Tricks and Combo's

[Zechnophobe]

One more that I think everyone should try:

Target + Time Back

On the first turn of the game, fly or throw out some big stack.. Demons, griffons etc for damage, or just like red/green dragons for tankness. Get them up close to the enemy, then cast target on them.

This will absorb most or all damage from the opposing army for two full turns. At the end of the second turn, cast time back to resurrect all lost units in that big stack. Works on any unit in the game (That will survive!) except black dragons.

Note that target forces units to make their STANDARD attack if they can. This means hyena's will not crit boost themselves, shamans will not use magic axes, and bowmen will use only normal arrows. It effects undead, and units immune to mind effecting spells too!

Great, especially with green dragons that can do an AoE attack to recoup the mana lost to Time Back.

[Elwin]

Well .. its not that awesome. Alchemists ignore that completly. At least in legend they did

[Zechnophobe]

Hmm, haven't fought any meaningful alchemist stacks with it, so I do not know for certain. But pretty much everything else rolls over to it.

There ARE some AI changes between TL and AP though.

[lauvhk]

Just stand 3 hexes (or less) in front of the alchemist stack and it will use acid spray attack. Don't worry if some other stack block the alchemist since acid spray attack deals damage to all. Also make sure Shaman and Imp (or anything else) can pursue standard attack. Otherwise it will bring on their special attack.

[RYTEDR]

Try to use Necro Call on stacks that will yield you a good bit of ghosts. These summoned ghosts ignore leadership requirements. Build them up all you want and they will remain on your side. It is very easy to get a very threatening, game-breaking stack of ghosts if planned correctly, especially in late game: the numbers they spawn when they hit become outrageous, especially if they land a lot of crits. A lot of times you'll spawn more ghosts than lose if you're careful. Using this I can usually conjure myself up a tank that replenishes itself and becomes stronger and stronger as the battle goes on.

A lot of animals summon ghosts when you use Necro Call on them, so I typically use level 1 Call of Nature (or higher depending on how strong the enemy is and if I can risk raising less ghosts in the beginning), send them out on a suicidal run, then use their corpse to summon my ghosts.

EDIT: Level 1 Call of Nature is great because hyenas and wolves can summon from them, which are guaranteed ghost stacks. Unicorns and black unicorns (and also bears. All bears summon ghosts as well) are great if you want cursed ghosts, but you'll have to sacrifice the rather large amount of mana for the offchance that you might accidentally summon a useless stack (like dragonflies).

[Zechnophobe]

So, having looked through the dragon experience system some more, I now believe that phantom/inquisitor/Accelerator is the best way to get dragon xp.

Setup: Use an efficient army to fight down an opposing one, leaving them with something like a single decently sized stack of slow moving units, such as bears.

Steps:

1. Save up some rage so you have it ready to use. Your army needs to be about the size of the remaining stack (in leadership) and should include at least one stack of inquisitors.

2. Cast level 1 phantom on your inquisitors (15 mana)

3. Use phantomed stacks rage generating ability to generate 3 to 10 rage (average of 6.5) DO this three times over the life of the phantom'd stack for an average of 19.5 rage (min 9, max 30)

4. With your average of 19.5 rage, cast mana accelerator on each turn to move your 'real' stack of inquisitors far away from slow enemy stack. You also get back enough mana for another phantom.

This is an ALMOST infinite source of rage experience. Also, dragon level is only taken into account for rage abilities that do damage, so you can go to town on this one. This is ridiculously tedious, but amusingly effective.

Another, more reasonable way to generate dragon xp, is with the Mysic Egg ability. The units it summons will generate rage when they die, giving you the opportunity and rage... to cast more Mystic eggs! however, this only lasts until turn 20, when you stop gaining mana and rage from standard sources.