How to use Pangea songs?

[Actuarian]

Actuarian said:
They sound great but don't seem to be particulary useful spells.

Twice, early in a game, I put the caster in the front row, set my melee troops to hold and attack, and scripted the caster to cast flying shards for a couple of turns and then cast one of the 3 spell songs. Both times the AI overrode the script and kept casting shards even though the enemy troops were definately in range.

I really wanted to see how the spell worked, so I attacked a province with no archers(I also had no archers), and set my troops to guard commander. The AI still overrode the script and kept casting shards.

The first two times I had the troops scripted for hold and attack. The caster was scripted for shards, shards, attack, tune of death, tune of fear.

The third time turns out to be a case of user error
The spellcaster was in the default position on the battlefield and not on the front row.

Still, it seemed like in all three cases (definately the first two) the enemy troops were within range 15 by the time the song spells were scripted to kick in.