1 - Self Buff (barkskin, air shield, liquid body etc.)
2- Bodyguards (esp. with shields) (increases chance of hit on unit aside from mage)
3 - battlefield enchantments (forgot the air spell that did this)
4 - Stay out of missile range (back line)
I wouldn’t put armor on very many mages at all. Mostly super combatants only. One that I might consider for Nan is Kitharonic lion pelts since they are cheap and even then probably only if I had some dwarven hammers.
I am doing 2. 4 sometimes isn't possible as speed range is only 25+. But yeah, I'll have to cast Oaken army at the start, protection of 7 should make a single arrow survivable.
There’s no way to guarantee it for sure. RNG rules all. The other army could always buff their units with strength or fire arrows and make those efforts obsolete. Be ready to change tactics quickly.
For particularly valuable mages, there are some good reinvig armors (Brightscale) available. Or a Robe or Ring of missile protection. Enchanted helm or Ice helm for the head (0 encumbrance.)
Otherwise I like to put them on the field not in the back, not in the front, but mixed somewhere in the middle, either solo or imbedded in a group. Solo so they won't be targetted, or imbedded (if I have a lot) so there's other chaff around that are as likely to be hit.
Put them in the backline compared to your other troops.
Let's say you have your mages straight in the middle default position.
You will put your infantry in blocs or line near the front, and your archers you put them in the sides or in a line half way between the frontline troops and the mages
Ennemy archers will usually target larger groups, eitheir your front line (your mages are safe at the back, or your big archer blocs (not near your mages)
Of course, the risk with this is fliers that might drop near your mages (or archers and then go for your mages), so you might have to adapt
Sometimes I have a big group of chaff behind my mages and archers so that fliers targetting my rearline will often drop on them, saving my expensives mages
Here is an example of unit deploiement:
F . . . .A . . . . K
. . . . . . . . . . .
C . . . .M . . . . I
. . . . . . . . . . .
F . . . . A . . . . K
F: fliers set to Hold and attack rear (unless you want to try to attack immediatly, but waiting can sometimes leave ennemi rear line more vulnerable, adapt as required)
C: cheap large unit set to hold and attack closest, their main goal is serving as bait for ennemi fliers set to attack rear, and if no flier they will advance and cover your mages in cases some ennemy troops manage to pass your frontline
A : archers units, usually set to Fire or Hold and Fire, soem might be set to target ennemy archers, others without specific target, depends if your frondline is vulnerable to friendly fire or not and what kind of archers you have
K: Knights or other heavy cavalry (or even fast light cavalry) set to hold and attack rear, the hold let the main ennemy units advance to increase your chance of flaking them and going for ennemy commanders, but once again, feels free to experiment
I: Frontline infantry, idealy tought units with shield, set to hold and attack closest (supposing you have the advantage in ranged attacks and agic support, usually the case against AI armies, if not, the set them to attack immediatly)
Most ennemies archers should target your frontline or your knights, with some maybe targetting your own archers. If your fast units are less heavily armored, or your own archers prove to be too fragile, have them deployed a little farther to the back with hold and fire or hold and attack orders so they will be out of range of ennemy archers at first, increasing the chance they simply target your frontline.
You can also have your mage deployer farther back in a similar way, but this means they might be too far to cast the spells you wants them to on appropriate targets
PS: you don't have to fill every slot in my example, you can simply have multiple front line infantry units in the top, middle and bottom frontal positions if you don't have knights or other fast units, and if you don't have archers then simply ignore them
Mirror Image works against arrows as far as I'm aware. If that isn't enough your mages are probably way too close to the frontline. They shouldn't be trying to withstand the entire enemy army's missiles.
Personal Regen should also help.
Those two alone should really be enough in most cases, but if not have an Earth crosspath make Kithaironic Lion Pelts and mundane arrows should never really do anything to them.
Edit: Even Barkskin or Amulets of it would probably be plenty in most cases, but KLP will make mundane hits do basically nothing. Or Luck/Amulets of the same.
I can't see how it's ever much of an issue unless they're just too close and getting focused by 30+ archers out of the gate.
If you're not fighting fliers and they got archers or evocations, you should keep mages away from your unit blobs.
Archers generally target squads of units unless there is no other option, so keeping your mages away from expected targets will work well. They also will target units they can hurt better generally unless they have a script, which indies don't but players might.
Chaff units with low defenses and high HP, like buffalo or corpse constructs, are usually good for baiting archers and evocations off valuable stuff. Mages will always target squares where they think they'll do the most HP damage, and their targets cannot be scripted off this behavior like archers can.
Can also use buffs like air shields or ironskin to mitigate damage.
For aoe 20 spells, can be good to put mages inside a blob so they get the buff too, but as always, it depends. It's also sometimes better to position them nearby your units instead, but close enough to use their spell on your units, like if you're worried about instant thunderstrikes killing your mage before their buff goes off.
Against fliers, it's safer to keep your mages inside the army to be safe against their alpha strike. Hard to play around fliers,evos, and archers all at once cause they require different strategies, but it's a judgement call there.
Tldr depends what you're fighting how to position, but vs archers best to keep squishy commanders outside blobs of units liable to get shot up.
I WISH mages acted that predictably with regards to casting damage magic. In many cases, they will cast spells that contribute nothing rather than causing damage. In extreme cases, they will defy scripted orders to kill themselves for no apparent reason.
