[Agema]

The guides are all very valuable, especially from someone as expert as Baalz. If for no other reason, you can see tactical ideas that can be applied generally by many nations, and they're generally well optimised and brimming with ideas.

There's one very important thing to be careful of with guides, however: everyone can read them. That means not only have you seen tactics that can work for you, but your opponent probably has (and certainly should have). For nations that are highly versatile, say able to switch from thugging to powerful armies or with a wide range of good magical paths available, this isn't such a big deal. However, for more one-trick pony nations, you really need to plan something useful outside the guide. Otherwise you'll head off to battle with your opponent knowing almost exactly what's coming his way, and that's a recipe for defeat.