i tried several things

but i agree in most terms.

kingdom:

enchanters is a must have because of scrying pools - this one is really unique, i dont care about the 2 late game staffs - until this point normally i'm dominating anyway, i never had the chance to even build my special mage riders with leeth staff - i rly have do do this one time.

i never take a malus, since its not really necessary, but when i do i take -spell resist, because you dont need it in the start and in mid to endgame i can prepare for battles against casters and dragons of sort.

i'm more a charge and kill fan not a distance fighter. so i choose initiative and armorer and/or lucky. also, because of love to initiative i take masterwork chainmail instead of plate mail. i really love to kill the enemy before they can even make one move.

sovereign:

i concentrate always on +lvl traits like brilliant because they give you rly good bonus stats when lvl 5 or above.

so, i take brilliant, discipline and the 3rd depends - sometimes +mana, sometimes hardy, sometimes tactician.

i played once a summoner mage without any magical prof. (you have your warg and very fast natures ally, and with this 2 summons you rock early game) - in the beginning you miss the spell buffs on the cities, but with other heroes you dont need it rly. so i had 2 points left to use - i picked the staff where you get 3 mana for a kill, well it wasn't ranged and to last hit with such a low level staff its much fighting in game to do to get extra 3-12 mana per fight (without using something) - but still especially in the beginning its very nice - if you play with amarian trait - all your units can cast soul spark so the extra mana is very good. (with amarian blood bonus i guess the attunement talent should be used). 

there are to ways you don't need to take even one magic profeciency:

1. and obvious: if you have the spellbooks faction strength
2. if another AI hast the spellbooks (you can buy it in their region)

the second one is a gamble for sure, but maybe you dont want to be a caster sovereign anyway, just choose the right heroes when they come.

and without the prof. you have at least 2 spare points you can put to good use.

thats right. i prefer it that way. there is nothing more boring then to know you won the game after 50 turns. (i never finish such games)

Depoends on what I want. If I for example want a really good warrior:

Empire:

Ironeers/Wraith/Tarth

+Lucky

+Quick

+Wanderlust

Thats about it.

Sovereign:

Adventurer/Noble/Armorer/General

+1 damage +5 unrest

+3 damage

+1 initiative

+Ereogs Token

+Air 1

+2Initiative Bracers / +4 Armor Bracers

That should do it.

This ensures a very strong fighting force.

For a mage I'd choose:

Empire:

Amarian

+Enchanters

+Death Worship

+Scholars

Sovereign:

-Clumsy

+Fire 1

+Water 1

+25% Spell damage staff

+Procipinees Crown / +Brilliant / +2 Mana per season

Interesting. The one trait I find indispensable is Master Scouts and nobody has mentioned it yet.

What is your small mistake?  If you know what you want to change, you can open up the faction file in My Documents\My Games\Legendary Heroes\Race and make the change.  I think it's even possible to give yourself more traits than you could normally get, but it's quite possible to just stick with the number of points you normally get.  Same with sovs (in Units directory).

Mancers - +1 movement - means I get an extra turn for every two others have

Master Scouts - exelent combo with mancers , means I scout the map, do quests , battle monsters , found cities faster than anyone

Enchanters - for the scrying pool - it greatly accelerates your cities and fortresses build on a 3/3/3 tile will have 4 essences so soldiers build there will benefit from 4 auras -  +4 fireatt/def/hp/init

The Decalon - access to all spell books means you have all city spells (I usually beeline for this tech) and the allmighty Arcane Monolith spell - this spell accelerates your kingdom so much it ridiculous : no more spending 6-10 turns and 30 pop per outpost just 50 mana. Not only instant acces to resources but you also make your kingdom contiguos so cities grow faster

Weakness : - spell res % - overall you will allways be more advanced than your opponents so this will not bother you

Sovereign: Nuker Mage

Air Aprentice : at level 4 you get Disciple for Tutelage

Fire Apprentice : the best school for nuking from early game till end

Warlock

Briliant : for exp and spell mastery

Procipinee's Crown : this guy will be on point for the entire game so he will be heavily enchanted : Tutelage,Cloak of Oceans etc

Staff of Souls : extremely Powerfull - +3mana per kill => after Cloak of Oceans you will generate mana every combat and +25%dmg

Weakness : clumsy - works great you just have to pay attention and position your troops carefully

lvl 2 - mage spec

3- Knowledge

4- Air Disciple - for Tutelage

5- Potential

....