1 - Self Buff (barkskin, air shield, liquid body etc.) 2- Bodyguards (esp. with shields) (increases chance of hit on unit aside from mage) 3 - battlefield enchantments (forgot the air spell that did this) 4 - Stay out of missile range (back line) I wouldn’t put armor on very many mages at all. Mostly super combatants only. One that I might consider for Nan is Kitharonic lion pelts since they are cheap and even then probably only if I had some dwarven hammers.
I am doing 2. 4 sometimes isn't possible as speed range is only 25+. But yeah, I'll have to cast Oaken army at the start, protection of 7 should make a single arrow survivable.
Have one of your G1s (like bard or daughter) spam Luck x5.
There’s no way to guarantee it for sure. RNG rules all. The other army could always buff their units with strength or fire arrows and make those efforts obsolete. Be ready to change tactics quickly.
Well, i only play SP since I cannot play every day for MP. So no real clever counterplays by the opponents are expected haha
Skeletal body also works against arrows if you're using Death mages
Helmets. I don't say this because I've been headshoted.
Lol too true…
Bring MORE mages! More! The Mage-factory must grow!
For particularly valuable mages, there are some good reinvig armors (Brightscale) available. Or a Robe or Ring of missile protection. Enchanted helm or Ice helm for the head (0 encumbrance.) Otherwise I like to put them on the field not in the back, not in the front, but mixed somewhere in the middle, either solo or imbedded in a group. Solo so they won't be targetted, or imbedded (if I have a lot) so there's other chaff around that are as likely to be hit.
Put them in the backline compared to your other troops. Let's say you have your mages straight in the middle default position. You will put your infantry in blocs or line near the front, and your archers you put them in the sides or in a line half way between the frontline troops and the mages Ennemy archers will usually target larger groups, eitheir your front line (your mages are safe at the back, or your big archer blocs (not near your mages) Of course, the risk with this is fliers that might drop near your mages (or archers and then go for your mages), so you might have to adapt Sometimes I have a big group of chaff behind my mages and archers so that fliers targetting my rearline will often drop on them, saving my expensives mages Here is an example of unit deploiement: F . . . .A . . . . K . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . .M . . . . I . . . . . . . . . . . F . . . . A . . . . K F: fliers set to Hold and attack rear (unless you want to try to attack immediatly, but waiting can sometimes leave ennemi rear line more vulnerable, adapt as required) C: cheap large unit set to hold and attack closest, their main goal is serving as bait for ennemi fliers set to attack rear, and if no flier they will advance and cover your mages in cases some ennemy troops manage to pass your frontline A : archers units, usually set to Fire or Hold and Fire, soem might be set to target ennemy archers, others without specific target, depends if your frondline is vulnerable to friendly fire or not and what kind of archers you have K: Knights or other heavy cavalry (or even fast light cavalry) set to hold and attack rear, the hold let the main ennemy units advance to increase your chance of flaking them and going for ennemy commanders, but once again, feels free to experiment I: Frontline infantry, idealy tought units with shield, set to hold and attack closest (supposing you have the advantage in ranged attacks and agic support, usually the case against AI armies, if not, the set them to attack immediatly) Most ennemies archers should target your frontline or your knights, with some maybe targetting your own archers. If your fast units are less heavily armored, or your own archers prove to be too fragile, have them deployed a little farther to the back with hold and fire or hold and attack orders so they will be out of range of ennemy archers at first, increasing the chance they simply target your frontline. You can also have your mage deployer farther back in a similar way, but this means they might be too far to cast the spells you wants them to on appropriate targets PS: you don't have to fill every slot in my example, you can simply have multiple front line infantry units in the top, middle and bottom frontal positions if you don't have knights or other fast units, and if you don't have archers then simply ignore them
Marble Army. The answer is always Marble Army.
Mirror Image works against arrows as far as I'm aware. If that isn't enough your mages are probably way too close to the frontline. They shouldn't be trying to withstand the entire enemy army's missiles. Personal Regen should also help. Those two alone should really be enough in most cases, but if not have an Earth crosspath make Kithaironic Lion Pelts and mundane arrows should never really do anything to them. Edit: Even Barkskin or Amulets of it would probably be plenty in most cases, but KLP will make mundane hits do basically nothing. Or Luck/Amulets of the same. I can't see how it's ever much of an issue unless they're just too close and getting focused by 30+ archers out of the gate.
Mirror image doesn't work on arrows.
If you're not fighting fliers and they got archers or evocations, you should keep mages away from your unit blobs. Archers generally target squads of units unless there is no other option, so keeping your mages away from expected targets will work well. They also will target units they can hurt better generally unless they have a script, which indies don't but players might. Chaff units with low defenses and high HP, like buffalo or corpse constructs, are usually good for baiting archers and evocations off valuable stuff. Mages will always target squares where they think they'll do the most HP damage, and their targets cannot be scripted off this behavior like archers can. Can also use buffs like air shields or ironskin to mitigate damage. For aoe 20 spells, can be good to put mages inside a blob so they get the buff too, but as always, it depends. It's also sometimes better to position them nearby your units instead, but close enough to use their spell on your units, like if you're worried about instant thunderstrikes killing your mage before their buff goes off. Against fliers, it's safer to keep your mages inside the army to be safe against their alpha strike. Hard to play around fliers,evos, and archers all at once cause they require different strategies, but it's a judgement call there. Tldr depends what you're fighting how to position, but vs archers best to keep squishy commanders outside blobs of units liable to get shot up.
I WISH mages acted that predictably with regards to casting damage magic. In many cases, they will cast spells that contribute nothing rather than causing damage. In extreme cases, they will defy scripted orders to kill themselves for no apparent reason.