Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Eriu

Fir Bolg are the lesser descendants of the Nemedians.

Tuatha Sorceress

Eriu was founded when humans defeated the Tuatha in ages past. Now the Tuatha and their Sidhe descendants re-emerge from their hiding places to lead the humans. The Sidhe and Tuatha are able to weave illusions to hide their true appearance. They are skilled Air and Nature mages.

When men came to the land of the Tuatha and the Fir Bolg, there was a drawn out battle which ended with the defeat and total withdrawal of the Tuatha. The Land of the Ever Young was forever lost to this world and Avalon was taken by the witches of Man. The Sidhe, descendants of the Tuatha, retreated into strange twilight realms with entrances hidden in ancient mounds. The land of the Fir Bolg was split by the invading forces: Man and their witches, and the Milesians. The Milesians named their land Eriu. Most of the Eriu population is composed of humans of Milesian ancestry, but a few Fir Bolg still survive in remote villages. With the coming of the new God, the Daoine Sidhe have re-emerged from their magical mounds to lead the Milesians. Eriu is now a nation of humans and Fir Bolg led by the awakening Sidhe.

In medieval Irish Christian pseudo-history, the Milesians (from Mil Espaine or "sons of Míl") are the final invaders to settle in Ireland. The Milesians take the world above, while the Tuath Dé take the world below, and thereafter the 'immortal people' become known as the Daoine Sidhe (people of the mounds). Ériu (modern Irish Éire), a Tuatha Dé portrayed in folklore as the lover of a Fomorian prince with whom she had a son who was later crowned king and as the mistress of the hero Lugh, is the eponymous matron goddess of Ireland. This nation was added in the Dominions 3.06 patch.

Overview

MA-Eriu is for all intents and purposes a nerfed version of EA-Tir na n'Og; fielding a broader choice of new chaff-units yet a narrower focus of magi, while our best Fir Bolg and Sidhe troops remain woefully under-equipped with leather and spears. That said, MA-Eriu still fields the excellent Sidhe Lords and our high-end mounted Tuatha mage is a re-skinned Ri. Hence much of MA-Eriu's core strategy remains the same as in the EA, though with a narrower set of options and margin for error.

Strengths:

• Early access to strong Air and Nature magic, average Water and weak Earth.
• Self-buffing stealthy mage-priests.
• All national magi are glamoured.
• Glamoured cap-only sacred troops.
• National spell songs turn weak indie N-magi into useful buffers.
• Skilled Fir Bolg troopers offer good value.

Weaknesses:

• Half your troop types are "indie" human caliber.
• Weak PD till you get buffing magic.
• Without paths on your pretender, F/E/D/B/S magic remains elusive/absent.
• Without magic your troops remain under-armored and under-armed for the Age.
• Expensive magi means high-Magic and -Cash scales are necessary to remain competitive.

Eriu really needs to leverage it's magic early on before it's enemies can develope counters. Your troops will struggle vs enemy heavy-troops without magic support.

National Features

Eriu exists as a nation of Sidhe, Fir Bolg, Milesians, and a few Tuatha.

Fortification Build Types

Eriu builds the following fortification types for the listed terrain:

Type	Terrain	Admin	Supply	Time	Cost	Defense
Fortified City	Capital / Farmland	50	1000	5	1200	250
Citadel	Waste	15	150	3	800	100
Motte and Bailey	Plains / Forest	20	200	3	800	100
Swamp Fort	Swamp	0	100	3	800	100
Hill Fortress	Mountain	10	600	5	1200	150

Economically speaking, Eiru can best improve it's gold income by building on farmland terrain. The high Admin of fortified cities both increases gold revenue in the province as well as brings in production from surrounding lands. This extra gold income will generally pay for itself within 2 years under positive scales.

Units

Eriu has a somewhat bewildering array of troop types.