At about lvl 15 with water and earth spellooks this guy can kill anything on his own Cloak of Oceans + Mage spec + Mage trait => -75% spell cost reduction + if you find Mage RObes then -90 % reduction

Strategy:

Expand aggresively early on and build cities on 4/3/2 ; 3/3/3 tiles only , the latter for fortresses

Enchant all cities with meditation you are leading an mana intensive kingdom

Recruit an life champion - very very important you need Sovereign's Call

Beeline for the spellbooks - buy magic tech only , change research to one of the magic tree leading to spellbookright before getting a lost library , hire heroes that provide research bonus etc

Sorry for the wall of text and for spelling errors

Cheers

race/side

Mancers/Kingdom 1moves, +1 accuracy per level is a must have, just cant play with any other faction.  their +1 Move.

Faction

Enchanters - Extra essence plus sovereign call for extra population in an pioneer + outpost rush.

Wanderlust - Athican leather armor + nice swords + quest maps, a must for leveling heroes on late game and extra fame.

(Cant remember the skill name) - that gives you bazaar and superb horses, the bazaar and extra money is a must have for rushing and hero item purchases.

Archers -  for better, iron free bows and 50% ignore defense bow on late game.

Uneducated - easily countered with heavy investment on conclaves. 

Profession

Warlord - -50% wages cost + merchant commander champion (maybe 2) is a tax free kingdom for most of the early game. 

Magic/Talents/Weaknesses/Equipment

Earth - +1 material city enchantment (cant remember the name) + aura of vitality

Life - sovereign call + defense city enchantment (cant remember the name) + healing

Fire - fire damage city enchantment (cant remember the name) + flame dart + burning hands + flaming weapon

Might - +3 attack

Cruel - +1 attack

On the first opportunit I get a air caster for tutelage and city enchant that giver more initiative (cant remember the name). I focus to make my fortresses on heavy essence locations, build a scrying pool, and make troops enchantments on the cities. There is nothing like making basic archers with free +2 (3 or 4) fire damage. Also the other enchantments that boost HP, Defense and initiative plus the bonuses of improvements on a fortress city make superb troops.

With such package I am currently trying to make a defender sovereign with +30% magic resistance bonus for my troops (for elite troops, dragon and mage hunting since I got tired of loosing 4 100 metal afraid heavy cavalries in a single dragon breath). in other cases I drop the might and cruel and go for clumsy and brilliant for a mage (summoner or damage) 

If you like Mancers you may consider to hire mancer heroes before you get Tireless march, otherwise you may lose your move bonus. Among 1 level heroes I always hire Rally Stormborn. He has Lightning strike ability, is a mancer and has Air magic. So it may be not necessary to take Air magic for sovereign. For Enchanted hammers and Sovereign Call (a call of sovereign should definetely belong to sovereign))) it's good to take Earth and Life magic for your sovereign from start. With Tower of dominion you have +6 growth in a city. Later on with 50 fame you may hire Arcturius (mage) with Fire and Water magic and thus you have the complete set of magic to use.

I found that its good to build studies asap. Earlier I tried to improve production and unrest first. Now prefer research, unrest, production and income. I also hunt for world achievements. So for merchantcross bazaar I need a city early. I keep in mind that I need 5 level fortresses to reduce unrest and have better troops. I keep in mind that I need 5 level cities for global upps for units and production. So at first I build all 3 different types of cities, placing future fortress on 4/3/2 or 3/3/3 fields or better. Then build another city and fortress. Then again all 3 types. Then mainly cities and conclaves.

