Use of mages

[Crafty]

Newbie here I need tips on the use of mages!

I almost always just use them for research, and then when construction is high enough, i start forging stuff.

Trying to figure out how to do the upgrading path tricks with items and summons e.g get a N2 mage add a thistle mace, with N3 get a Ivy king who is *naturally* N3, add mace to get a N4 etc..

But one thing I'm still wondering is, how efficient mages are in battle. I know it depends on what mages you are using, but is it generally worth while to drag a couple of mages with your elite troops just to have them cast battle field magic? Sure there are some special tactics like Wind guide , flaming arrow with archers, but in general are they worth it?

So far, the only time my mages see battle is if they are attacked in their nice fortress+lab... Is that a mistake? Should I be more warlike with my mages?

Any national specific advise is welcome as well.

[GameExtremist]

Mages often make the difference between victory or death.

Use them in your battles for buffing your troops and also for countering your enemy troops strengths and weaknesses.

[Cor]

Yes it is a mistake. take a few with your large armies.

Battlefield wide buffs are priceless.
Flaming arrows also works on slingers, turning a crappy chaff into deadly chaff.

[thejeff]

Or the area effect, large number of effect evocations.

Falling Fire/Frost, Shadow Blast, Nether Darts, Blade Wind, Magma Eruption.

[sum1lost]

from my experiences in dom 2, the right buffs can create some nasty forces- machakas chaff units become deadly with flaming arrows and windguide

[Ironhawk]

Mages *are* the firepower of an advanced army. Recruitable units are, by and large, just meatshields after a certain point. Look into the battlefield enchantment attack spells and also the higher level AOE battlefield spells.

[Novi]

Oh, the pleasure!

Frying your opponents with Thunder Strikes, Magma Eruptions etc. or mincing them with those blood-thirsty, fire-spitting Archangels (Glory to the nation of Pythium!)is a rapture beyond your wildest dreams!

However, there is one very irritating issue regarding the use of heavy battlefield spells. Gems. You have to keep your mages stocked up if you want them to have any effect and dealing with this sort of micro-management is NOT fun - at least in SP games I find it very tedious and time-consuming.

[thejeff]

I'll admit I tend to rarely use gems for regular attack spells. Battlefield buffs and the like, sure, but not the regular AoE spells.
The only one mentioned so far is ShadowBlast, which is nice, but may not be worth the micromanagement most of the time.
It can be devastating at the right time: Someone's storming your castle, hand out nice shiny death gems to all you high death mages and watch the enemy go away.

[Crafty]

After more intensive SP playing I realise My use of magic is definitely suboptimal. That is why i have problems playing big maps. I just research and research and research, but i don't really use them , meanwhile i get a ton of gems sitting around and the computer starts killing me with his magic and my blessed units become outdated.

I have to force myself to actually use what i research. The problem is each spell (even up to lv6) is still not very powerful. You need to cast it multiple times to see it's power. But there's really a lot of micromanagement. I know you can store attack commands, but for rituals or forging it gets really old. Worse for nations with mages with lots of random paths...

Even for construction which is the school i know best, i underuse it.

I was trying the other day to mass produce some lucky pedants, but it was a pain trying to remember which of the 20 or so mages in my capital could forge it (not all had S1). Not to mention figuring out what to forge in the first place. Was a mage with 3D2N able to forge exactly the same stuff has a 3D2N1A at contruction 6?

All trying to remember which mages have cast site searching spells, you can make a mistake and you find 2 different mages cast the same site searching spell on the same province sigh.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++

There is a certain point where you have to say, enough is enough and stop the bulk of research and send your army of mages out there to conquer!!!

12 mages backed up with some minimal troops is quite amazing site with lv 6 magic.

[thejeff]

The auto site search should work pretty will for avoiding duplicate searches.

The 'F1' screen makes it easier to find the mages you need.

Summoned troops and commanders are probably the lowest micromanagement use of research and gems. Takes some experimentation to figure out which ones are most useful.