Great Fun with Spring and Autumn - and one minor question

[tinkthank]

I have been having such great fun with Spring and Autumn. I would be curious to know whether you experience people feel what I am doing to be either unorthodox, standard fare, wise or silly, or otherwise not worth commenting.

I have always wanted to try S&A, but had no success up till now. I had used the Jade Emperor, who is even better under 2.08, but without much success, then tried an Oracle quite a bit, but with only mediocre fun, and now I am going with...

The great Earth Mother. She compliments everything so well.
4 points in earth, 4 in Nature. Not the most variable, but....
1 Turmoil
2 Luck
2 Growth
2 Magic
6 Dominion

I find I have enough money with 2 growth, and this keeps the money coming in. I dont require resources quite so much, since I am going heavy magic. I almost never get the stronger 18 res. troops, but rely mostly on the more mobile 2-map-move infantry and bowmen.

The Mother helps well in early expansions when no mercs are available, and can search for much needed earth gems until I get a Mot5E or a CM with an earth pick.

I go for construction and alteration asap, with enchantment next and evocation when I can.

Wind guide, ah the sound of the wind in the autumn leaves.
Flaming arrows + wind guide is perfect harmony.
Arrow fend is pleasing to my eyes.
Antimagic is celestial peace.

With my pretender setup, I usually cast Gift of Health as soon as possible, and keep her within dominion bounds to clean up indy provinces while my troops are out on the front lines.
With Gift of Health and an even moderate (2-4) dominion, Su Su has well over 500 HP, regenerates 50+ HP per turn, and -- of course I give her nice items too.
Also, no danger of Duels or any such stuff, as one might expect of a T'ien Chi pretender.

The big earth skills allow me not only to cast Forge of Ancients, but until that is up, she can get my forging economy started by making the first Dwarven Hammer and a pair of Earth boots for my Mot5E and/or lucky Earthen Celestial.
He then makes a few Slave Matrixes when the time is ripe, equips a few MotD with them, and it is Arrow Heaven.

It is a lot of fun, but I am wondering if I have just gotten lucky so far with my gem finding. I have spent a *lot* of time invested in finding, but I have also found some great sites too.

Also wondering what you experienced people think when people catch a whiff of what I am doing. My magic economy is very strong, but when an Air opponent goes for Storm summoners or Staff of Storms, I am unsure how to counter. I mostly go for fast, mobile troops, and I wonder if it would be too late to switch. What counter-counter do I have open to me? (This question could also be posed to a Man archer player -- what do you do against Storm Users?)

Also, I find myself almost never getting other commanders than magic Users, just not found a use for them. Well ok there is only 1 in S&A, and he looks so neat, but.... I suppose this is a general question: Why get a commander who can just hack and slash when you can get a spellcaster who can also search, research, preach, etc. when not fighting? (Aside from the usually higher leadership skills.)

Well thanks for listening to me and thanks in advance for the friendly advice.