Question dump #1

[Slith]

So after getting Dominions 3 and playing with it for the first time, I was completely dazzled by the extreme amounts of information that faced me. Now, after playing Dom3 for a bit more than a week (against normal AIs, testing various nations), I'm starting to get the hang of things but I still think I have much to learn. I figured I'd hop in to ask a few questions about certain game mechanics.

1. I've slowly figured out how to get into magic: get a level 2 mage (or whatever level is required for the site-searching spell in question) and remote search for sites. (After finding one or two sites for a basic income, if necessary.) If possible, cast Acashic Record to discover everything. Now that I've figured this out, though, I often find I have a massive excess of gems and no way to use them. This is partly because I don't find enough spells that cost gems and are worth casting. There are sometimes the conjuration spells, but little more. So what are some of the typical things that gems are used for? For example, I'm currently playing as EA Tir Na N'Og against ~5 normal AIs, with an imprisoned oracle that has 9 Astral. I already have quite a lot of nature and air gems, even though I haven't searched all that much. However, all my air gems are used for is Wind Guide to help my indy archers (other air spells, like the Evocation-school attacks which I have researched up to level 5, seem to be gem-free). My nature gems might go into summoning Cu Sidhe, though that, on the other hand, seems a bit pricey. Basically, what sort of spells should I spend my gems on? I have so many choices but many of them seem unimpressive.

2. While we're there, how do I tell how many mages I should get to research and how many should do other things like site search or participate in battles? In this same game, I got lucky finding a Library where I can recruit Sages, who I use to get the majority of my research. Right now I'm somewhere around 120-130 RP/turn, with a few Bean Sidhes in the capital doing some extra research. In other games, I'm not so lucky and I'm forced to choose between national mages doing research or getting out into the field.

3. One of my other games was with LA Ermor, which I picked because nothing sounds cooler than undead Romans. It turned out to be a walkover, although it leads me to ask two more questions now. First of all, branching out into other magic paths. Do I simply do that by finding all possible sites then Empowering my mages? It seems like an awfully slow process to me and then there's also the risk of my mage dying later, nullifying the investment. I suppose that's a general fear of mine. I hesitate to forge items, for example (for battle purposes anyway) because I'm afraid that I'll lose the commander if I try to send him/her into the fray and then all the forging was in vain. Casting 5 different protective spells might keep the commander alive, but by the time he/she gets into battle, it often seems to be decided anyway. So, any good tips for commander survival?

4. Finally, by the end of the game, it was getting tedious to manage LA Ermor, so I eventually decided to just build temples and let my dominion slowly spread all over the map. This worked, but eventually my dominion exterminated my own population, putting my income below my upkeep. Despite having full Turmoil/Luck scales I never even got an event of 200/3000/whatever gold, so after that there was little to do anyway. So is there a way to disband enemy units that doesn't involve sending them off to die?