Unit Comparison

Eriu, Last of the Tuatha

Name	Gold	Resources	HP	Pro	Mor	MR	Enc	Str	Atk	Def	Prc	Mv
Milesian Slinger	7	2	10	6	7	11	4	10	8	8	10	1/12
Milesian Spearman	10	9	10	9	10	11	4	10	10	13	10	2/11
Milesian Longspear	10	13	10	11	10	11	5	10	10	11	10	1/10
Milesian Swordsman	10	18	10	13	10	11	5	10	10	13	10	1/10
Fir Bolg Slinger	11	2	13	4	10	13	4	11	10	11	12	2/13
Fir Bolg (Axe)	13	9	13	7	11	13	5	11	12	14	12	2/11
Fir Bolg (Javelin)	13	10	13	7	11	13	5	11	12	15	12	2/11
Daoine Sidhe	35	12	13	10	12	14	5	12	12	15	12	2/11

Milesians

The Milesians conquered the land of the Tuatha together with the men of Man. They became rulers of the Tuathan heartland and renamed it Eriu, allowing the remaining Fir Bolg warriors to live and intermarried with them. Now most Milesians have some Fir Bolg blood in their veins, thus Milesians live slightly longer than ordinary humans and are somewhat resistant to magic. With the awakening of the God, the Milesians have found themselves replaced as rulers by mighty Sidhe Lords emerging from magical mounds.

Let's face it, back-story aside, the Milesians are none other than generic Indies. That's right, a large selection of your national troops are INDIES! And not even the semi-useful tribal kind! Without spell support, these guys are toast. The only reason Eriu should get excited about having indies in their troop lineup is because after building fortified cities everywhere (see below) which soak up all the available resources from surrounding provinces, there will be no more recruitable indies outside of your forts.

So now that we are done bitching about it, let's try and figure out how to integrate them into our national strategy. Across the board, the major thing the Milesians have going for them is that some wear iron armor that grants a 3-4 point boost in protection over their Fir Bolg counterparts. This does not make them heavy troops by any means, just better armored medium/light troops. That and they are cheaper. So if you need quantity over quality, these are your men.

Milesian Slinger

Gold 7, Resources 2

Your least expensive unit. You can hire and maintain almost 60% more Milesian slingers for the same cash as Fir Bolg slingers. But Milesians have less accuracy and less hp. Still, concentrated massed missile fire proves quite effective, so these guys might just have what it takes to be useful. However, they have MM-1, which means you need to recruit and mass them right under your enemy's nose to keep them relevant. They work well pushing steadily into enemy-held territory and boost your numbers for quick sieges.

Milesian Spearman

Gold 10, Resources 9

You can hire and maintain 30% more Milesian spearmen than you can Fir Bolg axemen/javelineers (but it will also require 30% more resources to do so)! A big upside is MM-2, so they share the same mobility as your Fir Bolg. Both their armor and defense are standard for medium infantry, making them acceptable if expendable meatshield blockers, since their spears hardly penetrate some of the enemy's heavy armors encountered in this Age.

Milesian Longspears

Gold 10, Resources 13

Even within the Milesian lineup, these guys are niche troops, useful mostly vs low-morale enemies to get them to rout by repelling them with long spears (length-5). Their MM-1 is a deal-breaker in most cases, unless you can keep them right up in the thick of the war. Although 30% cheaper than Fir Bolg warriors, they require 30% more resources per soldier to train, hence a total of 70% more production needed for a like-cost gold expenditure of longspears vs Fir Bolgs (ex: ~100 gold spent on longspears will get you 10 soldiers for 130 production, or 7 Fir Bolg for 70 production).

Milesian Swordsman

Gold 10, Resources 18

Your best armored medium-unit (Eriu has no proper heavy-troops in the MA), also the most production-intense. Their protection is almost twice that of their Fir Bolg brethren, and the sword is a good weapon (somewhat equalized in comparison by the fact that Fir Bolg are stronger). The real deal breaker is MM-1, making them hard to concentrate quickly. Perhaps most useful in the early game for back-to-back conquests before evocations and AN/AP weapons widely come into play.

