Any power gaming strategies for mages in fast games

[grayrest]

Also, specializing mages is surprisingly important. You ideally want to get Death I/II and Fire I/II entirely from mana nodes, allowing you to go the full 5 in combat plus Spell Extension from promotions. I always thought that mages were weak before I started focusing on getting them to Combat V instead of giving them school promotions.

 

[ArkhanTheBlack]

Well, I have to admit the city was rather extreme, with lots of stone wardens with medic skill. Actually, for such special cases it's more or less the most easy way to add some pyro zombies. I tried this attempt and after that attack, they couldn't recover anymore.
Therefore the strategy is probably more powerfull than I thought. And the city would have been difficult to get for other power strategies too.
In addition, with some air, I could get maelstrom, and yeah it's correct, in principle I can build a whole army of adepts which can spam strength 4 skeletons and upgrad to mages at some point. With arcane lore, I can even get Hemah with OO religion. And after that, I can get arch mages at some point.

I still think that ritualists get their fire ring spell a bit too easy, but that doesn't mean the mages are bad.

 

[Landmonitor]

With respect to the XP delay, it is good to bring adepts along with your stacks, especially before assassins are common. I have levelled them up to mages a lot quicker by letting them attack wounded enemies.

 

[Landmonitor]

Also, specializing mages is surprisingly important. You ideally want to get Death I/II and Fire I/II entirely from mana nodes, allowing you to go the full 5 in combat plus Spell Extension from promotions. I always thought that mages were weak before I started focusing on getting them to Combat V instead of giving them school promotions.

I totally agree; spending more than 2 promotions on spell access is unfortunate (unless it is for the earth 1/spirit 2/mind 1 "city mage"). This also syncs nicely with using combat to level your mages. Finally, in addition to Combat and Spell Extension, I have a poilcy of mandatory mobility I promotion so that they can keep up with my mobile groups, rather than being permanently stuck to the siege groups. They often end up with the siege groups anyway, but it is nice to have the tactical flexibility.