Casting first in defence + endgame spells

[Twan]

After having seen some battles like the castle storming I posted here :

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...b=5&o=&fpart=1

My conclusion is :

I'd like a game mechanic to be created, making impossible to use any *instant* offensive spell affecting the whole battlefield in round one (like Master Enslave, Rain of Stones, Earthquakes, Bone Grinding, Arcane Domination, Undead Mastery, Unraveling, etc...) so the attacker has one round to cast army buffs (defender would still be able to use these spells first in round two, so the defensive advantage would not be reduced too much).

* Continuous effects (like wrathfull skies, fire storm, astral tempest, etc) are not concerned, as well as even large AE spells if they have limited range -a well positioned force can always reduce their effects-

Using mages AI it may be easy to implement (if a -10000000 value can be given to these spells during round one only, so they are overwritten if scripted) and I think it would make endgame battles far more interesting (real battles instead of round one victories for the defender if he has good mages and a sufficient number of gems for them -and even if attacker engage far more mages, unable to protect their army/themselves in round one they are worthless-)

Your thoughts ?