[Saxon]

I recommend spreading your mages out, no matter what. One group has a higher chance of attracting arrow fire and of being hit by stray shots. Also, if they fatigue out and your troops run, the enemy has to cover more ground to kill all the mages. Sometimes one or two will recover from fatigue and be able to flee.

I agree, you see some less than ideal spell choices at times, but you will also get some very pleasant surprises. I never script the spells that hold an enemy in place, yet one of my casters did just that to a flying pretender god. End result, dead pretender.

It was once described as giving orders and hoping they are followed. As a manager of real life humans, I can tell you that the results you see are very lifelike. Not that a game about magic, dragons and talking lizards should try to create “realism,” but in this case they have!