Fir Bolg

The warrior race known as Fir Bolg once inhabited the realms now known as Eriu and Man. With the coming of man, the Tuatha withdrew from the world and most of the Fir Bolg were slain. Fir Bolg use ancient armaments made from bronze and leather.

These are the same Fir Bolg troops as EA's Tir na n'Og. All Fir Bolg are MM-2 light infantry. In most respects the question of recruiting Fir Bolg vs Milesian toops is a quality vs quantity judgement call. Though skilled warriors, in the MA, Fir Bolg are now most definitely under-armored and without magic support struggle against other nation's heaviest troops.

Fir Bolg Slinger

Gold 11, Resources 2

Man-for-man superior to Indie slingers, you can nonetheless hire and maintain more Milesians than you can Fir Bolgs for the same gold. For a mobile offense/defense Fir Bolg are however clearly the better choice.

Fir Bolg (Axeman)

Gold 13, Resources 9

It is their excellent combat stats and MR that keep these guys relevant in the MA. Still, you are going to want to bump up their armor using magic and once you have the earth-boosters research spells like Strength of Giants and Destruction so they get the upper hand vs heavy troops.

Fir Bolg (Javelineer)

Gold 13, Resources 10

Ditto

Daoine Sidhe

Gold 35, Resources 12

The Daoine Sidhe are descendants of the Tuatha. With the defeat of the Tuatha, the Sidhe retreated into strange and magical lands. The entrances into these faery realms were often hidden in the mounds of ancient kings. With the coming of the new God, the Sidhe have returned from their seclusion to rule the human population. Daoine Sidhe despise iron and instead fight with ancient armaments of bronze and leather. They are masters of glamour and illusion and can hide their true appearance.

These are your only stealthy sacred national troops in this Age. Although cap-only, your capital has high administration, so if it borders on forests or mountains, you should be able to recruit as many of these as your Dominion strength allows. Though slightly better armored than are Fir Bolg, even with glamour the Daoine Sidhe still beg for a bless to justify their higher recruit cost. Their spear is woefully inadequate in the MA vs heavy armors, so increasing their damage output through a bless or magic should be a priority.

Possible stealth tactics:

• Enemy never knows where your main army is located.
• Clandestinely reinforce or evacuate besieged fortresses.
• Attack non-bordering nations by sneaking through neutral lands.
• Behind-the-lines raiding to cut off enemy retreat routes and pillage for economic gain.

Provincial Defence

Your PD is primarily composed of Milesian troops who very much resemble and fight like early-game independents. The first 10 PD gets you 2xPD slingers and a Milesian Champion commander, the next 10 adds 1xPD swordsmen and a Sidhe Champion, and after that each additional PD adds a further 1xPD longspears and Fir Bolg warriors. This mix proves surprisingly ineffective possibly because in the Middle-Age enemy armors are heavier, but also because the slingers tend to start in the way and prevent the swordsmen from massing properly, .

In any case, because your PD is essentially comprised of "indie"-equivalent lackies, most nations will be able to easily overrun even PD=20 or higher with just their normal early-game expansion forces. Even the various random-invasion events (barbarians, vinemen, knights, etc.) under Misfortune scales succeed with alarming frequency. For effective PD you'll need to buff them with magic. That generally means Nature buffs in the early game, Earth in the mid game, and Air in the late game.

Commanders

The Tuatha are the ancient masters of Tir na n'Og and Avalon. When men came to their lands, they retreated to the Land of the Ever Young and were lost to the world. A few of them lingered on and aided the retreat of their Sidhe descendants into strange and magical twilight lands hidden under ancient mounds. With the coming of the new God, a few of them have returned from their seclusion together with their Sidhe descendants. The Tuatha are powerful Air mages and can use glamour and illusions to hide their true appearance.

Recruit Anywhere

Milesian Scout

Gold 20, Resources 3

An Indy scout with +1 MR.

Milesian Monk

Gold 30, Resources 1

An inexpensive H1 priest with horrible combat stats but great MR.

Milesian Champion

Gold 30, Resources 22

Cheaper than the standard leadership-40 Indy commander, with +1 MR.

