Thanks to you two and the other players, I had fun and learned a lot
About Rattlehead : I did get astral and nature on my pretender as I thought they were important paths, plus that way I could easily have access to high magic in every path but air and blood.
My plan was to turtle quietly so I could get a lot of research done until someone decided to attack me and make heavy use of Bakemono sorcerers with troops + Alteration spells, unfortunately I got in an early war with Man and it left me really behind in research for a long time.
I was never the strongest nation (until very late) and I had good diplomatic relations with many neighbours (enough I had to keep an eye out with some^^), so I didn't get ganged upon even though I casted some nice enchantments (FotA, GoH, Maelstrom, Arcane Nexus, etc...). That's probably what allowed me to survive until the late game (even though in this game, the powerful nations of the beginning, Ermor, C'tis and Tien Chi, and then Machaka later on, all made it to the endgame), and then the power of the bakemono sorcerers started to kick in with high research.
So I think the sheer reason of my victory was the strength of the bakemono sorcerers and my lack of strength in early and midgame^^ (I also received a load of gems from an anonymous donator midgame
)
It was my first endgame so I learned a lot, especially about thugs and SCs.
Thanks to Num for choosing me as his endgame partner and to Skor for being a sportsman