You are not alone in your approach to the game. I love to go the magic route as well. Thanks to the inceased stability of version 1.11, my little elven sorceress (with 4 fire shards in her empire!) was dropping bombs like it was the Great War and her 3 sons, armed with Ythril bows, mowed down the few irradiated survivers while a fully buffed earth elemental played guard dog - priceless. It's an indication of how great this game is going to be once Kael and the others can finally concentrate on game design rather than stability.