[Finalgenesis]

When playing vs AI, a crutch (cheat?) I use when I have S and/or W path (and D to summon of course) is:

Summon a bane team, 1 bane + 2 wights (8D), each bane team should have a handler to cast W and/or S buffs (E is a bonus), celestial master in your case.

You may consider forging 2x frost brand for the bane leader, which will up it's killing rate by a LOT.

A single team can handle 60-120 summons + troops...etc with no losses consistently. I've beaten 150ish horned serpents, fall bears ...etc with a single team. The placement and script:

1) Mage adjacent but behind the bane stack, in the very back.

2) Bane leader on hold x3, attack.

3) 2x wight bodyguard in seperate formation overlay onto the bane leader (if you put 2 wights in the same formation and stack onto bane leader, 1 wight will not be in the same square)

4) Mage buff: quickness, body ethereal, luck, iron will, air shield

5) watch things die.

Once you have a team + handler. use them in isolation from everyone else except other bane teams, The mage must be 15 squares+ away from anything else except bane teams and mage, otherwise the quickness targeting will get ****ed up. Use 2-4 teams for the really big battles, feel free to put stuff up front to divert fliers, but be careful of 75% hp rout rule.

Humans can counter this easily but AI will only counter it by accident. Some things they may do that can counter you: mass banish (not if you have iron will or antimagic), fire elemental (ouch, you may have to switch to 3x bane teams and throw fire rings on them), incidental national troops with magic weapon, certain magic summons with hard hitting magic damage (rare), fliers (screen up front), fast chargers (screen up front) ...etc

cost efficency aside and for amusement, make a bane stack with 3x banes all with dual brands, do the usual buff cycle on them and laugh manically as they scythe down waves of chaff every round.