Discussion of the Academy faction (Mages and Wizards). Tactics and their specific features.

I wouldn't deny that, but playing on a duel server, I was very surprised when my vampires were targeted with Mind Control, and the liches with Vampirism.

I would also be surprised if Vampirism was applied to liches. Almost as surprised as if Vampirism was applied to a supply cart :D :D

The development of a mage heavily depends on the hero you are playing. If it's Nurah, then Chaos with Mark is good. The strategy is very simple: take yellow golems, healing gremlins, and a wall of fire (if available, which isn't always the case), and go for it. The wall is placed, the golems run along it, healing, and Nurah finishes off the opponent in the meantime (100 Inquisitors or 100 Archmages in the second week, having only 35 golems – these are quite realistic plans that even the Necropolis can't handle). If you get a defense skill, you must take it, because for Nurah, defense is a rare stroke of luck, and the golems will become exceptionally durable. Then she can use Armageddon on black gargoyles, if the opponent survives the first attack, which shouldn't be delayed, otherwise the meat will grow and won't care about Chaos.

If it's Haffiz, then it's Light (it's best to forget about machines in the Mentor's week by the 4th week, because they will become irrelevant, of course, if this Mentor is available). Here you need to pray for BB (Blessed Blessing) and Claw. If you have at least one of these, then the gremlins will be stronger than everything combined, but this happens very rarely, so you shouldn't rely on it. For the final stage, equip the gremlins with triple artifacts (initiative, health, attack), cast mass haste and mass smite, and the gremlins will crush the enemy army completely. 600-700 gremlins in the sixth week with an initiative of 24, under smite, and with artifacts for attack, easily and effortlessly defeat even trained paladins.

Razazak is developed in defense (fortunately, he has it at the start) and in Light. After that, you can develop Summoning for the shield, if you see it on the fifth level. A hundred blue golems under a shield, equipped with Light and mini-artifacts for defense, health, and initiative, are death for all sorts of even-matched units like dwarves, orcs, or necropolises. But you need to understand that Razazak will be given a hard time by fast, relentless damage dealers – Dungeon, Inferno – they will simply nullify the defense of the golems and then eat them, or they will kill them before the hero has time to equip the golems with Light and a shield.

Narhiz is a separate topic and is exclusively about the Tournament Edition. Because there, Narhiz is a mechanic. I won't go into too much detail, a mechanic is a mechanic.

A separate word about Jalib. A completely useless hero for combat, but indispensable for the economy. He instantly gets "Luck of the Road" and takes 500 more coins from all chests. It's much easier to live with him.

Ora – it depends on the situation, anywhere. Either in Summoning, or in Dark Magic, or in Chaos. It all depends on the opponent's faction, the starting conditions, and the map.

That's how it is. I apologize for the length, but it's better this way than to have to chew on it for two pages. For fun, I'm attaching a combat replay of Nurah and 100 Archmages, second week.

P.S. All of the above is just my opinion.