Also, the Academics' skills mostly focus on strength and knowledge. And their troops are slow and not very proactive.
You can destroy half of the mages' army with a warrior hero on the very first turn.
You can also try this strategy with the Undead; their troops are also not very well-protected and are fast.
You can also try it with Demons; you need to attack them at the beginning so that fewer troops are summoned.
And a hero with only one magic skill is not yet a mage, and not even a combat mage; it's a warrior with magic... you can, for example, take Light or Darkness as support for combat skills. Although 2%...
In my opinion, a combat mage is a balance between magic and an army.
As for small maps, you can also easily choose combat skills on them; at least, I can always do it when I want to.
The Warlock's primary combat skills are developed... well, attack is usually very high (my observation). And defense... by visiting Marletto's Tower, it reaches 1 by the final battle.
By the way, I noticed that if you develop a hero as a warrior, then the skills also tend to focus more on attack and defense. No, on attack... and a little bit on defense.
Except the ones we've made