't managed to find a good use for the massive stealth on the mages yet. Any ideas there?

I could probably drop the F1 since I never end up making Soul Contracts when I could be making another Count. But I've got 10 free points in the build, so ... there it goes.

I've tried a Dom7, Drain3 variation of this too, and it's not bad either.