I've been trying out some new setups lately and have found this one to be pretty good. I've always liked Nomads, but have found them a bit tricky to really get going with, however this works out pretty well. I use the following starting setup:
Picks:
Alchemy
Warlord
2 Nature books
6 Life books
Life spells:
Endurance
Healing
Holy Armor
Just Cause
Heroism
Nature Spells:
Water Walking
This gives you pretty much all the tools you need to really go off. Generally, you can start with a buildup to Forester's Guild, i.e. all production buildings except Miner's Guild. Of course cast Just Cause ASAP. If you need to get active then you can go for a Stable here and make 3 Horsebowmen to begin raiding. If you can wait, though, then you can go straight for Rangers first to use those instead. It depends on what you find and what hero you get early on, if any.
Generally, though, the early game will consist of making 2 to 4 units of Horsebowmen and/or Rangers, with Heroism on at least one of them, and probably a hero with Heroism on them to go along. You'll want at least one Ranger ASAP even if you start with Horsebowmen.
A problem with Life only is Life doesn't provide support for moving over water. Death has flying summons and Wriathform, Sorcery has Floating Island and Flight, Chaos has flying summons and Chaos Channels. This is where Water Walking comes in for Life. With Water Walking you'll have full mobility to take advantage of the Ranger Pathfinding.
Once you get that first stack of about 4 Horsebowmen/Rangers + hero(s), then you move on to building toward the Fantastic Stable to get Griffins. If you find a good spot to settle on Mithril or Silver (Transmute) it could be worth making a Settler before you start building your Armor's Guild, but if not then I wouldn't bother making Settlers.
The ultimate death stack for this setup is 4 Griffins and 4 Rangers. The Rangers of course get Water Walking and all units get Endurance. Now you've got a stack that can move 6 tiles per turn and is capable of taking on pretty much anything. Holy Armor and Bless as needed. Maybe its best to include a hero with the stack, depending on what you get, or to make a separate sack for all heroes. I also use a lot of stacks early on with heroes plus Griffins or maybe heroes plus 1 Ranger, etc. If you have a melee hero then maybe 3 Griffins and 1 hero plus 4 Rangers, or with a ranged hero then maybe 4 Griffins 4 Rangers and a hero, etc.
Rangers can seem pretty lackluster when you compare them to Slingers or Longbowmen or even Air Ships, but I actually ended up liking them. In the past I would typically only include a single Ranger per stack, but once they are Elite they are pretty effective in sets of 4 or 5. Endurance also works wonders for them on the battlefield as well, which makes up for some of their weakness. With 3 moves they can close the gap fairly quickly and shoot at close range, which makes up for having only 4 units.
The point is, Endurance and Water Walking are a potent combination paired with the Pathfinding of Rangers, and the Flying ability of Griffins is very value for a Life wizard who otherwise has no means of enabling melee units to hit flyers. You end up with a very fast mobile force quite quickly, that is very well rounded, with Griffins and Rangers. Yes, Rangers aren't the best combat units around, but in stacks or 4 or 5 they can deal out pretty good damage in support of the Griffins. You can even take on Sky Drakes and Great Drakes with this setup, using the Rangers to weaken units and the Griffins to finish them off. All the better if you get Web to help control the battlefield. Holy Armor can make Griffins extremely though, especially if they have Mithril, and I've even stacked up Holy Armor + Stone Skin + Mithril on them to get 11 defense at Ultra Elite, which makes them virtually indestructible, esp. with Prayer in play.
I also like the fact that Nomads have good race relations. With Just Cause in place, you rarely have any unrest problems. This can greatly facilitate early conquest. I typically play High Elves a lot, and unrest can be quite a challenge with them.
I guess a question for me: what's better, this setup or Draconians with straight Life? I guess the comparable Draconian setup would be Myrran + Warlord (don't need Alchemy as much here) with the same 6 Life books. So you don't get any more Life books with this setup, you also don't have Alchemy, and you don't get any Nature books. On the other hand, you have flying units from the start and can get Doom Drakes much faster than Griffins. Doom Drakes + Shamen with Endurance is a solid early stack for Draconians that moves at 3 and has healing. Then Doom Drakes with Endurance + Air Ships becomes the ultimate death stack. But getting going on Myrran can be harder and the race relations of Draconians aren't as good. Another problem I run into with this setup is that my heroes often get left behind because they can't fly. The nice thing about the Nomad setup is you have Water Walking so your heroes can always have full mobility.
