I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders....

[quantum_mechani]

That may be your problem then, if most of your mages are out on the battlefield, you don't have enough researching. Over 50% should be back at home researching in most cases. For this reason, buy a lot of your nation's cheapest mages, they may not be great on the battlefield, but they are the best research bang for the back ehen you have a magic scale.