[atul]

Originally posted by onomastikon:
(I still havent figured out why magic is so important. All my mages did were cast animate skeletons although I had level 7 Thaumaturgy research and gave them all death gems too.)

Did you script your mages to cast high-level spells? The tactical AI seems to favor animating skeletons...

... I just started a new game with C'tis and Prince of Death, on second turn used my pretender to attack some weak indie province and put him on 'cast spells' being sure that since there wasn't any other spell applicable than C'tis' beginning Terror he'd use it and would rout the opposition easily.

How wrong you can be. On the same turn as I attacked, my first sauromancer researched Enchantment 1, and my PoD cast all the time 'Animate skeleton' (one wimpy-wimpy-wimpy skeleton per casting). Result: one truly dead pretender where there would've been an easy victory had I just had stamina to script him 'Terror, Terror, Terror, Terror, Terror, Cast spells'. Live and learn. From now on, I script spesific orders.