You can use Double Strike at range but there is a particular range to it. On large battle fields you will need to move up a little closer to get your double strike arrows off. I wish I knew that the medium rated escaped juggernaught could completely wipe out my strong rated army before I attacked it...
The key to staying alive in a game against the AI is to have a high empire rating. You must stay within 20 rating of your competition or they will get very angry at you. To accomplish this, as many have pointed out, you need to build as many towns as you can as early as you can. What I typically do is establish my first town on a tile with 3 or more Material. Then build logging camp/tower of dom. Then make a pioneer. By this point your Sov and champion sh
I agree 100% with everything the OP has pointed out. Great strat with the Resolin! Definitely strats like these should be toned down a bit. (there are a few for some of the other factions I've seen) Either give the game ending spells like quake and volcano the requirements as OP suggested or give some way to counter them! End game shouldn't just be a spell that ends all spells! (unless you are going for spell of mastery victory of course) I