A question about magic

[onomastikon]

I think I have grasped how the magic system functions (paths and schools), and I am wondering what I have missed. I obviously am missing something.

I just don't see it really being "worth it" to invest in most magic and magic research. It seems when I make a pretender with high magic skills, s/he spends most of the time researching, rarely getting to use them. And I find "in battle" most of the things they finally do cast to be not worth the effort. Just reading the manual, I see that there are really high-level summoning spells that give me longdead horsemen with a horse champion -- these I get every turn by just waiting around doing nothing when playing Ermor Ashen Vale.

Trying simply to experiment, I made a few pretenders more melee-oriented, with limited magic skills. I find my game going much faster, and I really dont miss the magic. I still get a few caster types, but I notice even when I research a lot, with the exception of "summoning" spells they still just cast the basic "flying shards" type spells.

Is it worth it to have someone who can cast flying shards over a few crossbowmen for the same price? Mages are usually expensive commanders, and they have to spend lots of time researching or searching; for less money I can get warriors. I was therefore wondering: what am I missing?

I suppose I still don't see which "strategy" in researching I should undertake. Often I think: oh those spells look good, only to see that *maybe* my Pretender could cast them sometime around turn 40, but my normal mages never will (because they only have skills of 1-3 in any path). With the exception of Ermor, I also find that many of their path skills dont mix well. Taking T'ien as an example, I just don't see which schools I should "go for", since I find the mages to be generally kind of weak. It seems I can research a school which is good for my pretender *OR* get my lowly mages a few spells. Any tips here on how to develop a better research strategy paired with the pretender design? I have tried both making a pretender which has those paths described in the race (e.g. fire and earth for Ulm, astral air water nature for T'ien) as well as making what someone called a "rainbow mage" pretender, but have had most success in pretty much going low on the magic and high on the troops / combat-oriented Pretender (such as a trampling Great Mother).

So I suppose this was many questions about magic. Sorry if it was a bit confused. Thanks in advance for reading and replying.