Some Ashen Empire Ermor questions,need some advice

[Agrajag]

Peter Ebbesen said:
Not quite. The only living troops I'll recruit are indy mages and mercenaries [and I have the income to pay top dollar for them, practically guaranteeing that I get them, thus also depriving others of early game expansion boost]

And with no pretender, who has the magic skill to build the lab required to recruit those indy mages?
You could just wait for a mage mercenary, but you still aren't guaranteed to get it (and if you spend all your money on it, then you are losing the advantage of Dormancy in gold)