DRAS - Tactical opinion needed!

[thejeff]

If I understand the problem correctly, the issue is that you want to slow research down so that the big endgame magic is not reached as soon, but that that strengthens early rush attacks since their victims need more time to research counters?

If so, the ideal solution would be to only slow research of higher level spells, rather than trying to pick and choose spells to use to counter rushes. Since you can't actually change research difficulty in the middle of the game, how would simply moving 2nd and 3rd level spells down 1 level work?

Sombre's suggestion of a giving everyone a good researcher to start with could also work. If it's a starting unit (using map commands?), not a new recruitable it wouldn't even need to get worse with time. What's a big research bonus in the first year is a drop in the bucket when it comes to level 7-8 research.
If you wanted a complex fix, you could change a mod partway through to cut every mages research.

I also don't think it's worth worrying about these spells helping out the rushers too. Since the objective is duplicate the normal research early game, not to weaken rushers beyond that, they should have the same access if they can research and rush.