Zap the COMMANDER, stupid!

[Ed Kolis]

OK, this has probably been asked a million times before, but I don't see any similar threads on a first glance, so I'll just ask away...

How do you get your commanders to cast spells at enemy commanders? My pretender and other spellcasters are always wasting his time zapping militias and such with Mind Burn and other high-precision spells, while they could be zapping the enemy commanders, trying to rout the entire army - I know that commanders tend to have higher magic resistance, but shouldn't this tactic be available anyway in case you want to take the risk of wasting your spells in order to rout the enemy?

[Endoperez]

And wouldn't this make any army attacking any nation with astral mages rout in one round? Think what you are asking for!

Militia do die easily, but then, so does your mage, and that lonely figure back there isn't even casting spells so he is not dangerous to the mage.

[Arralen]

The AI can do that ... see

A.

[aldin]

One other thought Ed, are the enemy commanders in range?

~Aldin

[Taqwus]

Range does matter. Some of the high-precision / long-range spells do tend to target Big Nasties especially powerful commanders, 'tho; Curse comes to mind (watch out for those lizard provinces!).

Two issues about commander targeting, 'tho: realism and gameplay. To target leaders specifically implies that they can somehow be noticed and identified, despite frequently being near the far end of the fray with possibly a large melee in the way. Another realism bit is that a mage might target units that seem more likely to threaten him personally (are closer, say) or otherwise stand out. You're looking at the battle from a god's eye view in relative personal safety (unless you're playing on a laptop in the middle of a gangwar crossfire or something like that) and with the luxury of being able to take advantage of perfect information and without time pressure (rather than looking into a chaotic melee and wondering whether you're going to live). Some seemingly lousy targeting seems permissable.

Gameplay -- would tilt balance towards certain long-range / precise spells like Incinerate, Soul Slay. Magic would make mid/late battles gunfights, and this would be particularly evil considering that all defending mages would get first draw...

[Ed Kolis]

Hmm... good point on the realism. Though it would be better IMHO to simply not have any long range high precision insta-kill spells. Or, let them target commanders at high priority, but you first need to cast a high-fatigue scrying spell to find the commanders, then use a decent number of magic gems to cast the spell... but with the realism explanation the current system seems good enough