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[ljubishan]

13 life books (???), there are 11 picks on start, the other two you probably got wining some lairs and nodes. Anyway the reason is to get the spell cast discount (40% with 11 books), but if you pick Myrran you use 3 picks so choosing 8 books (any same type) can get you only 10% discount. That’s why I pick Warlord, and different type of books to get wide range of spells to use.

My opinion is that the key for wining when starting in myrror plane is to eliminate competition in myrror as soon as possible because they grow quickly.

I usually use draconian race to explore with swordsman and spearman. Surveyor (F1 key – that gives info about terrain) can direct scouts to a nearby city (city can be in unexplored area, searching the borders of the explored area with surveyor will tell you if there is a city three squares away). Doom drakes aren’t so bad and they need only stables to build.
Find the enemy’s capitol city. Win it... and the rest is much easier.

Also, finding a dwarwen city would be useful. Dwarwen engineers are so efficient in building roads. Two engineers together can build road in one turn on every square except mountains (two turns). Connected cities need fewer units to defend and give mobility to your attacking groups. Also everywhere I see the area rich in minerals (crysx and gems) I send a dwarwen settler. Once I had a 1 pop. dwarwen city with 3 crysx mines... 30 mana production.