Current Impossible Strategy

[Nelphine]

Edit: current build:
4 life, warlord, alchemy, spellweaver, astrologer, tactician, specialist
Also note I find myself using cavalry against lairs/nodes more, and I don't worry about killing AI quite as fast. Getting amazing army strength virtually guarantees you control war declarations, so you can build until you have a stack capable of killing the next AI.

Original post: My current game is impossible.

4 opponents, huge land size, max power, fair minerals, fair climate. I'd probably do better with poor minerals.

4 life (endurance + very rares, but I'd consider switching to 2 life + channeler. However just cause and heroism are very strong off the bat so I'm not sure, and 7% gold is great later on. The main thing channeler would let me do is.. More skill and research, but less books means I wouldn't need as much of either.)
4 death (wraithform!!! Skeletons for unrest because food is a huge issue. And very rares because I love me some demon lords. And production production production. So good. I wish I could get 2 more death books.)

Warlord (because war college + warlord = +1 HP on all units.)
Alchemy (magic weapons for your first stack, super super super important, and alchemy later in the game is practically mandatory. I spent years with less than 200 mana and gold combined, so I would constantly switch to whichever I needed.)
Omniscient: production for that first stack is crucial. Helps later on, and extra gold from life is always good.

Barbarian.
Game plan: foresters guild for food, then stables, then 9 cavalry. Then marketplace -> granary -> farmers market -> ship wright -> ship yard -> maritime guild -> warship (endurance and wraithform) -> barracks -> war college -> fighters guild -> bezerkers forever more (with occasional extra warships).
The plan is to defeat the first AI you meet, before you even start building bezerkers. You should pick up some nodes and lairs on the way. You probably need to replace cavalry a few times, but as long as you defeat the first AI, cavalry did their job. You'll get extra cities too, but *shrug* they take forever to get online.

The second AI is far more helpful. Still can't stop 8 elite magic weapon bezerkers, but he has some nicely developed cities.

Third AI is causing problems by now (1404-1406) so you mess around with them until you get your second stack of bezerkers, which they can't beat. Probably can't defeat them for a long while though, they simply expand too fast. I defeated the third AI in 1408 or early 1409. 

The fourth AI... Will depend on how the game went. Do whatever you need. You should have most of arcanus under your control, although, you may have let the fourth AI get a foothold. Try to get cities on myrror, if you can, just one on his main continent. That way he's got something to focus on while you clean up arcanus. I used a planar travel hero super early to take some neutral cities, and get started on building adamantium beastman buffed halberdiers. That let me have a few nodes on myrror as the war broke out against the myrran AI. Myrran nodes are amazing.

I banished the fourth AI, for the first time, in 1410. At the time, he probably had a little over a thousand power production, efreets, other rares - fire storm was used against me at least once per turn starting in the middle of the war with the third AI (around 1407). By the time he was banished I already had life force cast, and during the first banish, I finished crusade. I'm researching demon lord and eternal night. With life force, and including city research, I'm up to about 2200 power production. I found crusade in treasure, and I think I found inspirations.

[Nelphine]

Defeated myrran wizard in 1412. Had all 30 nodes, 34 cities on arcanus, and 31 cities on myrror. Hadn't finished researching my spells (2 very rares and 4 rares left). Picked up one more chaos book and charismatic (total picks at end of game: 15). Still never made a settler.

[Nelphine]

Running this again. Nearby lairs and nodes are on the hard end and the closest neutral was like population 11 with 9 higher end units by the time I got there. Still won, but had to redo my cavalry stack. I'm afraid this will put me behind - I expect the third AI will probably be too strong to easily contain, so either the third or the fourth AI will be ... A very bad war.

