NEWB Questions

[Immaculate]

I'm super new to this game (i got into it through LdiCesare's Dominions NES and so far i like it. I have played a game to year four with Sauromatia and year 3 with Mictlan and have been reading these forums somewhat but i have a few questions that hopefully you can answer for me.

1) What is clams/clamming? People keep talking about this on these forums and i have no idea what it means.

2) How do you do early expansion without a strong bless? I can expand with about 14 jaguar warriors and a priest to bless (fire 9, water 9, blood 4) them as Mictlan but can't seem to do quite as well without the bless or with a weaker bless. I mean, i guess i could take an awake pretender and use that but i want to see what other options there are.

3) Are mercenaries worth it? there are a few i like- like hannibal's elephants- they are useful as shock troops- but the pirates seem useless.

4) Should i switch to using the CPM (acronym is probably completely wrong- i am referring to the mod that most people use for MP play) when playing SP so as to get used to it?

5) What should research priorities be? Combat spells or spells to help develop a gem economy?

Thanks,

Immac.