Looks like the thread degenerated into Yet Another "Caelum overpowered" thread
From my experience Caelum is unbalanced from turn 6 to at least 50, because of :
- Good cheap mages everywhere
- Mammoths against indies
- Lightning spells quite early, then effective Ghost/False summons
- And ability to shift front in one wing buffet - The same army can take out an enemy army, then fly to another point, make a raid, come back, giving Caelum a power multiplied bu its number of enemies eventually
A typical Caelian army is my games is like 12 Seraphs, 30-40 archers, and 20-25 infantry. Archers can take out light troops using Wind Guide (BTW, main use of WG is indeed to give +5 prec to the Seraphs, an exploit IMO), Inf main use is to buy time when the enemy try to get to contact and/or disrupt the archers.
Supply is not a real issue, a simple couple Bags done by Nature A Seraphs, Sage, Druid etc solve it even if fighting in deserts.
A Storm+WS+Air blessing strategy give different layout, but is rarer.
Such an army uses only national standard troop end is possible from turn 15 on, quite before summons become common, and no comparably priced army stands much of a chance against. I've seen TC, Marignon, Ermor, Arco, Machaka all been beaten neatly, even when allied...
There are surely ways to counter Caelum, but the only effective one I've seen is to gangup against in MP. Sure it rebalances things, but not from a design standpoint !
