[Saxon]

Since you are playing against the AI, do not forget to keep the flow of regular armies marching towards the boarders. I have found that when I focus my forces, the AI creates lots of small armies that attack several provinces a turn. The AI armies are usually regular troops as well.

The high level summons are impressively powerful, but I find that I still need the grunts to hold the territory the powerful units take. Once the powerful army smashes the main AI army on a big map, you still need to take over a lot of provinces. Good old fashioned troops with a spell caster buffing them will handle PD and the scattered armies that the AI throws at you. How big and how many armies will depend on what the AI is doing. You need to be big enough to destroy the small armies and numerous enough to run them down.

Some spells can help in this regard. Seeking Arrow will often kill a commander and freeze a small army, giving you more time to deal with it. Also, where possible, surround and then destroy, so the retreating troops do not fight another day. This part of the game is not glorious battles with amazing spells. It is cleaning up the remnants of the AI’s power with your second class troops, so your really powerful units can stay on the rampage. It can be challenging to do well, as you want to spend as little as possible on this, but if you short them and lose a battle, you have to stop your main plan to clean up the bush fires.

Arco can create a dangerous teleporting death squad, but it is like the American helicopters in Vietnam. You can win the battle, but you need to hold the ground after you leave. I suggest using the summons to win the battles and the regular troops to hold the ground.

Recognizing that it won’t help with your current game, I would like to mention Mechanical Militia related to big maps. Once that global is up, one gold piece gets you a very solid defense everywhere. I have found it very helpful on end games on big maps, as you focus on destroying the enemy and do no have to worry about holding what you take. It is also a very nice compliment when you are countering an attacking army with a real army of your own, as you get a solid, non-routable set of troops.