Spell Casting Times

[Psientist]

So I would think, yet not in my painful, repeated experience.

Pretender: Ancient Kraken, astral 8.
Scripted: "Master Enslave" (nothing else)
Items: Eye of the Void, Amulet of the Fish, Crystal Coin. 30 astral gems.
And yes, Thaumaturgy researched to level 9.

effect: nothing. Pretender waits until about round 3 in the battle, when enemy troops make it through front line and attack (he then defends melee).

Similar experiences in past using well equipped and scripted mages for Astral Tempest, Death mages casting Plague (or whatever the battlefield version is... they chose to cast "raise skeleton" repeatedly instead, like that would help), and Water mage casting Grip of Winter (who WOULD cast the spell, but would wait until at least the second round of spellcasting).

I mean, I gotta be doing something wrong here, because my whole game strategies go out the window if all my mages are going to resort to automated battlefield behavior.