[Baalz]

At the risk of sounding argumentative I do feel the need to defend my thesis here. The question of N gems does come up in the thread of that guide and I suggest using the small N income you'll get from level-0 underwater N sites (and possibly conquering Oceana lands) to eventually empower a king, and summon a Niad or two using water gems. You won't be fielding much combat nature but you'll have plenty to site search your empire and spend your income, cast GoR, whatever and shouldn't have much trouble having a very solid N income by late game. Lack of D is definitely in the "con" column, but not every end game strategy has to center on Tartarians- particularly with an obvious good tartarian counter (ubiquitous teleporting thugs who can quicken self and F magic for flambeauxs/scourges). What type of national troops you've got isn't significant not just because of SC's but also because of spells like army of lead, will of the fates, weapons of sharpness coupled with acid storm, niefel flames, etc. Obviously I'm not suggesting you're in an unbeatable position, but you've certainly got the tools to fight the good fight against any nation provided you've entered late game in style. It's also disingenuous to dismiss my suggestion as "get lots of money". To be fair my suggestion is to go for excellent scales and push your dominion hard to make the most of it, sharply limit how many troops you're buying, castle up quickly, pump out mages as fast as you can to the exclusion of everything else if possible, and tightly limit what you're researching to the essentials. You're not going to be leading in the research department but you shouldn't be dominated either.

FWIW, I have implemented this strategy verbatim successfully (finished second in a very large game).