AOE mage answer?

This 400 ap list I just ran against had 1 mage cast this massive nuke that hit everyone on my team twice. THat's gg. It was the #1 player right now. I was wondering if this spell was well thought out by the designers? It seems very overpowered to me. If you could use it once it would be more understandable, but twice in the same turn and still casted a buff on one of his lions before that action sequence ended. How do you counter that solid ass whupping I just took? He has 3 lions, a pixie, the mage, and an archer. Just bogs my guys down with the lions then nuke mage sneaks in and gg.

This is a mage build that can be very devastating if you just group your troops. How it goes for everyone is they get creamed like you did once, and then from then on, if you see a Company with this build, you don't group your troops and you go after the mage as quick as possible. The weakness of this build is that if you can kill the mage early, it's game over for the opponent. Send every lion or gargoyle you have after him while using your other troops to draw away all of the mage's support. Don't worry about losing your assault troops, as long as you can kill the mage quickly, the player will quit.

This is a mage build that can be very devastating if you just group your troops. How it goes for everyone is they get creamed like you did once, and then from then on, if you see a Company with this build, you don't group your troops and you go after the mage as quick as possible. The weakness of this build is that if you can kill the mage early, it's game over for the opponent. Send every lion or gargoyle you have after him while using your other troops to draw away all of the mage's support. Don't worry about losing your assault troops, as long as you can kill the mage quickly, the player will quit.

This is absolutly right. The mage with Chastiment of Light and Focus cost a lot of APs if you want to take him down fast flank him with assault units like Gargs, Lions or Hunter but never get in close enough, the effective range of that spell is not what is shown on the line you see when you put your mouse on it, to that line add in your mind 3 more hexes to the last hex inside the line and you should be out of range (keep in mind the movement of the mage too) but if he only has 1 target in sight out of 3 or 4 units rushing at him from the early turns and spread enough, he won't use the spell and just save mana to take all your units down when they close in on him to kill it next turn, humans almost always go first so unless you are human yourself or super lucky he will get you in that turn using divine favor to never fail the spells and kill everything that closed on him, be smart and think of ways to make an attack on that mage on progressive steps, never let him have your units in group to take down, you can use archers too or even other mages (Necro range for Wave of Death is 8 Hexes and you can have Consciense to get him out of his hiding spot but a Necro with that setup will cost just as much as the Mage so be careful with him).

The best way to know how to deal with some units is to actually test them yourself and see what are their weak points and strenghs, like Hod said you will only get destroyed like that once (twice at most).

Good luck.

Thanks guys. Wish I could upvote your answers :p

Gargoyles and pair of flanking skeletons are best RAM counters for mage
for lions you need suicide Bowmans or lions but both arent so great as ram counters.

the spell itself becomes OP mainly because of the small maps where it is impossible to spread...other than that...once you kill it you probably won.

Charging gargoyle + offensive stance = 1 shot.

Occult erosion makes casting much more risky

Skull warrior with HB takes a whopping 5 damage per aoe spell.

Wolven lonewolf can oneshot it with internal rage + attack

Lion can snipe it from very far with the archers... divine favor + favorable auspices = 31 ACC.

just to name a few ways to kill it.

Any Wolven unit has the movement range to give a level 5 mage a run for it's money. Also, just dishing out a chunk of damage to the mage is enough to scupper any plans they might have had as the injury reduces their chance of a successful cast. Should note that level 5 mages tend to hide themselves behind rocks so sniping them is usually not a very easy thing to do. Best thing you can do usually (as a wolfen atleast) is defensive stance sprint right up to him once your opponent has moved most of his units.

Best thing you can do usually (as a wolfen atleast) is defensive stance sprint right up to him once your opponent has moved most of his units.

If you platy Wolfen - two last moves are made by enemy ;p

Best thing you can do usually (as a wolfen atleast) is defensive stance sprint right up to him once your opponent has moved most of his units.

If you platy Wolfen - two last moves are made by enemy ;p

Doesn't matter by then all they have left to move are swordsman/sparklings usually and they aren't a threat to a defensive stanced wolfen. =p Next turn comes and the mage goes down or takes significant damage preventing him from casting successfully, after that it's just a matter of mopping up whats left which honestly is no challenge at all. Even if they try to block the way the wolfen can just run around them, defensive stance will keep it largely safe from attacks of opportunity. And possibly with some softening from my mages/crossbowman the wolfen can take down whatever might be stood between him and the mage and pursuit movement the mage.

any serious Lion player will move Mage last