How to use mage in a battle

[Skolem]

atul said:So I'd say the question to be asked shouldn't be "what do I do with mages?" but "what do I do with mages x,y,z put against situation n or m?" The big advantage mage/troop army has against SCs is that they're usually much more expendable.

first thanks for the answer. I was aware that it was a highly situational problem, but i though maybe there are a few rule of thumbs, or basic techniques which one could build upon. That was what I was interrested in. the problem that I am still overhelmed by the multitude of spells that are posible, and most that I experiment with either weren't succesfull (I suppose I use them in the wrong case, and or my army wasn't build around such a spell or there was just something else) or I just forgott how I use them . how you use a SC is fairly situational to, but you find a lot of builds, with explanations in the forum, I though maybe one of the wise, old and mighty players , could give an advice in how to create army's with mages and how to use them effectively, as I IMHO found is maybe the greatest lack of strategical discussion in this forum.

[alexti]

Boron said:
Almost any nation has rather fragile mages , especially for pythium this is true .


If you play e.g. Vanheim/LoT do the mirror images help against earth quakes , wrathful skies lightnings etc. or not ?

These spells make most national mages in quantities >5 rather useless .

Not totally useless, just useless in offsensive. Defending their own castle under the dome, they can be quite efficient. You only need to plan on opponent casting mass destruction spells and script your mages to cast all vital protection spells in the first round. Alternative/additional plan is to send some force to distract the enemy in the magic or break siege phase. If they're numerous enough, the enemies will likely spend their gems limiting their ability to cast mass destruction spells in the fort battle.

In other cases you may use more than 5 mages too, but you should be prepared to lose them, so it's rather a complementary force to your army.

Boron said:
Vanheim , Pan , Jotunheim + LoT are at least partially exeptions but all other nations should have extreme troubles there with their national mages .

This shifts then in lategame the balance more to SCs + Strong summonable mages ?

I think that shifts the balance more toward balanced armies: few SCs, few strong summonable mages, few regular mages, some strong summons and regular troops and some fodder summons/troops.