Fir Bolg Champion

Gold 45, Resources 12

Another inexpensive leadership-40 commander, but one whose combat stats are worthy of thuggery.

Sidhe Champion

Gold 140, Resources 19

Eriu's bread-and-butter research mage in the MA. His combat stats are worthy and he can self-buff an impressive amount of magical protections. Deploy him with a Tuatha once you have unlocked Storm (Evoc-5) to leverage his full potential.

Sidhe Lord

Gold 280, Resources 16

The backbone of Eriu's aggressive posture. Great for raiding enemy PD or supporting your armies by casting evocations in battle. Once you have researched Storm (Evoc-5), they can self buff to A3 and spam-cast Thunderstrikes while your N1 indy chaff magi keep them reinvigorated with Spell Songs.

Capital-Only

Bean Sidhe

Gold 220, Resources 1

A key part of Eriu's battlefield magic diversity, offering Water and Earth magic at good value. Under drain scales, she will be your best researcher, though the recruit-everywhere Sidhe Champion is a (thankfully) slightly more cost effective researcher under magic scales.

• A2W1N1: The A2 random doesn't bring (any) direct magic synergy with W or N, but she can offer the same evocations spell support of a Sidhe Lord while battling unaffected in the cold.
• A1W2N1: Out of the box, she offers easy access to Rain (Evoc), Winter Ward (Ench) Quickness, Numbness and Quickening (all Alteration school; Numbness bypasses MR), and might even get you into the sea (Friendly Currents) if no underwater nations are around. With water boosters (Const-6), a W4 Bean Sidhe can cast all sorts of nastiness one doesn't expect from Eriu (Quagmire, Grip of Winter, Sailor's Death, Curse of the Dessert, Freezing Mist, Falling Frost, Encase in Ice, etc). Give her a Thistlemace and she can add Bonemelter to the list. In the conjuration school, with boosters she can summon Contact Naiad and Naiad Warriors, plus Shark Attack while underwater. With a single empowerment (45 W gems), she can even summon the elemental Water Queens or start casting globals herself.
• A1W1N2: She will be your forge smith for most of the useful N-items unlocked at Const-4. Give her a Thistlemace and she can cast all sorts of useful battle buffs (Haste, Berserkers, Wooden Warriors, Mass Protection, Healing Mist, etc) as well as some interesting de-buffs (Charm, Creeping Doom, Polymorph, Stream of Life). She will be your primary means to both employ and protect against poison magic (Poison Ward, Poison Cloud, Breath of the Dragon, Foul Vapours, etc).
• A1W1N1E1: Your E1-random Bean Sidhe can cast Armor of Achilles (Alt-2) from very early on, which might prove necessary should Eriu's spear-wielders need to scrap with heavy armored troops (rather likely in fact). If you can somehow gain a small income in E gems and mass-produce earth boots (ie. through Pretender magic picks or an unlikely E2 Tuatha random), Bean Sidhe can cast Rust Mist (Evoc-2) as well as introduce E3 Earth magic to the battlefield (Summon Earthpower, Strength of Giants, Legions of Steel, Destruction, Bladewind, etc). Furthermore, forge her a Water Bracelet (Const-6) to bring her up to A1W2N1E2 and she can cast Fire Ward (Ench-4) to buff your bark-skinned troops.

Tuatha

Gold 390, Resources 22, Sacred, Stealthy, Glamour, Forest Survival, Supply Bonus, Darkvision 50

MA-Eriu counts upon the Tuatha to deliver its most powerful battlefield-wide enchantments and deadly evocations. Mist, Thunder Strike, Storm, Wrathful Skies (all Evoc), Fog Warriors (Alt), Arrow Fend, Mass Flight, Storm Warriors (Ench), Confusion (Thaum) all can be cast by Tuatha using boosters.

