Troops vs magic, what am I doing wrong?

[krpeters]

Originally Posted by Rookierookie

This makes sense only on normal difficulties. On Impossible settings, with custom advantaged AI-Gods, the AI will outbuild you 10-1 on conventional units. Units like knights will achieve a very favorable KD ratio, but there is only so much they can do before the AI swarms all over you.

Exactly, as I try higher difficulty levels, I just get swarmed by enemy troops, so I'm looking for strategies to wipe out his swarms. What I find is that most of the magic is geared toward taking out small numbers of quality troops, not huge amounts of chaff.

What is all the excitement regarding Thunderstrike? I've tried it several times, and it never seems to work for me. My mages nearly always target the periphery of an enemy squad instead of the center, so I kill the three guys in the square it hits and injure half a dozen nearby. Very underwhelming. Is it critical to cast an aiming spell first to make this useful?