Help needed for challenge game

[magnate]

Ok, my first stab at a pretender:

Great Enchantress
F4A2W4E4S4D1N4B4
Order 1
Sloth 3
Cold 1
Death 3
Luck 0
Magic 3
Dominion 5
Watch Tower

The idea here is that the troops are fairly crappy so we don't bother with them, so we can take Sloth 3 and get Magic 3 instead (we'll still have enough resources to build up the heavy infantry we need). We're going to focus on spells, hence a pretender that's suited to site searching. She also gives the Celestial Soldiers lots of nice blessings.

We crank out the 1W2H priests and get them researching, then use them for banishing when necessary.

Any thoughts? Indies are at 9 so maybe initial expansion will be hampered? Anyone think an SC pretender would be better?

CC

[Wish]

the biggest advantage, I've found, for TC is that their wide WIDE selection of magic makes them good for forging items for SCs, beyond that they are a bit lacking.

you will want a pretender that can do the expansion mostly alone. like a manticore or dragon, with a little bit of water, earth, and astral, so they can use alt 3 to become a mini-SC. (for quickness, luck, body ethereal, and ironskin) also if you do a dragon, take at least 1 nature, such that they can cast eagle eyes then start spitting their breath weapon at enemies.