I really like warrior class of heroes - with thier vampiric abilities and artifacts and good armor they stay mostly unharmed among crowds of enemies killing most of them with 1 blow! As for common troops I like Archers with better bows from Archers trait. I buff their initiative and they kill all enemy spellcasters before they can cast anything. Initiative: +2 from trait, +1 ... +3 from artifacts, +2 from 3 level fortress, +3 ... +5 from essence enchanting, +2 from mount, +1 from tactic trait, +1 ... +3 from racial trait Quick, from Soldiers boots +1 (did I forget something?). With -4 penalty of a bow it results in +9 ... +13 to Initiative. (This don't count bonuses from war horses and bonuses from Commander class of hero, since I never use them). Its good to give archers Finesse and Bloodthirsty traits to increase damage they deal.

I wonder why many people choose Potential trait or General speciality? By choosing these you waste your efforts in buffing heroes and have to overtake the backlog. If you want a great hero, just let him go without other heroes and he will grow very quickly. If you need 15% more experience - just kill 15% monsters more. Its easy with stronger hero. I'm sure that spell Tutelage - is all you need, and there is no need to waste traits or specialities to get additional experience. What do you think? Did you make calculations?

This is true untill you have lots of forests and there are no roads. With mancers you go through woods as if you are a Master Scout of another race. With mancers or Commanders you can build roads so you don't need to move through forests anymore. Thus I think it is not that great trait if you play as mancers. It also don't help in battle. If you play other than mancers race, you may reconsider. Yes moving for 1 square through a deep forest is dull, but yet there are many great traits that help much more.

I have started to really see the benefits of early Research. It gives you so much tech advantage over your opponent and possibly allows you to keep up or even surpass insane opponents.

Skill Skeleton:

Sovereign:

+Scholar (+20% Research)

+Water 1 (for "Inspiration")

+Death 1 (for Death 4 and "Pit of Madness")

anything else is optional

Empire (Race is not important):

+Scholars (+10% Research +Starts with "Study")

anything else is optional, just don't take "Uneducated" as a malus

This allows for so much research if you start with the tower of dominion into Study and enchant your city with Inspiration from the get go it isn't even funny. Of course make it into a Conclave asap and focus on researching and building research buildings.

Good pointing out. I avoided the +25% Xp on my mage just because I didn't know the level-cuve. If the level-curve would have been straight (same amount for every lvl) then +25% is a no-brainer for any hero that would rise more than four levels after getting the talent. But depending on how much the level-requirements increase (exponential?), the +25% may not be efficient given limited available xp.

Anybody knows the Xp-level requirements? How much is needed for lvl 2, 3 etc? (sorry for being slightly off-topic)

Ouch, this sound like a really bad talent. If +50% is less than 2 levels, +25% should be less than one level - and thus never catching up with the lost feat.

When I sum up the Xp-bonus from taking +25% (mage talent) at lvl 2, the benefits for levling four levels 2-6 is (37+54+74+97) x ,025 = 65 Xp. The 65 extra Xp doesn't push the mage into the next leve (294+65= 359 is lower than the lvl 7 requirements) - meaning the trait isn't worth it and never will be. Surely I must do some miscaluation here? There cannot be a trait that is worse having, compared to not having it?

EDIT: deleted an incorrect conclusion.

I have been posting a skill skeleton to min/max research. Of course 20% of 1 is not much but it will be a big feat later on. Also the game rounds the research example so it may impact faster than you think. Take for example a level 2 conclave (+3 Research) with a study (+1), Inspiration cast on it (+1) and a sovereign with Scholar (+20%) and the faction has Scholars as well (+10%)

This results in 3+1+1 = 5  adding in the % boni 5 + 5 * 0.3 = 6.5 -> 7 which are another 2 research points very early on. Don't underestimate +30% research. It does its thing!

Bummer you sure put things in perspective

I did a little math and here it is(hope I don't have mistakes):

char a - char b + 50% exp

lvl9     - lvl 10

lvl 14  - lvl 15 still needs 100 xp to 16

lvl 14 and 65 xp - lvl 16 so char b has a temporary level till char a hits lvl15

....

~ lvl 22 - lvl 24 theoretically you break even on traits here

Bottom line : in the long run you manage to eventually gain : 2 lvls and the bonuses attached to them(hp,acc, etc) + you gain levels faster(for traits wich have "/level") + you have Potential & Knowledge as extra traits

Worth it : don't think so : you lose 2 lvls early and you gain them back at lvl9 and lvl24(if I didn't make a mistake ) but for that you gain faster leveling