I've been trying to have a game with this faction for at least three games now and all of them eventually fail the instant a neighboring faction discovers me (usually drakken or necrophage). A few times I've tried to build up a big enough army but in general I'm unable to last long enough to the third research era even.



Looking for tips on how to play the ardent mages because I'm probably doing something wrong or failing to use the faction's advantages.

On normal difficulty? What turn are you reaching tier 2? Are you doing okay with other factions?

Have you been using towers and battle spells? How I play them(serious difficulty) I focus on fewer cities in the beginning and expanding my army tech, and staying about an era behind to research extra dust and production to supply my armies. I build the bulk of my armies with the zealots who have strike back, and give the ranged unit wands. I usually have healers from the blind ones to support my front row of zealots. Make sure to keep up with army tech, and have high dust and production, science can be improved using towers, so can food later on. Once you master battle spells combat becomes way easier.

If you're looking to play them as a rushdown sort of faction, you need stay on top of your science. Your spells will often make the difference, as Tsrintox said. Prioritize science, new weapons, and new pillars in that order. Once you have your Level 2 Stun, that's really all you need if you're geared properly. Just put all your dust into pillars in the beginning so you can get into Era 2 by turn 10-12, then research Alchemy Labs, Glassteel Teir 2 weapons (you should be skipping teir 1 of both armor and weapons), Arcana of Ifluence, Dust Purifier, and then Meritocratic Promotion, in that order. This will give you level 2 stuns and level 2 weapons, and this will be enough to take out a faction by turn 40-45. Earlier if you're lucky.



I love Ardent Mages and they're my favorite faction, but I struggled until I started using pillars and spells as much as I could. They're balanced around those mechanics, so don't hesitate to use them! Spells will often make the different between a win and a loss at higher difficulties; remember that you can use one every 2 turns and that 90% of the time you should open with a level 2 stun.

it's hard to survive before researching the stun spells. my advice is to keep the starting hero on the army and leveling her to +hitpoints, assimilate a 'tanky' minor, and always keep at least 2 army stacks to deal with threats: your units are squishy and need to be replaced often.



but once stun level 2 is opened...the Mages are indeed a hard carry faction.

I need some help to win with ardent mage in endless difficulty.



I haven't played them since I won normal difficulty and I dont seem to be able to win with them in the hardest difficulty. Someone can give me some tips for the highest difficulty and/or a "let's play".

Gokudo wrote:
I need some help to win with ardent mage in endless difficulty.



I haven't played them since I won normal difficulty and I dont seem to be able to win with them in the hardest difficulty. Someone can give me some tips for the highest difficulty and/or a "let's play".

Well, it's not a bad idea to work your way up-- how are you with them on Impossible? I kind of feel that Ardent Mages are just about worst of the middle, at least against higher difficulty AI, where there are just too many units for you to kill them all without taking casualties in return.



Where are you having trouble? Militarily? Peacefully winning a tech victory? Something else?



Military: To get anywhere, you want armies of 6 zealots with t2+ glassteel weapons (I prefer quarterstaves) and t2+ titanium rings led by a general with titanium insignia. And you need a lvl 2 stun spell and enough dust to use it. And even then it's hard to fight down armies of necrodrones. I prefer vaulter generals: they've got range, and a lot of science boost so that you can put +industry governors in your cities and switch out for your ultra-leveled generals when you want to do a tech victory. Infantry generals are okay, depending on terrain, because they can tank tightly choked maps. Iron armor is cheap enough that you want it for everyone. Reinforcing armies are very helpful, but you shouldn't need more than 4 units in reinforcements. If you're taking casualties, you're fighting a losing war-- end it ASAP. Geldirus assimilation goes a long way.



Science Victory: It is possible to get an Endless difficulty science victory without engaging other factions militarily. You'll still want a good military though, just in case, and you'll need to get a bit of luck. Maintain peace via diplomat's manse with all other factions (even those you don't border), expand as rapidly as possible to the point of unhappy cities before t3, assimilate haunts. Always maintain +20% science empire plan, and check diplomacy frequently for tradeable techs. Don't worry if you're behind on science until t6-- you'll probably catch up after you research your first t6 tech.



However, you can usually win a science victory a lot faster by waging wars. Enemy cities will be more developed than yours, and it's a tight race to a science victory on Endless difficulty, meaning anything you can do to slow down the top dog is good. The thing is, once you're winning your wars, you can usually just get a supremacy victory faster than a science victory.

I'd like to watch some Ardent mage footage on Endless difficulty but i can't find anything which is not older than 4 months when zealots dealt 66% more damage and pillars cost 30 dust ..