and no city sieges, whats a catapult for

IIRC the catapult reduces the defence bonus troops would otherwise get if the city has defences.

There are some abilities in the game, and I suspect more will be added over time. Unit mana increases on level up, so get that spider levelled up a couple of times and it might be able to start casting some more useful spells.

My fire elemental could cast all sorts of different spells

thats my point, is that units are stupid, why give them mana if there inteligence is so damn low its doenst do any damage , and why is a fire giant casting blizzard? As of now I see no reason to play any of the other factions as they all look the exact same, theres not unit differeation there are not special defensive capabilities.

I really wish they would of put some fore thought into the game with magic. As it is right now there is no reason to chose all the spell options becuase there all the same, blizzard is the same as inferno which is the same as chain lighting. there are no special defenses against magic or types of magic. all defenses are ruled by your defense rating.

Have to admit, unless this is seriously modded, this is no where near, masters of magic or age of wonders, they sould get rid of the magic system entirely and just label it a civ 4 game in the middle ages.

And there are no sieges in this game. Age of Wonder and MOM had sieges where you had to break down the walls first. hell even civ 4 had it where it was benegicial to bombard the city first

I'm pretty sure that the different spells are effected by different shards, so...yes there is already a difference in inferno and blizzard.   I believe the shards multiply their effect.