[Nelphine]

First two AI declared war at the same time, just before my bezerkers were finished. Cavalry did the job of spiking the first citadel, but won't be able to help much otherwise. But they cleared 3 nodes as well. I have a gnoll city producing jackal riders (with coal om nom nom) and a high men city producing pikemen. Not as good as bexerkers, but solid nonetheless. I should at least get more armies faster, so I MIGHT be able to pin the third arcanus AI down fast enough. My army strength is 50% higher than the two I'm at war with, so I don't feel particularly worried.

[Nelphine]

The third arcanus AI was pinned behind a sorcery node. He had 6 cities, and had been at war with both other arcanus wizards.

The second wizard got aether binding and spell blast before I could seriously lay into him. Every round without fail, spell blast - apparently skeletons, wraith form, heroism, and heavenly light are all terrifying spells - of course he didn't have detect magic, so he was actually casting it at random. Maniacal with cockatrices and great lizards, and spell blast every single turn. Gah.

But its 1408 now, and I have 31 cities on arcanus. I'm about to break towers, sending through a warship and a full stack of buffed bezerkers/jackal riders through all 6 towers simultaneously (assuming I can break all 6. But if I can't, the AI probably can't either.)

[Nelphine]

June 1408. First tower I broke was adjacent to the Myrran AI fortress. It was a weak tower. My squad came through at virtually full health, and crushed the Citadel immediately. AI doesn't even have a chance to do anything, even if he wanted to. As of 1406, he had been weaker than the second arcanus AI anyway, so no real threat to me.

Yes, there are still cities on Arcanus, from 2 different AI, that I haven't taken yet; yes there are still nodes and towers and lairs to explore; yes, the Myrran AI technically has most of his empire still to fight me. But, with our first contact being banishment, I'm not overly concerned, and with 5 other stacks that will start rampaging through Myrror in the next turn, as well as the one that conquered his fortress.... It appears Great Lizards are his best summon, and he's nature heavy. So I don't expect any surprises.

I conclude this game is a win.

[Nelphine]

As a note:

This is effectively the 'sprite' tactic, but not using sprites. Seravy, I agree with you, and apologize for not seeing this sooner. Sprites were never the problem. Simply going crazy as fast as possible on the offense is the problem. Sprites with flight are one thing. Barbarian Cavalry + Bezerkers being flown by wraithform warships are another. (But that takes a long time to build! no. It doesn't. Alchemy + cavalry taking early lairs = enough gold to buy up to a warship immediately, and usually a war college + fighters guild as well.) The AI relies on vast armies to be a threat, and literally every turn counts. My 'normal' game play, wouldn't see me with real armies until at least 1404, which is plenty of time for the AI to get something to defend with. This game play has me not just attacking, but also completely defeating an AI, on impossible, by 1403. Which just rolls over and over onto the next AI.

[coldsteel]

installing 4.01 then changing first setting to 'impossible' then playing (all 'fair' defaults):  1st stack of barbarian cavalry goes offshore to meet wall of fire capital AI and blessing the whole stack would take into 1403s so no good - the 2nd and only arcanus AI has defense 11 klackons with guardian tactician life etc - the human can't beat any capitals this game before 1403.  however, think i'll try 4.01 with 6l + 2s (floating islands) and horsebows and whittle away the easy AI cities, i think one eventually runs into a wall where griffins and indeed all troops even paladins lose, but i forget.  7 nature books with the above 'default' setup gets outrun by the AI as well

[Nelphine]

I've actually decided its not important to completely defeat the AI. Take every one of his cities except the fortress. That way you avoid the hardest fight, and you can still abuse his settler production to get new cities.

Using huge land definitely helps the cavalry find good targets - you really want to avoid any transportation except for wraithform warships.

My current game I focused entirely on getting nodes/lairs, which got me bezerkers faster than usual.

[GermanJoey]

How important are the Warships vs just using Wraithform Triremes? Is the Warship itself very useful in combat?

Do you find unit-cursing to be a problem? I imagine a wizard w/ possession (or even just confusion or black sleep or shatter) would be a nightmare to deal with, even w/ bless.