There is a 10% chance any Tuatha might have a second random path. But rather than count on those rare few to hang a strategy on, we will simply note that there is a 1:40 chance you might get lucky and see a A5N2H2, A3N4H2 or A3N2E2H2, and each of those might unlock a side strategy. Instead let's look at the far more common paths:

• A4N2H2:
• A3N3H2:
• A3N2W1H2:
• A3N2E1H2:

Heroes

Tuan the Last Partholonian

A2W1D4 Sacred, Immortal, Stealthy, Glamour, Darkvision 50.

Ferdiad, Fir Bolg Hero

Cu Chulainn the Hero

Awe +2, FR 100%, Trample, Fire Shield, Berserker; HP 16, Prot 14 MR 16 Enc 3 Str 13 Att 15 Def 24 Prc 13 Mv 3/16 Ldr 80. Cu Chulainn is the greatest hero of the realm. He is not of Sidhe origin, but has divine blood in his veins. His deeds are too numerous to count and his battle prowess is unequaled. His divine heritage has blessed him with a fiery aura that melts ice and makes water hiss and steam, should he take a bath. Those who oppose him are struck with awe and fear of his flaming battle fury. He was trained by the warrior woman Scathach on her hidden isle. There he met his friend Ferdiad, whom Scathach prophesied he would kill. From Scathach Cu Chulainn received the enchanted spear Gae Bulga, made from the bones of an asp turtle, after he defeated and raped her enemy Aoife.

Gae Buga (magic javelin): Dam 10, Range = Str, Ammo 1, on Hit: Harpooning

Scathach, Trainer of Heroes

A3D2 Sacred, Female, Flying, Stealthy; HP 14 Prot 11 MR 17 Enc 5 Str 12 Att 15 Def 20 Prc 18 Mv 3/12 Ldr 80. Scathach is a warrior sorceress, a descendant of the Morrigans. On her hidden isle of dread mists she initiates young heroes in the art of war and lovemaking. Scathach has the martial skills of a Morrigan and sorcerous powers of the Partholonians. She has prophetic powers and has divined the eventual demise of her every student. She wears a raven cloak wich allows her to fly and wields a horrible spear of the Morrigans.

Spear of the Morrigan: Dam 6 (life draining), on Hit: Decay (MR negates)

Fianna

Sacred, Standard (15): HP 22 Prot 15 MR 14 Enc 6 Str 15 Att 14 Def 16 Prc 12 Mv 2/10 Ldr 120. It was long since the last Fomorian left the land of Eriu, but their legacy still remains. Every now and then a baby is born with Fomorian blood in his veins. They are destined to become heroes and are trained to become great warrior poets. They join the band of the Fianna and are respected throughout Eriu.

Armed with broadsword and javelin and wearing heavy iron armor, Fianna make great candidates for thuggery and can appear at the gates multiple times in the same game (unless you take Misfortune 3).

National Spells

Eriu starts the game with Spellsong knowledge:

• Soothing Song
• Healing Song
• Song of Bravery

Used correctly, these are powerful N1 spells that help reinvigorate and heal nearby troops/commanders (the next best thing to boosting magic through a communion). But unfortunately your unscripted national magi don't like to cast them! So Eriu ABSOLUTELY NEEDS to find some N1 indie druids/shaman who can offer reliable spellsong support to your covens of Sidhe and Tuatha casters in battle.

National Summons

Contact Cu Sidhe (Conj-3 N2)

10N Gems summons 7 hounds.

Cu Sidhe are stealthy fay hounds the size of a horse (Size-3) possessing partial darkvision-50 and forest survival from the Land of the Ever Young. They are sacred and can be blessed.

Although Eriu has plenty of other uses for their N-gems, Cu Sidhe can be effective under a decent bless, since they can be summoned at any lab, even during sieges.

Strategies

Forging

With site-searching, you'll have the gems for most of your Air- and Nature-item needs. With a little luck, you'll likely even have a small income in Water, Earth or even (if your heroes Lugh or Scathatch appear) Death gems. Your Sidhe and Tuatha commanders have default magic weapons and respectable combat stats and spells, so any items are mostly to enhance this.

