[Micah]

If you're proposing sending in a god solo and naked to stop double blessed jags you're thinking about it wrong. Another 5 provinces worth of expansion is another 500 or so gold on turn 6, along wth faster resource income to your cap and more indies...another 50 archers in your army is gonna put a dent in a block of 20 jags.

The extra dom from an awake pretender will give you a better chance to have friendly dominion, and that +1 morale is vital when dealing with PD level troops that are just there to die and slow up the assault. Putting a cyclops fresh from +5 dom in the middle of a formation is unlikely to get him killed, but it's keeping 3 jags tied up swinging at a rock instead of slaughtering PD. Having a dragon that can fly around and pick off provinces will do a lot of economic damage...it doesnt't take too long for Bogarus to get up to some nice evo or flaming arrows with their 12 RP mages, so you only have to stop one rush and you're in the game...5 provinces on turn 6 is a pretty big deal, even if your pretender isn't gonna fight off the rush singlehandedly.