Looking for a good PBEM setup. Post your favorite

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Well, I surely don't play at the highest competitive level, in our games (std research, indies 6-8, usually 20+ provinces/player) having "correct" scales are more the norm.
Additionnaly, from my experience, I've a difficult time using a non-immortal pretender (or very sturdy but suboptimal ones like Dragons) alone for initial expansion : you don't have any items, and not the necessary buffs (Alt3) before at least turn 5 (120 RP total, counting a 20 RP pretender + 1 additional 5 RP mage/turn), so you've a serious risk of having your pretender get afflictions (pray it's not Feeblemind !) or even being killed by a lucky Barb or Knight blow...
If you play a virtue how can you manage any non-militia indy force before you get Orb Lightning ?

[Kuritza_Dru]

I've just recently tried a Virtue, and was really satisfied with how she fared against the indies 6. She had Air 6, Water 1, Earth 3. Scripted to 'quickness, mirror image, air shield, stone skin, attack archers.' In a few turns it was iron skin instead of a stoneskin and mistform. Then I researched construction 4 and made her lucky & ethereal. Most of the time she wasn't hit a single time during combat.

[Alneyan]

Mistform+Mirror Image+Air Shield (if appropriate) is the standard defensive setup, and it works very well. Rainbow Virtues will add two more buffs, usually Ethereal and Luck, or the Earth protection spells. Then you can jump in melee, as the Virtue packs a lot of punch: that Flambeau is nasty. Alteration 2 is all you need to take most provinces, but risks are higher, and so I tend to concentrate on medium provinces until Alteration 3 kicks in.

The other way is to go in melee and cast Shockwaves (the AI will do that automatically when faced with swarms). This results in very quick routs, considering that Shockwave deals massive damage in a wide area, but I think you get less experience when playing as a spellslinger.

The melee setup also has the advantage of making it possible to smack down some enemy Pretenders, like the Vampire Queen or the Ghost King... but any of the three will be slaughtered when attacking anything flying and not casting any buff (well, the Vampire Queen will survive if she is in friendly Dominion). If those Pretenders are defending, it might still work out.

There is always a risk of getting into heavy trouble, mainly because of random spellcasters, but Immortality is not a guarantee of being 100% safe. If the Pretender finds itself in a province outside friendly Dominion (because the province was in friendly Dominion on the last turn, for example), that Pretender is at risk, Immortality or not. A Teleporting enemy commander is all it takes to kill your Immortal. It's not *that* likely to happen, but neither is getting Feebleminded by the independents.

[Alneyan]

On the matter of scales: Order 3/Sloth 3/Death 3/Misfortune 2/Magic 2 (or 3) is the common combination in a standard game, but it may change depending on the specifics of the game. Games that promote a permanent state of war will see more Productivity for example, as casualties are expected to be high in such games.

But even when planning to fight major wars, poor scales can make sense: in Entwined Destiny (6 teams of 2), Mictlan went with quasi Ermorian scales, and recruited massed Jaguar Warriors. They had a triple blessing of Fire 9, Astral 9 and Water 9, making them fearsome indeed. Mictlan did very well, won the game with their Ulmian ally, and I would think they were most powerful nation at the end of the game. A shame you cannot have four level 9 blessings though.

[Kuritza_Dru]

Well, I stay away from Death simply because I'm a huge fan of the RPG's, and I don't like to fancy myself as a doombringer. Takes the fun out of the game for me.