New to the game (hoping for tips)

I've started playing the game with two of my roommates. As a general rule we've found it to be quite fun and enjoyed the game a lot so far. A couple of things did seem somewhat unbalanced, but I'm told this is the final version, so there's no point expecting any change there. Instead I was hoping for some tips on how to play certain of the teams I've enjoyed playing so far. The evil lizard men for one (Cualli) I've always found the hero is rather hard to get due to his requirements from two different tech trees. Meaning I often don't get him till rather late in, but spend most of my time trying to protect him from harm due to that large investment. Any tips on how to use the Doviello would be much appreciated as well. One of my two room mates tends to play only them, but doesn't really know how to do anything other than spit out bear riders and either wins or fails on the first charge. Finally, an idea on how to cope with starting next to the clan of embers. They tend to just use world spell and get 40-50 barbs. One of my room mates did this to the other one 20 turns in and just devastated him.

The Cualli hero is very hard to get but unlike many other races, they have relative impunity in doing so because attacking them really, really, really sucks. Shadow Priests are solid "screw off" units and their skirmish archers are infuriating. Rely on those and the massive advantage your home territory provides.

Doviello can swarm very efficiently under the Baron - a werewolf army can be exceedingly dangerous early on if you're lucky with it. Otherwise, take advantage of their natural aggression and Lucian to get an early foothold and push out. Sons of Asena with a few animal blood promotions are good business. You won't win the lategame unless you fight for it.

Clan of Embers can straight-up murder almost anyone, unfortunately, it's a design decision I've always hated. Good counters: Elohim (worldspell gives them time towards monks and bastions), Mechanos (dem 3/4 warriors), D'tesh (dem 2/4 disciples), anybody who has an unusually strong defensive start. Average starts won't cut it.

Thanks for the response. I hadn't actually thought of really using Cualli as a defensive team. Something about assassins, evil priests and the whole slave sacrifice thing meant I didn't really see it xD. Thinking about it though it does make perfect sense with the swamp bonuses. I'll make sure to try out archers in my next game rather than using my usual swordsmen to hold people back aggressively while I wait for the hero.

Actually, i prefer Charadon over Baron. Aggressive+Warlord can give a massive advantage in the early conquests - a couple of barbs per Beastman and you have a small group of combat II+shock str 3 guys with bonus to capture cities led by Lucian - more than enough to slaughter almost any neighbor - and your Beasmen gain even more XP, so they are even more dangerous. And with their ability to upgrade anywhere on a map you can go freely to conquer and pillage every single enemy - apart from two:
1) Cualli. They are almost invulnerable in their swamps
2) Archos. You don't want to enter their territory without some rangers. You really don't

Gangrin said:

Actually, i prefer Charadon over Baron. Aggressive+Warlord can give a massive advantage in the early conquests - a couple of barbs per Beastman and you have a small group of combat II+shock str 3 guys with bonus to capture cities led by Lucian - more than enough to slaughter almost any neighbor - and your Beasmen gain even more XP, so they are even more dangerous. And with their ability to upgrade anywhere on a map you can go freely to conquer and pillage every single enemy - apart from two:
1) Cualli. They are almost invulnerable in their swamps
2) Archos. You don't want to enter their territory without some rangers. You really don't

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D'Teshi, also, because their defense isn't Warriors, which denies the 40% Shock bonus - a huge problem for every rush civ. Charadon wins most easily in standard situations, you're right. I was thinking in particular of a Baron game against early Sheiam, where success was dependent on the ability to kill more skeletons per turn than could be produced and farming barbarians to build a pack was essential.