Do people underuse mages?

[Crevan]

Buffs useful only on high levels: spend lot of money for weak buffer...only if you have no choice - weak Mictlans, small armies of Niefel, sacred but damn weak White Centaurs and other
Fire...I think, some rods in hands of your commanders looks better. They don`t require upkeep, can`t be cursed/diseased/killed - but delivers really good damage
Spam of skeletons - you think it`s good idea? In VERY early game may be, then flying units or archers can easily take down your "spammers" before they can change situation on battlefield
All mages become useful only when you research powerful combat spells. It takes time, right? Even with "Very easy research" and nation with powerful researchers it takes about 30-40 turns before you gain access to 5+ level spells in Alt/Evo/Thaum. I better research Conj/Const line with summons and artefacts - it will add me more power, than mages

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by Crevan

Buffs useful only on high levels: spend lot of money for weak buffer...only if you have no choice - weak Mictlans, small armies of Niefel, sacred but damn weak White Centaurs and other
Fire...I think, some rods in hands of your commanders looks better. They don`t require upkeep, can`t be cursed/diseased/killed - but delivers really good damage
Spam of skeletons - you think it`s good idea? In VERY early game may be, then flying units or archers can easily take down your "spammers" before they can change situation on battlefield
All mages become useful only when you research powerful combat spells. It takes time, right? Even with "Very easy research" and nation with powerful researchers it takes about 30-40 turns before you gain access to 5+ level spells in Alt/Evo/Thaum. I better research Conj/Const line with summons and artefacts - it will add me more power, than mages

Sorry, but you're wrong. I could go into more detail, but if you have a nation with good researchers (like MA Marignon, who has several kinds of sacred mages) and planned for it, you can probably reach level 5 Evocation on turn 15 or so - on normal research - while still having conquered a good amount of provinces. In addition, when you reach level 5 in a single school, your research capability is powerful enough to reach level 2 or 3 in other schools in a turn or two.

I haven't tested this in a long time, but focusing on research can pay off really fast. I'm not sure if it's possible to reach level 5 by turn 15 and can't test it because I don't have Dom3 at this computer, but that's what you should strive for. Level 5 research isn't "middle or late game", it's when early game ends.

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by Crevan

Spam of skeletons - you think it`s good idea? In VERY early game may be, then flying units or archers can easily take down your "spammers" before they can change situation on battlefield

Ehm, skelly spam has been quite proven to be a good idea. At all stages of the game, the only thing that really changes, is how many spammers you need to get the desired effect.

Granted, there are counters to it, but almost every tactic has an easy (though not necessarily obvious, or intuitive) weakness.

I'm not going to do a thorough breakdown of everything that you said, but I'll just say that if you accept you can be that wrong on that point, perhaps you might look at the usefulness of other buffs and such.

Oh and one other thing, if you wait too long, all those fancy toys (well, most of them) won't be all that effective against decently built SCs, so you'll have missed a lot of the good active lifespan of many very functional spells.