questions about fire magic

[Dragar]

Has anyone had any luck using the short range fire spells that emanate from/surround the caster? I've never tried before as I prefer to keep fire mages away from the melee, but notice that they can do a fair bit of damage over a wide area when someone gets close to them, and with a fire immune army like abysia's there is no collateral damage. Further you avoid the low precision most fire mages have, the fireballs and such tend to be highly effective only against very large numbers, else you spend a lot of effort burning grass.

Has anyone every built a thug on that premise? I see two major problems:

1. Fire doesn't do much for survival - would need a fair bit of equipment and/or buffing from other mages.

2. Is there anyway to get them to attack in that fashion? Give them an attack order and they won't cast, don't script them to attack and they will just sit back and lob longer range spells..

Perhaps placing all troops at the front with the mages, setting them to guard commander, would bring the fight to the mages and they'd choose the short range spells? That way there would be some decent protection for the mages too.