Frustratingly Stupid Fire Mages

[romis]

I know this has been brought up before, i apologize, but i need to vent just a little, its been driving me mad in my latest games, and i hope by bringing it up again it might get fixed.

playing tien chi, a handful of fire mages are equiped with my very limited fire gem supply to cast flaming arrows for my archers, followed by some combat spells. unfortunately they are ignoring my scripts, despite being fully capable, and quite often they are killing themselves.

frequently it seems the AI deems the enemy too weak to justify the casting of the flaming arrow spell, sometimes i win the battle, more often than not i loose because the AI can't fully appreciate that the bulk of my infantry are arrow catchers which require a vast superiority of numbers to win without fire support. even if i win however, i have now suffered far more losses than i should have and my advance has drastically slowed if not stopped entirely.

while the AI refuses to waste gems on flamming arrows, it seems to have no problem wasting them on fire elementals. most of whom get nowhere near the front lines before the battle is over. oh but thats not the best part. usually the fire elementals rush up to the rear of my troops and begin setting them all on fire and killing them, but lately for some strange reason the elementals make no effort to advance towards the battle, instead they sit right next to all my commanders and mages, killing or crippling them. Even if i live, i have now depleted my gem supply, so i won't be able to cast properly next time.

even when the AI is not wasting my gems on fire elementals, it seems intent on exhausting my mages with pointless spells. if you can't cast fireball one would intuitively guess that an offensive combat spell would be the best substitute, or possibly moving closer to the battle so you can cast it, or at worst, resting. instead the AI decides the best thing to do is exhaust my mage on completely worthless spells. casting strength of giants on a mage in the rear is silly. if there are no enemy archers, and you are in the back, arrow fend is a waste too. watching my mages ,as ermor ,cast flaming arrows after the last javelin has been thrown...
They exhaust themselves without inflicting any damage on the enemy, resulting in the battle being lost, and then they are too tired to run away, and die where they lay.

i just lost a battle, because a mage cast breath of winter on himself, killing most of the surrounding commanders, before he himself and what was left of my leaders, ran away. The enemy was no where near him, and he made no effort to advance on them. why did he cast it? There is no common sense here.
its bad enough going into a battle with an aura of fire/cold/poison/etc unit where you can try, futily, to place him away from those who lack resistance(only to watch them all ball up anyway(speaking of which, why is it when my elephants run away, no matter why they are, all my commanders immediately try to run into their path, another time perhaps...) atleast in that situation, you have some control with initial placement, orders, and hey, you put the guys in the same army. but mages doing this crap on their own is intolerable.

I know a few of the tricks, if there are more i;d love to hear them...

keep most of your gems on a well protected commander or a scout so your mage only has enough to cast the spell in question. ofcourse A) if you are attacked multiiple times in a single turn you are out of luck, and B) as if there isn't enough micromanagement in this game already.

spread out your commanders, so that when(not if) something goes wrong they aren't all massacred. but A) once their scripts end they have a very nasty tendency to ball up anyway, and b) spreading them out leaves them weak and vunerable for a rear assault by cavalry or flyers. there is strength in numbers, shared body gaurds, etc.

equip your mages with fire/whatever resistence items. works if you got the gems to spare, good luck outfitting everyone, thats alot of wasted turns and gems forging, and good luck accounting for every possible situation your mages can come up with, and even then, all your slots are taken up defending yourself against the stupidity of your own troops, instead of supplying bonuses or powers. and your non commanders are still barbeque. while your mages wont be dead from their own spells, they aren't doing their job and winning the battle, so at best, you will suffer extra losses, and at worst, loose the battle and possibly your fatigued mages.

seriously, just too simple check boxes would be nice.
1)follow the script irregardless of the AI's oppinions
2)don't use gems for non scripted spells

it would be nice if, after the 5 script entries, instead of 'cast spells', you could specifiy, 'cast buffs', 'cast summons', 'cast offensive spells'. etc.

actually, speaking of the follow script irregardless, it would be nice if that option were extended to all troops. i am noticing an alarming trend where my archers stop firing in mass to run into the enemy. often taking 2-3 turns to cover the distance. plenty of arrows, entire divisions so its not an injury, and i know they can hurt the guys they are/were shooting at.

there are alot of flaws in this game i can overlook, but when i can't win a battle despite all my preparations because the AI thinks it knows better. thats just not something i can't tolerate. its too aggrevating. I'd say its gotten worse with the last patch but i play rather sporadically. And obviously fire mages are just the worst for me right now, but clearly the problem i whine about concerns the AI as a whole.

Its a fun game... you know, when it doesn't make me want to run my fist through my monitor.

i've said my piece, feel free to delete.