Mages at home vs in the field?

[BigJMoney]

Hey, I am getting back in to Dom again after a while and I have a question about one strategic problem I was never very good at solving.

We'll use Pythium as my example. Namely, I am hiring Theurgs for research. Since research only gets harder, I have to keep hiring more and more Theurgs to be able to get high levels in reasonable time. However, I also want Theurgs in the field to actually use the magic I'm researching. But if I move them to the field, my research will go down.

How do you guys deal with this? I never figured it out.

Thanks for opinions.

[Dimaz]

I think it's one of the reasons they put 'S' in "TBS". I mean, it's one of the strategic choices that largely depends on the game situation and not on some rule like "always use 2 mages for 40 infantry".
So, if you look at it strategically, you should first think about what options in dealing with current opposition you have with current researched spells and with some more advanced ones. If for example you can deal comparable damage to enemy with 10 mages now and with 2 mages after 5 turns of research of those 10 mages, I think it's better to wait for research. However if you will be defeated after 4 turns, this is clearly bad advice. So, as I said, just try to think strategically about your game situation and different options.

[FAJ]

Depends on the situation.

I tend to keep mages at home unless they are needed to counter a particular enemy strategy, or if I want to do a big quick push to someones capital early on. When taking indies, or raiding, or fighting early on, and you arn't in need of mage support, just leave them to research.

[Sombre]

Obviously it's a balancing act. There's nothing to figure out other than gain experience of what works for you.

I will say that when researching you want to have strong targets and you may even wish to have targets that make use of the mages you are recruiting for research.

As pythium for instance, you might be hiring guys who can cast frozen heart in a big communion. So once you've got those spells, you would probably want to send out your communion and use it to grab resources/kill the enemy.

[chrispedersen]

Yah everyone has their own styles. I tend to not like nations that need mage support for expansion. I prefer to hti research targets, and then support an army with just a few mages casting big spells, (darkness, life after death, relief etc).. rather than battle field things like magma eruption, fireball etc.

[Belac]

Everyone else is under the same constraints, so one must accept that research gets a bit slower once you've researched good battle magic.

Also, most nations are such that their weaker mages are more cost-efficient researchers. So once you have multiple forts, recruit cheap mages from most of them and battle mages from a few. Use the money saved by not recruiting lots of super-expensive mages to put up more forts, and eventually your research catches up.

[Fantomen]

I'd say that ideally you want to focus your offensive mage power in short deceicive wars. If you use your mages liberally in battle, and that gives you a quick victory, you'll get more research time in the end than if you are scared to use them.

Thats why it can be actually good to have research centers close to the fronteirs.

Caelum is a good example of a nation that can almost avoid this balancing act. The enemy gets within reach and them wham! Overwhelming swarm of battlemages from all directions. Next turn they're back to research. I try to mimic that with other nations too in different ways.