Frustratingly Stupid Fire Mages

[Jarkko]

With MA Marignon I had the same trouble in a MP game ages ago (I think it was one of my first Dom3 MP's, right after this was released). I then started to place the archers way back, so they would for *sure* not be able to fire on first turn, not necessarily even on second. The mage on Flaming Arrows duty was scripted with (if I remember correctly) Phoenix Power, Power of the Spheres, Flaming arrows, cast spells.

Dunno if it was just coincidence, but that worked like a charm from battle to battle. Until I was hit by a ton of storm-demons or something (cant remember what it was anymore), but that is another story... Anyway, seemed to me the AI saw the archers to be in range, the mage had nice buffs so would take very low fatigue hit for casting flamin arrows, and thus the script went through. It also worked wonders with the knights having hold&attack, being below the archers in the command screen, so the flaming death hit first, and then the lances of the blessed knights ripped the rest apart. Anyway, like I said, I was soundly beaten in that game, but it sure was awesome as long as it lasted.

[Nightblade]

Some years ago, i asked here about a similar problem.
I had a Blood Fountain pretender that was maxed out in Blood magic. Because it was an endgame, and i wanted to test my best and well equipped commanders against some horrors, i casted the global enchantment "Astral Corruption".

To test my pretender itself, i launched an astral spell with it and the Slave of Unreason found its way to my fountain.
My fountain was scripted with "Cast Spell" to leave it free to chose its own. It casted only one spell, "Infernal Prison" that got rid of the Slave of Unreason.

But powerfull horrors like the Slave of Unreason never stay imprisonned for long. several turns after that, it appeared again in one of the province.
I sent my best commander, with the scripted spell "Infernal Prison" to see if he would do the same as my pretender to the Horror.

In the battle, he never ever casted "Infernal Prison". I didn't understood why, until someone mentionned the range. Infernal Prison has a range of 30 in the manual, and i had placed my commander far in the back, thinking about avoiding anything nasty the Slave of Unreason could launch first, letting my foot troops/canon fodder gets all the fun

So check if you fire mages are not by any chances too far from the target when it is time for them to throw the first spell you scripted them.