Understanding D2 strategy - help!

[Calistas]

Hi all, my copy is in the mail and I've been playing the demo a lot!

However, one thing I don't really get is the kinds of strategies to use for each empire (available in the demo), even if I have played them a lot.

Eg, so far I have done very well with Pythium (that comes down to the great units!) and Juntheim (same) but a lot less well with others.

I've created blood economies with Abysinia (but for what purpose I'm not sure, those fiends and devils seem to die quite quickly to me!).

I've created rainbow mages to find all the sites in an area, but I think that Acashic Record would end up more efficient. But on the other hand, don't you just 'empower' any rainbow you have to the levels you need for the late game??

I made a bless army based on someone's tips for Juntheim..

I made a huge SC pretender and used him to take out independents..

But what I'm not getting is matching pretenders to empires. What kind of strategies are there? Match your empire's powers? Chose different ones? When to go for blood (and why?!).. that sort of thing.

Oh, I didn't even get into talking about matching your dominion scales to your pretender to your empire to your strategy! Eek!

Help!

Calistas