For the Austrin:
1. No Austrin city costs maintenance for its distance to the capital; the only maintenance you will have is from number of cities. This means you can build a far flung empire without it crippling your economy.
2. There is an Austrin-only ritual you can perform, Prepare Expedition. This gives any of your recon units the ability to plop down a settlement wherever the heck you want - no worries about escorting a settler through dangerous territory to the spot you want. I *believe* it is also made without food, so your cities' growth isn't paused while you build it. Once I have recon units strong enough to deal with basic barb threats, I never build settlers anymore.
3. Research Cartography ASAP to build Exploration Guilds and Hunting to get Harmatt, your hero. Seriously, recon unit + adventurer + hero? This guy gets INSANE AWESOME results from lairs. Run around and explore with impunity when most of your rivals would be shying away.
4. Priests of any religion can summon a pegasus, which any of your units can mount and thus gain the ability to fly! Hook your recon units up and they'll be able to explore over mountain ranges and overseas. Combine that with the ability mentioned in #2 and you will be able to build cities in places no one else can get to for a long time.
5. Since your cities will be all over the place, Sailing and Astronomy (the techs that let you
on the coast and
on the ocean) will be valuable to keep your trade routes and resources circulating. If you need that overseas real estate RIGHT NOW, just make sure it's in a position to support itself, particularly with
and
until you can hook it up to the rest of your empire.
6. The Austrin's globetrotting abilities synergize well with a couple of Wildmana's victory conditions:
- Omnipotence - (Turn on "Deadly Wild Mana" and "More Mana" for this one.) Stick a strong guy on a pegasus and have him roam around and pwn Wildmana guardians. The spellbooks will fly back to your capital, where they can hang out until you are ready to use them. Don't forget to try to poach spellbooks from settled areas as well as unsettled ones! Deirdra is an especially strong leader for this, as she is Charismatic.
- Tower of mastery - your ability to easily colonize anywhere means you can mana-grab really effectively. Every one you snatch up is one less you have to dispel to build your towers.
I haven't really played the new leader, or gotten City Swap to work for me, so that's as far as I'll go for now.