Picks:
Alchemy
Warlord
2 Nature books
6 Life books
Life spells:
Endurance
Healing
Holy Armor
Just Cause
Heroism
Nature Spells:
Water Walking
This gives you pretty much all the tools you need to really go off. Generally, you can start with a buildup to Forester's Guild, i.e. all production buildings except Miner's Guild. Of course cast Just Cause ASAP. If you need to get active then you can go for a Stable here and make 3 Horsebowmen to begin raiding. If you can wait, though, then you can go straight for Rangers first to use those instead. It depends on what you find and what hero you get early on, if any.
Generally, though, the early game will consist of making 2 to 4 units of Horsebowmen and/or Rangers, with Heroism on at least one of them, and probably a hero with Heroism on them to go along. You'll want at least one Ranger ASAP even if you start with Horsebowmen.
A problem with Life only is Life doesn't provide support for moving over water. Death has flying summons and Wriathform, Sorcery has Floating Island and Flight, Chaos has flying summons and Chaos Channels. This is where Water Walking comes in for Life. With Water Walking you'll have full mobility to take advantage of the Ranger Pathfinding.
Once you get that first stack of about 4 Horsebowmen/Rangers + hero(s), then you move on to building toward the Fantastic Stable to get Griffins. If you find a good spot to settle on Mithril or Silver (Transmute) it could be worth making a Settler before you start building your Armor's Guild, but if not then I wouldn't bother making Settlers.
The ultimate death stack for this setup is 4 Griffins and 4 Rangers. The Rangers of course get Water Walking and all units get Endurance. Now you've got a stack that can move 6 tiles per turn and is capable of taking on pretty much anything. Holy Armor and Bless as needed. Maybe its best to include a hero with the stack, depending on what you get, or to make a separate sack for all heroes. I also use a lot of stacks early on with heroes plus Griffins or maybe heroes plus 1 Ranger, etc. If you have a melee hero then maybe 3 Griffins and 1 hero plus 4 Rangers, or with a ranged hero then maybe 4 Griffins 4 Rangers and a hero, etc.
Rangers can seem pretty lackluster when you compare them to Slingers or Longbowmen or even Air Ships, but I actually ended up liking them. In the past I would typically only include a single Ranger per stack, but once they are Elite they are pretty effective in sets of 4 or 5. Endurance also works wonders for them on the battlefield as well, which makes up for some of their weakness. With 3 moves they can close the gap fairly quickly and shoot at close range, which makes up for having only 4 units.
The point is, Endurance and Water Walking are a potent combination paired with the Pathfinding of Rangers, and the Flying ability of Griffins is very value for a Life wizard who otherwise has no means of enabling melee units to hit flyers. You end up with a very fast mobile force quite quickly, that is very well rounded, with Griffins and Rangers. Yes, Rangers aren't the best combat units around, but in stacks or 4 or 5 they can deal out pretty good damage in support of the Griffins. You can even take on Sky Drakes and Great Drakes with this setup, using the Rangers to weaken units and the Griffins to finish them off. All the better if you get Web to help control the battlefield. Holy Armor can make Griffins extremely though, especially if they have Mithril, and I've even stacked up Holy Armor + Stone Skin + Mithril on them to get 11 defense at Ultra Elite, which makes them virtually indestructible, esp. with Prayer in play.
I also like the fact that Nomads have good race relations. With Just Cause in place, you rarely have any unrest problems. This can greatly facilitate early conquest. I typically play High Elves a lot, and unrest can be quite a challenge with them.
I guess a question for me: what's better, this setup or Draconians with straight Life? I guess the comparable Draconian setup would be Myrran + Warlord (don't need Alchemy as much here) with the same 6 Life books. So you don't get any more Life books with this setup, you also don't have Alchemy, and you don't get any Nature books. On the other hand, you have flying units from the start and can get Doom Drakes much faster than Griffins. Doom Drakes + Shamen with Endurance is a solid early stack for Draconians that moves at 3 and has healing. Then Doom Drakes with Endurance + Air Ships becomes the ultimate death stack. But getting going on Myrran can be harder and the race relations of Draconians aren't as good. Another problem I run into with this setup is that my heroes often get left behind because they can't fly. The nice thing about the Nomad setup is you have Water Walking so your heroes can always have full mobility.