[atul]

Few acid-casting mages have the mobility of SCs, and without any prec 100 acid spells those mages are casting a world of hurt to their own meat shields.

Anyway, from what I've seen, Celestial Masters (especially S&A's) are really potent SC killers - with fire, water, air and astral it's nearly impossible to build anything totally impervious to them. Using item-boosted mages later in the game to bring the fear of True God into heathens isn't what makes TC weak - the crappy troops, low initial paths on mages, lack of multipath synergy in spells, the common suckiness of cavalry units in general, vulnerability to Mind Duel and forced turmoil in themes is. Hm, did I remember enough?

Still having fond memories of TC, though.