[thejeff]

The situation with old age isn't quite that bad after the first year or so. Boots of Youth are Abysia's friend.

As far as mixed troops, my general approach is not to use indies with Abysia. At least not for front line troops. Archers can be segregated in most armies and will usually stay put pretty well. Indy mages can be carefully placed or given FR through items or personal spells. Never let Nature mages on the field once you've researched Protection!

Many of the Blood summons are fire resistant, the others can work well on their own, with Humanbreds/indies or other summons.