[Agema]

Sorry, I missed that you included Magic-1. But nevertheless, if you get 9-10 research heroes on average every 8-9 turns, this will, by turn 30 say, have given you only about 350-400 extra research in total. Depending on various factors, that's about what a single turn's research would be at turn 30, in essence it's put you only about one turn ahead of where you would have been.

I appreciate what you mean about your God forging and researching, and I agree it's a good idea to get Oracles out there as thug/SCs quickly. However, I disagree you need to do it that quickly, because I strongly disagree that Agartha's troops are as weak as you think.

Firstly, your giants are enormously survivable. Yes, 9Att 10Def is weak, but they should gain XP and not die, and will rapidly be about 11Att 12Def, which is perfectly respectable. Plus you are in a prime bless situation: +1/2Att is pretty easy to afford.

Secondly, don't get too hung up on Agartha's terrible Att values. Pale Ones have a ton of HP, which creates a compensation. Think of it as hits inflicted during lifespan. Although Pale Ones might only hit at the rate of about 60-70% of a human, they only need to live 50% longer and in fact they will score, on average, the same number of hits before dying as a human, and they've got the HP to do that.