Using your pretender early: How?

[Evilhomer]

I disagree. The boost in expansion early game is very good even in longer games since the gold will basically transform into more forts, more mages, faster research and you will have more lands to search - more gems. The early game momentum will in short carry over to a strong endgame. Of course its not the only pretender path to take, but it's still a good one, even on a large map.