Re: Another one bites the dust
 

Or route them. Fear works well on AI hordes. (Well, except for Late ERmor and a few others.)
Take the provinces around them, they have no where to retreat and poof! no more horde.

Re: Another one bites the dust
 

One thing about AI, is it tends to not feed those big armies very well. Starvation really brings down morale, making those routes especially effective.

You can also kill them with your own armies. But, compensate for your fewer numbers with more mages using area effect spells like Magma Eruption, Iron Blizzard, Shadow Blast, Blade Wind, Falling Fires, etc. Fatigue will likely be your biggest issue here, so look for means to mitigate it, like gems, magic path boosters, or an Earth Bless for sacred mages.

Buff your troops with Legions of Steel, Mass Regen, Arrow Fend etc. to keep them alive but set most of them to guard your mages. You may need of light screen of expendables to take a cavalry charge. But, otherwise count on any who march forward against those odds to be lost. Quagmire is also useful to keep the enemy at bay longer to give your mages more time to do their work.

Re: Another one bites the dust
 

I would use large AOE spells rather than relying on melee to clear any army numbering more than 100. Heat from Hell, Foul Vapors require relatively low path and research... There should be some caster you've got access to that can use one of those spells or similar ones.

Re: Another one bites the dust
 

If EDM is enabled, there's various AI chaff annihilators there, the most reliable and cheapest seems to be Treant for me, 30 gem summon + 20 gem of gear will see them eat any amount of AI directed chaff with most types of mages.

Another way is an easily accessible (for your nation) linchpin BE spells, eg. darkness for a undead/demon/DV army. There's usually something that goes with your nation/focus well, cold, heat, poison, darkness ...etc, just establish choke points with well supplied armies using said BE linchpin holding them and move out on any direction at your leisure.

small bands of elite Bane wight teams also do great with buff support against most foes, and accessible early on (lvl 3 conj). a bane with a dozen+ or so wights with buff works great (ethereal, luck, quickness ...etc), assuming you have massable D2 access, emphasis on buff.

Re: Another one bites the dust
 

Edm?

Re: Another one bites the dust
 

endgame diversity mod.

Re: Another one bites the dust
 

Isn't EDM in the latest CBM?

Re: Another one bites the dust
 

yes

Re: Another one bites the dust
 

My two major problems with using area effect evocs are range and collateral damage. My mages will often fatigue themselves casting useless spells while the enemy is out of range, and then blast my troops to bits once the enemy is in range.

Is setting troops to Guard Commander an effective way to deal with these? My fear is that the enemy archers will target the squad and then plink my mages to death (normally I keep the mages back a bit so arrows hitting the squad don't hit them)

Maybe a little buffing will help the mages survive the plinking, hmmm.

Re: Another one bites the dust
 

Mages are definitely vulnerable. That's why Arrow Fend is so nice. If you don't have that, you can give your most valued mages 0 encumbrance shields for protection. Or, use some shield equipped chaff up front set to guard commander for a commander set back behind your mages. As long as the back commander is still in range, the AI archers will keep firing at the chaff even after they move back out of the way.

For Earth mages, I always like to cast Summon Earth power for both the reinvigoration as well as the reduced fatigue for Earth spells it gives me. Then I'll throw on Ironskin, Stoneskin, or Invulnerability depending on what I have access to and what is being thrown back at me. These Earth buffs are usually enough to protect from arrows and sling stones.

For the range/fatigue issue, it is good to script buffs at the beginning. And, position your mages so that the enemy is in range when they are done.

In my experience, you generally don't have to worry about scripting the attack spells as the AI will tend to use the spell most likely to kill the most troops anyway. It mostly has trouble getting the buffs and battlefield enchantments right. So, don't fret filling your queue with all buffs or even a couple of holds (which allow the mages to recoup fatigue) to provide time for the enemy to close.

One thing AI is infamous for though is pushing out battlefield summons when no good Evocation targets are in range. Death mages who should be holding back for Shadow Blast or Banefire in particular love to fatigue themselves first with Raise Skeletons for instance. For this reason, I'll sometimes delay researching Enchantment when playing a Death nation just to keep my mages from casting it unless I want to get that spell out early for an opponent particularly vulnerable to such a strategy.

And, yes, having your troops guard commander is also intended to reduce collateral damage. But, that's going to happen unless you are playing a nation like Abyssia and have troops immune to nearly all of your Evoc spells.