How much use is magic? (Newby)

[andywatkins]

Hi,

Played a couple of games now, and to be honest I have not seen a lot of value in Magic. I have lots of gems, I do lots of research, all levels now at 5 of research except blood magic but none of my guys seem to be able to do much of value.

Am I missing best spells, is it important to do a lot of empowerment etc??

Been playing as Arcaspholae or however you spell it, the one with hoplites, chariots and elephants.

I find hoplites backed up by archers to be a good combination.

I have been trying really hard with magiciands and priestesses and none of them seem to do an awful lot.

Thanks for assistance

Andy

[Endoperez]

Mystics can use all kinds of elemental magics, but it takes time before you get one with power 2 or 3 in one of the elements. Many interesting spells need level 2, 3 or higher in certain path.

However, especially Air magic has lots of spells that work very well against normal troops. Lightning Bolt, Orb Lighting, Thunder Strike... If the caster can cast Quickness, that doubles his rate of fire.
Also, if you have many Astrologers have them cast Thaumaturgy spells like Mind Burn, Soul Slay, Paralyze and Enslave Mind. If they are too far from the front, try using Teleport to get them there. But be careful, as you can't teleport any bodyguards with them, and if they teleport to enemy province they appear there and fight alone before normal armies can get there to help them.

Empowering is an option, but it is expensive. Instead, try using "booster" items. When equipped, they raise the mage's magic level by one. As an example, Water Bracelet boosts Water magic by one. It is the cheapest path booster, needing only level one in water and 5 gems, but moderately high research of Construction (lvl 6 Constr.). Other booster items:

Fire:
Skull of Fire
needs: Death 1 + Fire 1, 5 gems of both paths, constr. 6
Flaming Helmet
needs: Fire 3, 20 fire gems, constr. 4

Water:
Water Bracelet
needs: Water 1, 5 gems, Constr. 6
Robe of the Sea
needs: Water 3, 20 gems, Constr. 4

Air:
Winged Helmet
needs: Air 3, 20 gems, Constr. 4
Bag of Winds
needs: Air 3, 20 gems, Constr. 4

Earth:
Earth Boots
needs: Earth 2, 10 gems, Constr. 4
Blood Stone
needs: Blood 3 + Earth 1, 20 slaves and 5 gems, Constr. 4

Death:
Skull Staff
needs: Death 2, 10 gems, Constr. 4

Nature:
Thistle Mace
needs: Nature 2, 10 gems, Constr. 4

Treelord's Staff (boosts Nature by 2)
needs: Nature 4, 40 gems, Constr. 6

Astral:
Starshine Skullcap
needs: Astral 2, 10 gems, Constr. 6

Crystal Coin, Astral 2 + Earth 2, 10 gems of both types, Constr. 4


Many more in artifacts, and some more in Blood magic.

Also, there are two kinds of Staves of Elemental Mastery that boost ALL ELEMENTAL magic paths. That is, each of Fire, Water, Earth and Air that the mage already has gets increased by one for as long as he holds that staff in his/her hands! They come in two varieties, and are quite expensive:

Water 3 and Fire 3, 20 gems of both, Constr. 6

Air 3 and Earth 3, 20 gems of both, Constr. 6

Your best bet to get them would probably be to have a Mystic with Air 3 (eventually you get one that has that) forge Bag of Winds and Winged Helmet, and give those to another Mystic who has Air 1 and Earth 2. He can forge himself Earth Boots, and now has the required A3 (Air) and E3 (Earth). If you are going to make many of them,

You can also try summoning units with more magical power and recruiting independent mages. You have to build lab (with mage) and maybe temple (with priest) before you can recruit them.

Examples of good summons to use as a mage:
Conjuration 6:
Sea King's Court (Sea King + Sea trolls, King has W3), requires W3 (Water) mage
Troll King's Court (Troll King + Trolls, King has E3), requires E3 mage
Contact Harbringer (Angel with Air 2 or 3, priestly magic), Astral 4
Ether Gate (Ether Lord + Ether Warriors, Lord has S3 (Astral) and atleast one D (Death)), Astral 4 Death 1 and lots of Astral pearls.
Summon Spectre (Ghost with Death and some other, random magic paths)
Contact Lamia Queen (Lamia Queen, Nature and random magic in sorcery paths: S, D, N, B (=Blood))

Conjuration 7:
King of Fire/Earth
Queens of Water/Air
need corresponding path and give a good caster of that path

Many others. Read the descriptions of spells. Couatl is a good way to get a strong nature-mage.


I except other people to suggest you to use SC (super combatants, or creatures with lots of hitpoints, good attack and defence and lots of magic paths to cast spells that boost their battle prowess loaded with powerful magical items so that they can destroy entire armies), but I think you will have much more fun using the national armies first. The computer opponents aren't too bad, but using supercombatants is one of the tactics it plays poorly against.

[andywatkins]

Thanks for reply, haven't tried any of those yet, will try out shortly.

[Gandalf Parker]

Are you putting gems on your mages? It helps them to use the higher level magics that you have researched. If you are moving armies a long distance and plan to have many battles, then take along scouts. They can move with the army but stay hidden and out of the fights. Store extra gems on them since if you mages can be wasteful if you pile all the gems on them

[Chazar]

One should also consider battle summons like:
-Quickness, False Horror (Caelum)
or
-Quickness, Raise Dead (Ctis)
Those are probably a sound start to learn about the power of magic...

[alexti]

Chazar said:
-Quickness, Raise Dead (Ctis)

It shall be noticed that C'tis doesn't often have mages capable of casting quickness and anyway raise dead isn't as cheap as false horror so the usual problem is getting fatigued. That makes just Raise Dead good enough. You may throw 1 or 2 terrors near the end as well (especially when fighting indies)