[lch]

In a blitz I neglected mages and went for "all elephants". Seeing as how 5 elephants alone can take most indy provinces, and 10 of them can do it without casualities... I spammed elephants and forts as "forward bases", splitting my elephant corps when they grew large enough and expanding constantly. When you have enemy contact... there's nothing that can be done about a stampede of 30-40 or more elephants. Not one thing, unless you enter the mid to end magic research phase, maybe. We didn't go there as this was a blitz. Until then it was fun.

In a MP game I followed the strategy guide and went with the VQ pretender. I use the Longbows exclusively for early expansion until the sleeping VQ could take provinces. It requires a little more preparation with a couple of scouts set on hold and retreat to determine in which order to take the indy provinces and it takes 2-3 turns before you can effectively start, but when you put those longbows on the rear and put them to fire, it means that you'll take provinces with zero casualities. Only heavy cavallery or other units that can reach your units without being showered in arrows first are a problem. Hence the need of scouting.

I went for those S1 monkeys as research backbone. More forts equals more monkeys per turn equals more research. My research, coupled with a magic scale, skyrocketed. When I had enough money, I hired the Naginis and those expensive super mages (Nagarishis?) as site searchers and for combat buffs. Don't hire the male Snakes, they're not worth it. When you reach Forge of the Ancients, every snake mage that you recruited will be able to forge clams. Bingo.