First newbie game: first impressions!!!

[Alneyan]

You can indeed only set up specific orders for the first five turns of the battle. Your Pretender can remain on the field after that, but will do as she wills.

The Summon Storm Power spell (the one you wanted to cast) only works during a Storm. It isn't cumulative with itself, but stacks with other spells increasing your magic paths. Since you are an Astral mage, there is a spell (Power of the Spheres if memory serves) which increase *all* your magic paths by one. I do not recall the school it is in though.

If your spellcaster cannot cast the scripted spell, it will cast another instead; she will start with defensive spells, and only when she is done with all these "buff" spells will she start casting offensive spells. However, even her offensive spells can be fairly weak; Air mages are known to love to cast the weaker phantasmal summons even if they have much more dangerous spells in their arsenal.

Incidentally, I have sent you a PM; did you get it? There should be a mail icon flashing above at the forums.