Do people underuse mages?

[Crevan]

Mages, you say? Useful only in late game and with good equipment. My favorite MA Marignon with their powerful Fire/Astral mages are really brutal and I use them as fast as possible (Research Alt/Evoc/Thaum 5+ and go)...but if nation has no mighty mages (or mages aren`t have high specialisation), I see no way to use them as main weapon - it`s just a way to spend money. There are no really effective spells <3 lvl..and spam with fireflies-like spells against large mid-game or powerful end-game armies looks stupid

[SlipperyJim]

Originally Posted by Crevan

Mages, you say? Useful only in late game and with good equipment.

That's just not true. Nikelaos and AreaOfEffect have made some good suggestions for low-level magic right here on this very thread. I can personally attest to the effectiveness of both Frighten and the venerable skelespam.

Other early-to-mid-game options include:

• Fire! Fireball, Flare, and Holy Pyre can all be good choices for immolating your enemies before they reach you. These spells work especially well when your troops are fire-resistant or fire-immune, so that you'll suffer less from friendly fire.
• Air! Lightning Bolt and Thunder Strike spam. Especially nice to stack with Aim (also Air magic), because that makes your firepower more accurate.
• Blade Wind. Super-killer in Early Age, and still effective in the later ages. Oh yeah....
• Eagle Eyes + Vine Arrow. No, it won't kill too many people, but it will break up enemy formations and allow your troops to battle their foes piecemeal. Defeat in detail, anyone?
• Buffs! Body Ethereal, Luck, Legions of Steel, Protection, Regeneration, and more. Just the thing to take a really good unit and make it nearly unstoppable. Ethereal Elephants, anyone?

In the late game, mages can decide a battle all by themselves. In the early game and mid-game, their role is more support. Still, battle magic can be an impressive addition to any army, even if you've only done a little bit of research....

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by SlipperyJim

[*]Fire! Fireball, Flare, and Holy Pyre can all be good choices for immolating your enemies before they reach you. These spells work especially well when your troops are fire-resistant or fire-immune, so that you'll suffer less from friendly fire.

Also, the battle AI is aware of friendly fire (tries to avoid it), so if your troops are resistant or immune there's a better chance of targetting the dense formations of enemy troops battling your own troops close by instead of scattered formations that are still moving further away. Precision depends partly on distance to target. Thus, immunity to friendly fire helps maximize effective precision, target density, and kill rate.

-Max