[kianduatha]

Not really any worse than starting with a Prince of Death. The same things that take him out will deal with this guy--and he doesn't fly. If you want to spend 400 design points to help one unit(no sacred recruitabless) that's easily counterable with death, astral or blood...I guess you could go after Eriu! After putting both air and nature magic on your pretender and forging a ring of tamed lightning and snake ring(with no national income in either), you can watch as you lose because you have one thug who can take out province defense, and he has a dozen.

If nothing else...people will realize that your Witch King can only be in one place at once--which means you're dead meat the second you commit yourself against one enemy. You cannot afford to ignore your nationals.

It does make this nation really different from other ones, but it's not any more game-changing as starting near someone who has elephants. If it happens, you grab some counters. End of story. I can't think of a middle-age nation that doesn't have counters within reach, unless you planned from the beginning to go after Eriu.

His purpose is to jumpstart you against indies so you can leverage your inferior nationals and get some momentum for your first war. He's powerful, but not against a prepared foe. He's a ridiculously powerful raider, but not a viable front line.