Ok, I would like to hear people's thoughts on this aspect of the game.

I wanted to make a magic-based elven sort of race so I used the ones that get +1 to move and gave them Enchanters, Scouts and Decalon with no armor as a penalty.

Then I gave my leader Air, Earth and Life magic and Brilliant (on a side note: does Attune give +2 mana a level or just +2 mana?) and Pricopee's Circlet (don't know how to spell her name)

Then, when the game began I quickly expanded to 8 cities all of which had at least 3 essence once I built my Essence Pool.  Four had 4 essence.

I then had them research the magic branch while taking Warfare and Civics up about 4 steps (enough for leather armor, town halls).... then I thought: now I'll make my mages and their storm hammer protectors..... WRONG.  Why?  Because with 4 Crystal Mines - more than any other resource I possessed I get a ..... whopping .5 crystal every turn for a grand total of 2!!!! a season.  Which means every 8 seasons I can build ONE unit. 

So I then researched whatever gives me the first hammer and made a non-magical unit and shortly began kicking AI butt which I would have done about 100-150 seasons ago but thought I'd make a cool magic wielding race......

I find it ironic that it is so easy to churn out a military based society that dominates while pursuing magic seems like folly ..... I realize I can beat the AI by playing smart but it gets tedious adding 200-300 seasons on a huge map with max opponents on Challenging or above to take all the extra time....

Thoughts?   Am I doing something wrong?  Do crystal mines need changed?