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

[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.

[magnate]

For my twopenn'orth I don't think your problem is with mages (though you may not be using them optimally). If you are still getting stomped by the AI's massive armies of chaff in the late game then you need to build more SCs. A single SC pretender can only take (or hold) one province per turn - by the late game you need a few more. If you equip them with flying boots they can zip around plugging holes your armies cannot reach, or zooming in to attack behind enemy lines.

So what is an SC? Well there are people far better qualified to answer that than I, but the easiest to acquire seem to be the six Ice Devils (Blood 5, 55 blood slaves each). If you don't like mucking about with blood hunting then there are ten elemental monarchs (3 Air, 3 Water, 2 Fire, 2 Earth - all Conj 7). The AI rarely summons any of them. Equip any of these with good weapon(s), armour, hat & misc items and they can take out whole armies on their own. There are tons of threads discussing the best equipment for the different SCs. Even a Bane Lord (Conj 5, very cheap) can take out small armies if it is properly equipped.

Of course, SCs require a whole boatload of mages to research construction and then actually to make the items, so they're not trivial. Despite this, many players frown upon the use of SCs against the AI, because (like undead hordes) it does not defend against them at all well. There are "anti-SC" strategies which human opponents will use but the AI will not.

Finally, don't forget that the AI does not build castles (though it occasionally obtains extra castles from random events). When waging war on an AI nation, take its capital (and other castles) as quickly as possible, because it will then be unable to recruit its best units. The rest of its provinces will then fall easily.

Good luck,

CC

[NTJedi]

SLEN.... when you say you can't win.... are you talking multiplayer or singleplayer ?