Please point me in the right direction, help me get started!

[ywl]

Ermor is not a typical nation, so it's better start with something else. Tien Chi is reasonable for newbie but it has it's funny quirk to use well.

The trick is to keep it simple. Forget about magic for now. You can kill your computer oppenents easily enough with simple troops. Man is quite good for starting player and so is Pythium.

Choose Wyrm as the pretender. It is strong, regenerating and has no magic (to distract you ). Put all the points into scales and a good fortress. With 425 points (500 minus the cost of a Wyrm), you can raise the scales to Order +3, Production +3, Growth +2, Luck 0 and Magic 0. The optimal choice is actually Order +3, Production +3, Growth +3, Luck -2 and Magic +1 but you may or may not want to deal with the complication of a negative scales.

To win the game: as Man, keep building Longbow for the first 6 to 10 turns. Send them out to conquer indies. Take out those with only light infantries, barbarians first. They're no match for your longbows. After a while, start building Wardens and Tower Guards - some people hate the latter but I find them ok. These heavy infantries will be the core of your armies. They're enough of an equal to fight most infantries, while your longbows will stay behind to *slaughter* your enemies. Amass big armies, expand, take the indies and kill any AIs declaring war on you. You should be able to win the game by brute force alone.

For Pythium, the formula is even simpler... You keep building various form of legenaires. Put them near the front. If you don't give them any command, they can efficiently switch between using the javelin and short swords in battle. And again, with your massive legenaire armies, you should be able to win by brute force.