[Baalz]

Ooooh, one glaring omission (IMHO) is the use of mystic communions for battlemages. The mystics are some of the absolute best mages in the game at forming a communion to dish out damage because they all have astral (for communion master/slave) and they have a variety of the best paths for evocation spells. They're not capital only, reasonably cost efficient researchers, and the ones who get bad/low random picks make great communion slaves while the lucky ones are pretty darned good for their price even before becoming a communion master. Plus, because of the variety you can change the focus of your army every turn by anticipating what you needing to cast in the next battle- you can switch an army from having heavy fire mages to sending out a load of blade winds by just changing who is the slave and who is the master. Or go with an astral focus (make sure to bring a banner of the northern star) and go recruiting with enslave mind when the enemy army is weaker than you. Or switch to water and send a ridiculous amount of cleansing water towards all those undead. I find the mystic is VERY versatile, and one of the best parts of Arco.