With the new addition of mages, clerics, and other factions in Calradia, it comes as no surprise that tactics need to change. If you have attacked a seemingly small and harmless group of outlaws with a bandit mage, then you know exactly what I'm about to say. Mages in this mod can kill many low level units in quick succession with their AoE spells. Now while only medium-high tier mages have access to these spells it is still enough to cause a lot of trouble especially early on. I'll talk about different tactics to use during battles and sieges to deal with these sowers of destruction.
Mages in Battle: Out in the open field *especially early on* one or two mages with AoE spells will waste your peasants/infantry. One of the best things to do is fight fire with fire. Grab some mercenary mages from the tavern or a couple from the Ridas Magocracy villages. If only two mages are present on the opposing force you can try to kill them off yourself. This can be very dangerous without practice as they are pretty accurate and extremely deadly when you have little armor/magic resistance. Cavalry is a good way to distract them and it will at least redirect fire from your main force. One horseman dying is a lot better than 15 infantry. If your force is caught off guard in the worst scenario possible with only low level melee units then have your infantry spread out(F2-F3), and then use the advance 10 paces command (F2-F1). This will cause the AoE spells to be less effective and make it harder for them to hit your troops.
Mages in Siege: With the addition of mages in sieges it can either be what saved you or what killed you. When attacking castles/towns with mages on the wall that means getting up the ladder is harder than ever before. Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, and basically everything else under the sky, is coming right at your troops that are all huddled together trying to get up the ladder/siege tower. Prepare to take losses and a lot of them. Best bet in these situations is to have high Magic resistance troops in a separate division (Inf,Archers,Cav,ETC) you can send them first to take the initial burst. Set your archers and mages up in an area that gives them the best angle to hit people on the wall. Come prepared and bring archers/mages to thin out the enemy on the wall. In defense set your mages up where they have a clear view of the masses storming your castle be it coming up the ladder or huddled at the bottom. Sit back and laugh diabolically as the turquoise text floods in.
Clerics in Battle: Clerics are a wonderful addition to any army as a support role that can take a lot of hits and have an amazing heal script that activates every two minutes (in battle/siege). Clerics have a fairly high magic resistance, Good HP, Good Shield Skill, a healing script, and tough armor. Let's start off with the healing script which is the trademark of Clerics/Priestess. The healing script activates every two minutes while in battle and does a check for surrounding units that have less than 80% health. If a unit is detected meeting the conditions then the script heals the unit(and himself) in 3 meter radius for 20 hp. *Note - there is also an animation of light floating upwards so you will know when the heal goes off* The clerics have all these amazing abilities and are so strong! Why not just have only clerics? It's simple really, they don't do much damage. With little to no power strike and weak maces, they are meant to be support for your faction's other infantry.
Clerics in Siege: So now we know that clerics are great support. Where do they fit in when it comes to sieges? Sieges last a long time which means archers and mages will kill plenty of your units before you even get close. A way to save some lives is by having your forces pull back in the beginning. Retreat back a bit while telling your clerics (in a diff division so as not to send infantry) to move forward. The clerics will act as a meat shield for your army. With high defense capabilities (Good shield/armor for the archers and magic resist for the mages) along with a wonderful heal script they can minimize your losses. During the first part of the siege after setting up your clerics gather up your archers/mages to give them their best angle of attack on the walls. After the opposing side has whittled down some you can send in your shock force of infantry to clean house. When some of your infantry start hitting the ladders have your clerics charge in with them. This will cause the clerics to be amongst the main infantry force, now taking the damage, to support and heal them.
