Spell casting routine is seriously screwed?

[Hadrian_II]

I think the worst with the spellcasting routine is, that she always burns all the gems a mage has, so if you are seiging a castle and the enemy makes a breakout on the turn you storm the castle your mages will waste all games to defeat the breakout, and you will have to storm the castle without real spell support.

Also fun is when a pan is supposed to cast weapons of sharpness, then he will always cast it on the maenads behind him and not on the centaurs that are fighting on the frontline.

Why mages love to spam ethereal wolves is a second riddle that would need some atention.