Any preferred races to hold sway over? I must say, even though they drop like flies, playing as that monkeyrace (early Kailathasa or whatever it's called) is quite enjoyable. Somehow, fielding massive armies of chittering and screeching monkeys to throw small pebbles at the enemy before they all get slaughtered by three guys who happened to put on armor that day is just one of those entertaining things.
Now, back to Dom1. Only demo with Ermor in it, and I must say, I do so love Mr. Big Daddy of cheap shot races.
Beefing up a lich (gotta love immortality) with the points gained from having 3 cold, 3 sloth, 3 death, 3 turmoil and 2 drain is quite fun. After slapping the rest of the points on 3 luck, maxed-out dominion strength and the bigger fort type, I've still got plenty of points left to beef up the death magery of ol' lichy-boy, as well as expand into other fields with the liche's admittedly rigid magic plan.
Wait a couple turns to get some goons for the front line, raise a mage to help with summoning, and then switch my leader over to research while the minion summons priests and more mages.
Whenever I take over a province, I start looting it for as much gold as I can squeeze out of it, which also helps pull down the population. I use that gold for building a temple in each and every province I can get my slimy, rotten hands on.
After a while, I have a massive wasteland where more cheap soldiers rise up by the hundreds on a regular basis. Soon, I have the ability to field multiple armies that are each 20,000 strong, and the mages I have spread out and around are constantly busy summoning stronger troop types, forging items for my lieutenants, and researching all the paths of magic. A favorite technique is to summon a shadowy servant, give him a bane charm, and then tell him to go for a walk behind enemy lines. If he doesn't get rooted out, the land dies and the people become diseased. If he does end up killed, they now have a lovely death-inducing charm on their hands, as well as one officer who has instantly become diseased for picking it up. It's just my way of assassinating people; the slow and painful way.
Spread dominion, conquer territory, pillage territory, build temple, repeat. Even I can't mess up playing as Ermor, but I suppose everyone says that.