Falling frost vs. AI hordes
 

So, I was tinkering around in SP yet again, and I've discovered that Falling Frost is a reasonably effective spell against the hordes of garbage troops the AI likes to throw at me. The area effect seems to be the critical factor. Hitting five squares at once is *very* nice, for a low-fatigue spell.

What I'm wondering is, what are some other low-cost options for wiping out the piles of troops more difficult AIs attack with? I'm not looking to merely scare them off -- a 200 troop army that you scare off just adds to the 300 troop army behind it creating a 500 troop steamroller. I've been underwhelmed by thunderstrike and blade wind (the latter is nice against shieldless troops, but otherwise worthless). Falling fires is mediocre. Astral Gyser is great against low-MR troops but ineffective against decent troops.

What else should I be looking at, without needing to research Evoc-9, if I want to incinerate AI troops with my mages?

Re: Falling frost vs. AI hordes
 

I've had some luck with Magma Eruption, which is Evocation 6, Earth 3 + Fire 1.

Orb Lightning works fairly well also, especially when massed. I've found Orb Lightning to be preferable to Thunder Strike in many situations.

Re: Falling frost vs. AI hordes
 

Oh, right, I forgot to mention Magma Eruption, which is also very effective at clobbering AI hordes. But requiring both F and E makes it a bit harder to get a hold of.

Isn't Orb Lightning short-range? And it doesn't seem to hit too many troops. How many mages do you need to clear a significant fraction of a 300-troop AI army?

Re: Falling frost vs. AI hordes
 

The cloud spells can be effective situationally. If you can get the timing right so that either troops stay in them and die or more keep charging through.

Re: Falling frost vs. AI hordes
 

Mmm... falling fires, mediocre? I'm playing a game right now where one fire mage has killed over 70 enemy soldiers over just two battles just casting those, fireballs and incinerates. The visual results on the battlefield weren't stunning, but the numbers were actually pretty good. If you say about 30 enemy casualties per mage, 3 mages is nearly 100 dead enemy soldiers. Not bad, I'd say.

Cloud of death can be a very powerful spell, if you can hold enemy soldiers over one without yours taking too much collateral damage. Other cloud spells aren't quite as strong, but are still good against the right opponent.

Also things like that spell that sets large numbers of people on fire, and flame eruption if you can work it out, can cause large numbers of casualties. Most other spells work more indirectly and will result in your troops killing the enemies easier, which isn't bad at all but is a lot harder to quantify.

After that I can mainly think of spells that require gems, and if I recall correctly you are not very much into those.

Re: Falling frost vs. AI hordes
 

Cheap and easy to get chaff-killers which I use during early game:

- Fire Blast, Fire Cloud, Falling Fires

- Shockwave (perhaps the best spell for early mass-genocide)

- Acid Spray, Acid Rain

- Cold Blast, Falling Frost

- Bladewind, Gifts from Heaven

- Shadow Blast, Raise Skeletons (aka skellispam :) )

- Sleep Cloud, Poison Cloud (these two are of very limited use, but when you are defending a fort they can be quite devastating if your gate-holders can take the beating for a while)


Then there are some national spells, like the Iron Darts (not to mention Iron Blizzard, but it is sadly not an early game spell :p), which are very nice too to take out lots of opponents. Then there are some special cases, like Fire Darts, which as such is not a great spell, but if you have high level Fire-mages (like, lets say, Anointed Rhuax, or a F9 pretender) they can deal lots amount of damage against lightly armoured opponents from far away (and once the enemy gets closer, they can switch to the close range AoE fire spells).

Re: Falling frost vs. AI hordes
 

Another option, while not evocation, is master enslave followed by, fog warriors and or army of ..., will of fates Depending on penetration and mr this can, with just a dozen mages take out a 5000+ army. Be sure to use the crystal matrix on the masters for round one ignition and have an appropriate arrow catcher in front.
ssj

Re: Falling frost vs. AI hordes
 

An often overlooked spell is curse of stones. Available quite early and one of the easiest battlefield wide spells to cast, cast it a couple times at the beginning of a fight and it'll decimate chaff/indie hoards with 10 MR with the added bonus of keeping them from fleeing when they break.

Curse of the desert is another very undervalued spell. Spammable by W2 mages (w1 if you pass out gems or boosters), with a huge AOE, have 10 or so cheap mages cast it at the beginning of fight and prepare to be amazed.

Also, don't overlook the effectiveness of a few mages spamming precision 100, AOE-1 spells. Numbness in particular has become one of my goto early spells. Because each casting is guaranteed to affect 3 of the best enemy units (assuming size 2 troops), half a dozen cheap mages can pretty effectively cripple nearly 60 enemy troops in the time it usually takes for melee to really be joined. This may not sound that impressive against hoards of hundreds of guys, but remember that they will unerringly target the higher hitpoint guys...you know, the ones that tend to have higher MR and are otherwise harder to take out? Combine this spell with the above suggestions for more resistant enemies.

Another angle to consider in the non-direct damage category are things like prison of fire and confusion. Basically any spell with a large AOE is probably worth considering when you're looking at facing a lot of troops with lowish MR and morale...

Re: Falling frost vs. AI hordes
 

I'm going to guess that the "one mage" isn't a 150 gold Witch Hunter that first cast Phoenix Power, then cast falling fires three times before exhausting out? Because that's my typical result, which is more like 15 enemy fatalities per battle. Nice, admittedly, but not great.

Now if you're using a 320 gold MA Anathemant Dragon, or better yet, a 440 gold Anointed of Rhuax, yeah, I can see you laying down some serious damage... but note you're paying a lot more for it.

Re: Falling frost vs. AI hordes
 

I do like the Shadow Blast followed by Raise Dead combo -- the shadow blast guarantees some corpses for your death mage to raise. Skeletons, on the other hand, hardly seem worth the fatigue.