Re: Yrth technology
When considering what mages can and cannot do for the armies of Yrth, we should remember that mages are still rare and training a mage for a specific specialty of spells is not a trivial task. So skilled battle mages who can do specific magic tricks will probably have quite a reputation - and their presence in a specific military unit will be one of the first things that spies will try to find out.
Sure, illusionary terrain will be nasty, and other kinds of magical tricks will be nasty as well - but if you know that a specific battle mage is among the enemy unit, you can prepare for such tricks. Possibly by sending an assassin after him.
Which leads to another problem. Your battle mages are probably pound for pound your most effective combatants - but how do you keep them safe from the enemy? Sure, magic can help with that as well, but all energy the mages use to defend themselves is energy they can't use to attack the enemy, reducing their effectiveness. And once they start casting spells, they will immediately become one of the highest attack priorities for all enemy units within range. And if they are dead, all the years you spent training them will be wasted.
Frankly, for the most part it's probably wisest to keep mages off the battlefield entirely and use them as support units - they are just too expensive to squander. That won't entirely protect them from assassins, but at least the risk is much reduced.
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