Ice mages

[Fenderstat]

So I have discovered that fighting ice mages is not fun. There snowball attack is ridiculous. When one group of ice mages can take out 3 crossbow groups by itself its getting ridiculous, Any advice in how to edit there magic attack strength? I like their toughness in melee and health (they should be tough but not OP) I don't want to destroy them completely, just balance them so they are not as lethal.

[HernanU]

Charge them with the heaviest cavalry you have at the beggining of the battle. Ignore everything else in the path just move fast a good bunch of heavy cavalry and/or ogres, reach the mages and kill them at any cost. They only can fire a couple of times and the casualties in your army would be minimal, and your knights or ogres are resilient enough to resist much of the damage of the enemy units in their path to the mages (don´t click in the "atack", just move, fast, near the mages before charge so your units move and don´t engage the other units protecting the crazy old magic icebolt throwers). Don´t try to kill them with artillery or missiles, you will lose because they don´t break easily and if only one survive they cause massive damage. But, in fact, the overpowered mages are one of the most interesting tactic changes in any battle, you cannot just set your halberds in guard mode and shieldwall with missiles and mortars behind slaughter the enemy troops and your cavalry charging in the rear for the rout, you must change you tactic and fast or die, very rewarding when you win a battle with such odds against you and no "defensive trick" abusing of the stupidity of the enemy controled by the computer (And more chalenging if you are playing the dwarf with no cavalry! you are gonna hate, really hate these mages). On the other side, when the mage (or equivalent) is in your side the battles are repetitive and boring, killing thousands before they can even reach your lines. Sorry for my english.

[Cenk]

Actually, ice mages are the weakest ones in the game (according to their stats, didn't see them in battle). But they are capable of attacking from very long distances, much longer than all other mages, except the dark elf ones.

To edit unit stats, find export_descrt_unit file in data folder. Find ICE MAGE. "stat_pri" line describes their ranged/magic attack. Don't forget to backup files before editing them.

But like i said, they are the weakest ones. It might be their missile range, what causes you problem.

stat_pri 10, 5, great_snowball, 250, 40, missile, missile_gunpowder, blunt, none, 0, 1

Here, number 250 describes their range. Most mages have 200, but since ice mages are weaker, they have longer range to counter this weakness, i'm guessing. If you ask my opinion, mages are well balanced and don't require editing.

Edit: Bright wizards of the Empire have 10 ranged attack as well, just like ice mages. But their ability of raining fire makes them amazingly powerful, especially during sieges. Though, during field battles ice mages might be more useful, because of their longer range.

[Vossie]

All mages are OP, I remember my campaign with the empire, I started with 1 unit of Fire mages and the next turn I completed a mission and got 4 or 5 more Mages.
I must say it was fun but there was no challenge left.

The best strategy is to rush them like HernanU said.