What do I do with Initiates?
 

Just curious what you do with your low-level mages, such as Marignon Initiates. Mostly, I have them research, if I can afford it, I give them lanterns. I have no idea if this is effective or not. I find that they don't really do much on the battlefield, unboosted they cannot even cast Phoenix Power to let them cast real spells, and why should I spend something to boost them when I would rather boost my Witch Hunters (or better yet, my ancient and decrepit wizards)? They seem kind of expensive to be ferrying around troops. I don't know, what do you use these fellows for, what is their raison d'etre?

thank you!

Re: What do I do with Initiates?
 

Depending on the paths: research, site searching, low level forging.
Mostly research, but anything they can do, so you don't need a higher level mage.
It's generally more cost-effective to have many cheap mages research than fewer expensive ones, even without research boosters.
How useful they are depends on the path.
D & S can remote site search. Sometimes you'll have boosters not in use that turn that can boost other paths up to 2 for site searching.
A lot of forging can be done with only 1 path. Lanterns, a lot of basic thug gear.

I usually keep low level mages off the battlefield, with some exceptions.

Re: What do I do with Initiates?
 

Plus, a swarm of low level mages casting low level spells once your research is done (almost) never hurts.

For low level fire mages mid-late game (probably the weakest mage imaginable) you could:

* use them for a sontaneous summon lesser fire elemental/will-o-wisp (situational)

* spam combustion/blindness/evocs/rage/bonds of fire - while not worth doing extra research or specifically buying mages for the purpose, a few more attacks always help.

* decoys. They work fine as this, if a little expensive, though they count as mages for the spells that care about that (plus they have above-human MR).

* Turn your fire gems into low level items (fire bolas on indie commanders? ring of fire/fire swords for your thugs?)

None of these are really worth buying them, but remember you buy them for the research. Anything else they manage to do before becoming cannon fodder is just extra.

Re: What do I do with Initiates?
 

Path-2 is typically all any mage needs to be effective on the battlefield. This is when most booster spells come available and there are a lot of useful things to cast at Path-2.

Path 1 mages are obviously weaker on an order of magnitude. However, there are exceptions. Astral-1 is handy to serve as an Communion Slave, or use Light of the Northern Star to boost all Astral-1 to Astral-2 where Paralyze (a situationally devestating spell) and other spells come handy. Air-1 can still power up with Storm power (assuming Storm is cast) and can cast Lightning Bolt or burn an air gem to cast the much more devestating Thunder Strike. Water-1 can cast Frozen Heart, a great AN, no MR single target spell, especially for being Path-1.

Re: What do I do with Initiates?
 

While the posts above sum it up pretty well, I'll point out the obvious age difference those mages usually have to your hard hitters, which usually (with exception of some nations) are old age. If there are spells up such as Burden of Time, it kills your old age mages fast, and while those initiates and such won't probably stay alive dozens of turns either, at least they outlast pretty much every other mage you have.

It also pays off to research spells specifically for those small researcher mages to shoot out in the battlefield, eg. communion slave&master + soul slay for MA C'tis and their lizard shamen, which are their best gold per research mages. Same applies for seithkona (utgård), but you'll want nether darts, and so on.

Re: What do I do with Initiates?
 

Lvl 1 earth/fire mages can cast earthpower/phoenixpower if you equip with 1E or 1F gem, making them considerably more useful on the battlefield.

Re: What do I do with Initiates?
 

On a similar note: Recently my capital was stormed and I gave a single death gem to each D1 mage present and told each of those mages to cast Raise Skeletons once. That added about 35 units to the field, and I can imagine 35 units making a big difference on occasion. You wouldn't want to burn several gems that way in a normal battle, but when your capital and your research force are at stake, it's a wise thing to do.

Re: What do I do with Initiates?
 

And if you're into habit of forging Slave Matrixes one Witch Hunter and few Initiates setup requires only a few rounds (Phoenix Power & Power of the Spheres) to turn every F1 mage into Falling Fires spamming artillery...

Re: What do I do with Initiates?
 

Many times they can suffice where a specific mage-type is needed, freeing up your higher mages. Delivering units, entering sites, etc.

Re: What do I do with Initiates?
 

Fate, it appears you have forgotten to mention the quintessential lightless lanterns. :)