So I have been trying to think of some tricky death magic builds but frankly none of them have worked very well, I tend to die before I get any foothold in a game.

Anyone got suggestions?

Sadly the only real way I have been able to do Death Magic is will ALL 11 picks in Death Books. By taking 11 Death Books you can start with the Rare Summon Wraiths spell. Just one of these guys will basically conquer all neutral towns and even Nodes of Nature/Chaos (Sorc nodes are tough as they have death Immune and Illusion attacks), and even let you take Wizard Towers so you can Colonize Myrror pretty quickly.

It's actually kind of boring to do the 11 Death Book Game as it's pretty much an Instant win, even easier than 11 Life.

My favorite use of Death magic is to take 5 books with Myrran + Warlord + Alchemy, and lead an army of death trolls to glory. Black Channels is a huge buff that also replaces any normal unit's upkeep with 1 mana, with the drawback that they become undead and can't be healed... but if they have regeneration, then they regen as normal. Black Channeled, super-elite war trolls are obscenely powerful (like, take down Great Wyrms level of power), have all of the standard Death creature immunities (letting them ignore phantoms, etc), are relatively easy to tech up to, and only cost 1 mana per turn once you've enchanted them. Alchemy isn't NEEDED, per se, but Trolls can't build alchemist guilds, so the magic weapons do help in addition to the economic assistance. Black channeled trolls can also benefit from the Darkness combat buffs (and Eternal Night global enchantment), because they are counted as creatures of death.

Life mages can certainly accomplish similar (superior?) feats with lionhearted champion units, but Death has the significant early advantage in that its buffs are much cheaper and actually REDUCE your per-unit upkeep.

If you want a similar style but with fewer retorts needed, Lycanthropy can let you turn ordinary spearmen into weapon-immune, regenerating hulks, and more books lets you pick up the very rare super magics like Death Knights and the Death spell with more reliability. Save at -5 or die outright can be wicked fun, esp. on heroes with a -4 spell save staff.

How do you survive/expand early game with the heavy retort build? I find most of the common spells to be utter garbage...

Early on, I try not to rely overly on magic (especially as a death mage). If I'm going with warlord alchemist trolls, their basic 2 units can probably take most neighboring neutral cities on their own with careful use of running around in battle to leverage their regeneration. After some brief scouting, I try to grab a neutral city or three and then bunker down while I tech up a bit. If an enemy wizard starts next door you can try to use a couple summons to bolster your ranks until you can bulk up, but I try to avoid that. If you were successful in grabbing a neutral city or two with your initial efforts, you can use those to pump out military and wall yourself up until the war troll machine is operational. If you can survive until that happens, you should be good to go, and you can divert your resources into getting a burlier economy and tech through those spells to get the good stuff in the back end.

If you can get Lycanthropy semi-early, those can be pretty effective substitutes to support your early army. They're a waste to upgrade trolls into, but if you have a subject race that pumps out cheap, crappy spearmen, they're ideal candidates to wolf out.

Some Pros and Cons to this build...

Cons
-Trolls have minimum +2 racial unrest with all other myrran races, so taking early non-troll neutral cities is essentially a waste of time. (http://kaarsen.home.xs4all.nl/MoM/jarvinen/racialunrest.html)
-Trolls can't make sage's guilds and thus can't make alchemist's guilds so no adamantite weapons.
-Trolls are pitiful at erecting cities since their production and growth rates are abysmal.
-Once a troll is black channeled, it can no longer level, so only a few of mine reached elite and none reached ultra elite status. Funny side note; Jafar dispelled my black channels a couple times... the unit remains undead and has no upkeep of any kind and still cannot level.

Pros
-Trolls CAN make cathedrals, so infernal power is pretty good at quelling unrest (even additional unrest from dark rituals), but (minor con) I haven't really figured out how to justify 2 picks in infernal power since alchemy provides plenty of mana.
-A troll that dies in combat comes back to life with full health AND retains black channeled.

I'm middle of the road on this.

Tried this a few more times, most games were train wrecks. Then one game I did not try to expand; just played with my capital. It wasn't a fantastic start, I think it had a mithril vein and a wild game. Teched up to war trolls pretty quick and was shortly-there-after engaged in war with Sss'ra. I created war trolls from then on. I was pushing into Sss'ra's territory when I had to stop.

I picked up a Reywind with Armsmaster and that made a HUGE difference. Also picked up Shuri, pathfinding is very nice. Neither of the heroes can engage in combat; they are immidiately targeted down and are not strong enough to survive.

Don't have black channels in that game and I am casting almost no death magic spells. It is just showcasing the strength of the troll race.

If only black channels was a common spell. It would match heroism and would make darkness infinitely better.

The problem with only 5 Death Books is that you are not guaranteed Black Channels. I agree any wizard that chooses Warlord + Alchemy along with Trolls already has a great potential.
I agree that Black Channel is great on War Trolls as it gives the +2 Atk, +1 Def/HP/Resistance and Death/Illusion/Poison Immunities and also reduces Upkeep on them to the 1 mana.
Really Trolls don't have ANY negatives with this spell other than the Exp ending, which is negated if you just wait till they are Ultra Elite with 120 exp. Arms Master really helps here ofc.

Huh after listing all those points I guess I will give it a try. The only alteration I will make is Artificer so I can get my Heroes stuff as well. This lowers chances of getting BC's but is worth it as Heroes will be much more able to fight and hopefully find it along with getting 2 spells that the computer will trade for Black Channels if any other has it.

I'll admit, it's not a GREAT strategy; that is, it doesn't use a whole lot of death magic, and even getting Black Channels at all isn't guaranteed. That said, I can easily read the runic text that fills your spellbook before you research things, indicating what you WILL be able to research in that game (F3, scroll left). It's a simple 1-1 cipher. You've got about a 50/50 chance of getting it, so I just check if I do, and if not, restart. They won't level up while black-channeled, but if you can wait until they hit superelite, you're gold. May want to black-channel the first one or two if you're under attack, but if possible, hold off until they've battled a time or two.

It's probably not the most you can get out of Death Magic, or the most efficient setup overall, but it's still pretty effective, and a decent change of pace.

EvilLoynis, I don't think heroes fit very well into this build except one armsmaster in your capitol. The heroes are prioritized over War Trolls and you have no healing, raise dead or ressurection to sustain them. Additionally, no heroism, so their stats early on are quite horrible. Mine died off quite quickly a number of times which resulted in innumerable reloads.

Sad to say that mainly sounds like letting your heroes fight when they shouldn't. Namely vs guys with ranged damage, spells or teleport ability. I know that Heroes are a bit weaker early on but fighting with trolls is one of the easiest ways to help them level quickly since you only have to make sure your Hero survives to get ALL of the units back. Not to mention that a Ranged Hero or Spell casting Hero would be helping them win either by buffing or softening up the enemy before the trolls go hand to hand with them.

Not to mention that with Death as you magic you can eventually get the Champion Mortu The Black who is Magic Immune, Basically a SUPER Paladin. He's better than Roland the Life counterpart since he comes with Blade Master and Constitution.

Just be careful of the fights you allow the Heroes early on and you should not have a problem.