[Illuminated One]

Hmm, I have given this some thought, and the death/lamia route sounds great but I too can't see how massed transformation will get you anywhere.


I really like transformation but I don't think transforming all of your mages is a viable route.
First thing is transforming 15 mages doesn't give you an extra mage per turn but exactly 15 new mages. With that it's the cheapest summon but it has a hidden cost in mage and castle turns (move out of the water, heal feeblemind, went wrong). If you start loosing lots of the transformed mages it's hardly cheap.

And while transformation can add some new capabilities to your mages if you do it to every mage the enemy will just know what to expect from you and the stats aren't great for all animals. Add low precision (well, eagle eyes gets you to 10 prec that doesn't cut it imho, especially as it would get a capricorn to 18 prec and since you don't have the most spectacular magic you'd have to hit more often than the enemy) hp, and morale as other weaknesses. Why not transform selectively and give some of the capricorns a booster (water bracelet costs the same as transformation, thistle mace costs 4 gems more) so you can have a mixed force?
Some high nature animals to cast battlefield wide spells and buffs. Some boosted capricorns to cast area effect spells and make mindhunts, succubi, archers, fear not certain win counters. I don't know about battlefield mr spells but a capricorn might just fill the role of soul slay bait compared to your low hp animals.