I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders....

[Slen]

I use tons of mages, whoever I play. I always use mages as the backbone of my army-whether they are casting offensive spells or support, EVERY army I field is high on mages.

[quantum_mechani]

That may be your problem then, if most of your mages are out on the battlefield, you don't have enough researching. Over 50% should be back at home researching in most cases. For this reason, buy a lot of your nation's cheapest mages, they may not be great on the battlefield, but they are the best research bang for the back ehen you have a magic scale.

[Slen]

I crank out lots of mages in my capital(usualy one every turn or two) to research.

The problem is I eventually just get zerged in such a huge amount that I can not stop them, OR I get really unlucky and despite being uber beyond belief, my pretender dies(game over, as the loss of magic is a crippling blow).

[quantum_mechani]

Well, as long as you are just fighting AIs there is one cheap trick to use if it gets to hard. If as soon as you border an AI you take 11 province defense in that province, and then as you border more AIs always put 11 PD in all border provinces, they will very rarely attack you. Of course, if don't want to use that trick, on a big enough map you can usually outfit several combatants capable of destroying almost unimited AI armies. On a small map it is more difficult, but usually you can hold them off long enough to get your combatant factory going, particularly with a pretender like a VQ.

[Slen]

One thing I could really use is a guide to making pretenders... if anyone has one .

[quantum_mechani]

Heh. I was going to write one as a follow up to the guide to buffing but I havn't gotten around to it... though if you are not using Zen's mods there is not a lot to it. Just pick a ghost king, load him up with 4-7 paths (exactly which depends on what nation you are trying to fill in the magic holes for), take full order, full sloth, full death, full magic, misfortune 2, watchtower (once in a while other forts, but never a citadel) and leftover points into dominion.

[Endoperez]

With your pretender (few high magic paths) you can just call him back (have priests Call God - command only available after He is dead). He will lose one point from every path, but that shouldn't hurt too much, as you still have at least level 3 in all and that is enough for boosters.

You might also want to try to find a nation that suits you. You have a playstyle (you use lots of mages), and instead of changing it to play a nation you should change a nation to play as you enjoy. Especially if you have played BASE Ermor (recruits units, instead of getting free undead as the other two themes) you don't really have that powerful mages. Caelum has very good mages (flying, cold immune, water gives quickness and lightning good attack spells, CHEAP). Jotunheim Iron Woods and Utgård have cheap mages (Vaetti Hags or Seithkona), powerful province defence (you are very good in defense, so you can research high-powered spells). Iron Woods' other mages are hideously expensive, but at least one in four Vaetti Hags can bloodhunt and about half the undead are Giants. Utgård is probably magically more powerful, and all those researching Seithkona become EVIL after you get Evocation 7 and Nether Darts.
Pythium has very good starting income, good and flexible mages, and can use communion to boost battle magic beyond awesome. The Theurgs have Water, Air and Astral, which give them Quickness, some good attack and protection spells and some awesome high-level spells. Also, remember your mages can use both Luck and Body Ethereal not only to themselves, but to legionaires as well.
Machaka has lots of mages, of lots of paths, and Machaka Hoplites are very good.
Arcoscephale has high Astral and will get good Elemental mages in time. They also have lots of mixed magics, so use Power of the Spheres and/or your choice of Quickness, Magma bolts, Acid Bolt, Sulphur Haze, Rust Mist. Their priestesses can heal afflictions of non-undead pretenders, and their province defense isn't as worthless as Pythium's and Machaka's.