Help needed for challenge game

[magnate]

Hey folks, what would you do in my position? Your brother is playing undead Ermor, your two other buddies are playing Abysia and Pan, and you've been forced to play Tien Chi base, but have no other limitations. This is an unmodded game using the Chandrea map. Free for all, to the death, no alliances, no VPs or anything else. Pretty normal settings - indies 9, hard research.

I've never played Tien, and have no idea what their strengths are - I've heard they're pretty crap. So, er, where do I start -

1. What sort of pretender? SC? Researcher? Site-searcher? Blood fountain?

2. What sort of research strategy? Pretty hard to compete with Abysia for blood magic, or with Ermor for death or with Pan for nature/earth ...

3. What sort of army strategy? Celestials? Cavalry? Summoned troops (like mechanical men or living statues for dealing with undead)?

Any tips really welcome, I have no idea what I'm getting into.

Thanks in advance,

CC