Do you know how to play?

No, mages are actually effective on large maps, especially if they are hand-drawn maps with large armies. Of course, if artifacts like the Sphere of Inhibition and the Cloak are taken into account, they simply won't appear on the map. Mages are the ones who dominate. The Chain Lightning spell is no longer effective, but spells like Explosion and others that affect a large area are. Also, spells like Berserk, Blindness, etc., are effective.