Earth

• As always, a Dwarven Hammer is quite useful to save on forging-costs. But without taking some E on your Pretender it is likely going to cost 55 E-gems just to get one (empower 1E mage to 2E, forge Earth Boots, then forge a Hammer). Since many of the items you want to forge cost 10-25 gems or more, getting a hammer early means big gem savings. Once you can produce them cheaply, Earth Boots for your E-random Bean Sidhe brings much needed E-magic to the fight, or alternatively empower in Blood to E2B3 and forge Bloodstones to save on precious E gems. Gate Cleaver is a useful way to enable stealthy cloud-trapezing Sidhe Lords to besiege and capture enemy fortresses without an army.

Air

• Sidhe/Tuatha magi are expensive, so Owl Quills might offer a competitive research solution. Using gems to boost in battle, an A4 Tuatha can fulfil its primary role without any boosters (ie. cast Storm, Fog Warriors, Arrow Fend, etc). But as you strive for gem-efficiency and high-end casting, Staff of Storms, Winged Helmet and Bag of Air are all useful. Winged Shoes grant lesser commanders the same strategic mobility as your Sidhe Lords/Tuatha. Chainmail of Displacement bestows a glamour to any thug/SC who doesn't already have one.

Nature

• Vine Shield is great for outfitting thugs - once your high-defense mist-formed Sidhe entangle their foes in twisting vines, they become almost impossible to kill by normal means. Amulet of Resilience for casters, though spamming spell songs also fulfils this role. Thistle Mace to boost any Tuatha wanting to cast battlefield-wide N buffs.

Water

• Frost Brand for thugs, Water Bracelets and Robe of the Sea for casters, Bottle of Living Water for everyone.

Death

• Though it would probably be wise to save these gems for nasty globals or end-game summons, the Black Bow of Botulf, Visions Foe and Banefire Crossbow are all useful AN ranged attacks. Also, Skull Mentors to keep our research competitive.

Scale Design

MA-Eriu wants Order and Luck to unlock it's nice lineup of national heroes, plus with our lack-luster PD, this suppresses the likelihood of Indy invasion events too. Our only option for a recruit-anywhere researcher is the Sidhe Champion, who only brings a meagre 4 research for 140 gold cost. So taking magic scales to boost our pricey research output is prudent, whereas Drain scales might prove crippling (e.g. friendly provinces under enemy dominion could have scales more beneficial to research).

MA-Eriu uses primarily Nature magic to boost the quality of it's troop's armor (Barkskin, Protection, Wooden Warriors, etc). This leaves them susceptible to fire and nations that use such magic. Bean Sidhe do have the means to partially counter fire magic (Evoc-2 Rain). Another possibility to consider would be to take Cold scales to suppress/discourage the use of fire. In practice, fighting in such cold provinces will also negatively affect our own units by inducing fatigue, but Nature also offers possibilities to reinvigorate troops (through Ench-6 Relief, and item forging) and bestow some cold resistance (Alt-4 Elemental Fortitude). Water magic also offers solutions for operating in cold provinces (Alt-1 Cold Resistance, Ench-5 Winter Ward, item forging). Food for thought.

Fir Bolg troops don't need much in the way of resources, and you can build Admin-50 cities to act as recruitment centers, drawing resources from surrounding lands. So Sloth is a fairly painless way to balance the scales.

Magic Scales

Order 1 Sloth 3 Luck 1 Magic 1

The minimum balanced scales Eriu should consider. Look to add some Growth or more Magic if you have the design points to spare.

Drain Scales

Order 1 Sloth 3 Growth 3 Luck 1 Drain 2

This configuration also represents balanced scales. For this strategy, the cap-only Bean Sidhe will be our primary researchers until we look to set up a border province where enemy dominion leaches into our own lands, thereby establishing a Magic Scale. Our researchers can then carry on there without the Drain penalty. The benefits of doing this (other than keeping balanced scales while maxing Growth) is to get the MR boost from drain in our own lands, which improves Eriu's resistance to enemy magic even further.

