[Horst F. JENS]

scales:
you need order for your expensive mages and troops.
Your heavy inf makes taking sloth scales a bad idea.
your old-age mages and troops speak against taking death.
Your crappy Province Defense won't help you much against misfortune events.
Your mages are destined to cast astral spells, so taking magic scales will help them with reseach as well as with overcoming your opponents magic resistance (enslave mind etc.).
Your mages and troops suffer from extra fatigue fatigue in cold/hot provinces.

All in all, try to go with order and magic. You can risk a bit misfortune if you need points.

Your excellent troops and mage-priest can fight on their own, so save points by taking a dormant or imprisoned pretender.

Pretender:
take as much earth as you can to help your sacred casters and communion slaves.
Take nature if possible for regeneration. You should aim to summon a fairy queen to heal mages damaged by Mind Hunt. Better yet, have a pretender that can heal.

Troops:
Mix the standard bearer into your other troops. Watch out for different movement speed. Give all your troops "fire closest enemy" command
Don't bother with the serpents. Build a castle in a knight/longbow province if you need lances.

Research:
Your arch-theurg can smite out of the box if i remember correctly. Concentrate on Alteration for Body Etheral and learn how to buff your troops.
Learn Solar Rays soon.