I'll give that a try, though I'm always annoyed when I've just built a few settlements early in the game and they're being overrun by monsters I can't take on yet (because at that point I've only had time to train like 2 halberdiers/similar for each city).
Usually I start building a shrine once it takes less than 100 turns as first indication (of course it won't take 100 turns because the city's production increases over time) or whenever I get rebels at 2% tax rate. Mana is usually not much of a problem, since for most types of magic I don't use the very basic creatures, so I spend little to no mana early in the game.
Before I liked to play on Myrran, but lately I prefer the regular plane because the nodes and such are not as hard to conquer... Well, at least some of them.
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A sickened, sensitive shadow writhing in hands that are not hands, and whirled blindly past ghastly midnights of rotting creation (Nyarlathotep, H.P. Lovecraft)
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