Pretender Design

Dormant Great Mother, E9 N6

w/ Magic Scales: Order 1 Sloth 3 Luck 1 Magic 1, Dom 4 (or take N4 and buy Growth and/or Dom).

w/ Drain Scales: Order 1 Sloth 3 Growth 3 Luck 1 Drain 2, Dom 4

Great Mother's bless bestows both armor, reinvig and regeneration on our sacred Sidhe troops and combat magi. This doesn't make them elite, rather upgrades them to a much-needed 'average' armor-status commensurate of the Age while functionally having very low encumbrance. Easily reachable battle magic (Barkskin, Protection, etc) can further boost this armor to a respectable 20+. Nature-6 grants 'normal' troops 2 hp/round regeneration, which combos well with their high defense-skill stats. Once awake, Great Mother can spam Earthquakes, and enables easy access to dwarven hammers and other Earth items otherwise much harder to reach, and the E/N Globals. You should probably look to bootstrap into Blood magic for the late/endgame.

Imprisoned Crone, F4 W4 E4 D4 N4 B4

Expansion

Use Fir Bolg for expansion; warrior-axemen vs heavier troops and warrior-spearmen vs light troops. Milesians are pretty much worthless as anything other than decoys to kite enemies or draw-arrow fire while your Fir Bolg close in to do the killing. With the right bless, you CAN use Daoine Sidhe for expansion, but 1 Sidhe costs the same price as 3 Fir Bolg, and numbers mean a lot in the early game.

Use the cap-only Bean Sidhe to keep you apace in the early research race, as she doesn't vie for the precious resources needed to hire troops. Once you've secured the lands surrounding your capital and bumped up local available resources, you can switch over to the less-expensive but resource-hungry Sidhe Champion.

MA-Eriu strategy is more "commander-reliant" than most nations, so you'll need lots of gold. You really need to expand early into rich farmlands for that extra gold income.

Research Order

Year 1 If you've taken the right bless, your Sidhe Lords and Champions might already be quite deadly from day 1. However consider also:

• Conj-1 for Tangle Vines. This is a very useful spell that can help turn tough Indies into easy pushovers.
• Alt-1 for Aim / Eagle Eyes and Barkskin. Avoids friendly fire with Tangle Vines and later evocations (Aim and Eagle Eyes do not stack).
• Evoc-2 for Shocking Grasp, Shockwave and Lightning Bolt. Combined with Resist Lightning from Alt-1, this grants all our magi basic damage spells in an emergency.
• Alt-3 for Mistform / Protection, picking up Mirror Image along the way. This makes all your warrior-magi now combat-capable to self-buff, then engage in melee or hang back and cast support spells/songs.
• Ench-1 for Flight. Self-buffed flying Sidhe Champions and Lords... what's not to like?

Years 2-3 Situationally it is a toss-up what to go for next:

• Alt-5 for Elemental Fortitude, Wind Guide, Wooden Warriors and the global Mother Oak. A good reason to take a sleeping pretender with N5.
• Evoc-5 for Mist, Thunderstrike, Orb Lightning and Storm (plus Earthquake). If you are being seriously threatened, these spells up the killing-power of all your magi greatly, but you will need an A4 Tuatha to benefit. Earthquake of course only possible at this point if you have taken E5+ on your pretender.
• Ench-5 for Seeking Arrow, Cloud Trapeze, Haste, Thunder Ward and Gift of Health. Useful spells for strategic assassinations or if you are fighting another Air-magic nation, plus the "other" early Nature global.
• Constr-4 unlocks Dwarven Hammer (if you have a pretender who can forge it) the Eye/Vine Shields, Amulet of Resilience and Frost Brand for thugging-out your Sidhe Lords, plus the Thistlemace, Earthboots, Bag of Wind and Air Helmet boosters.
• Conj-4 for Cu-Sidhe, Spirits of the Wood and Spring Hawk summons, not to mention Lesser Air Elementals should you be needing help in battle. If you are forging boosters, you might be able to benefit from Summon Earthpower (unlocking a host of useful E-based battlefield magic in the process) and Strength of Gaia as well.