Does AI ever use devastating Strategy spells?

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I once had the AI cast wither on my caravan.  I had to rage-quit after that.

I've had some armies get fire-stormed down, and some armies get frozen.

I once had the AI cast freeze on my caravan, then let my army kill his capital. I had to laugh after that.  

The AI definitely uses strategic spells. I've had it spam them on my armies in fact. I think I've seen a Falling Star, but I don't really remember. I try not to leave my armies in enemy territory unless I can take a city or outpost in one turn, so that greatly reduces the chances of being hit by a lot of them. Falling Star is quite expensive, Curgens Volcano even more so, so it may be that in most games the AI either doesn't have the mana or decides it's not worth the cost.

Incidentally I tried Tidal Wave once, it was an enormous letdown. The damage was tiny. I assume it causes physical damage rather than elemental damage, and physical damage would be reduced by armour, which may be part of the problem.

Now try getting 4-5 water shards first. (or water power from conclaves) Not so tiny now eh? Well at least you can't use it in enemy territory.. WAIT! You can! Well at least it costs a lot of mana... OH NO. Just 40 mana? Tidal wave is the most bang for mana spell there is, once you get some water shards going. 

(water power is the most underrated magic power in elemental, remember this also boost blizzard damage)

I believe you. How much damage does it do exactly though? I can't find it anywhere online, and I don't have access to the game at the moment.

My strategy involves making a Stack of Doom and killing everything in sight as early as possible though. Even 40 mana is quite a lot at the start of the game, and I wouldn't have four or five water shards until very late in the game, if at all. But fair enough if you've made it work for you. Certainly it's a lot less mana than Falling Star.

The only time I used Tidal Wave I probably had zero or one water shards, and it did about 2 damage to the enemy stack; I decided to save my mana for tactical spells.

Yeah, I find the water 'tree' to be pretty awesome, but somewhat situational. 

3 damage per unit per water shard. So on a 3 trooper unit with no shards it should do only 9 max damage (before resists etc.). However on a 6 trooper unit with 4 water shards, 72 damage to all the units in the army. (648 total damage given that all units are size 6) This is where it gets crazy, Tidal Wave is probably not very good on low level difficulties, but it scales insanely well once you start climbing. 

My personal experience is that 6'ish water shards is more than enough given that you have 2 casters with Water IV magic. Freeze, tidal wave x2, tidal wave x2. (not dead really? you must be Gilden...) tidal wave x2. 

I think the enemy stack was heavy on individual units, if I remember correctly it was an Fire Elemental with accompanying shrills, so maybe that explained the tiny damage. Do you know if Tidal Wave causes physical damage and is reduced by Defense?

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Yes, I had the privilege of Capitar tossing my armies around with tornado with me in awe because it was my first time seeing it. I was hit by it for five turns or more. Reform army? CAPITAR SMASH! hur hur Reform Army? CAPITAR SMASH! hur hur rinse and repeat then i ragequitted by running away from capitar after 8th tornado and tried again several turns later.

I have to say that FE:LH is only game where I actually respect magic in.

Honestly if the NPCs were to cast something like Curgen's volcano, even rarely.. you should have some method of at least having a chance to counter the spell? I realize you can do the conclave level 5 specialization bonus.. but other than that..? 

There is a counter already, find the sovereign and kill him in battle. That will interrupt the casting process, and it takes 10 turns.

BEWARE! IF YOU GET CAUGHT IN THE VOLCANO = GAMEOVER.

Otherwise, just suck it up. this game's volcano = Nukes.

i've had armies tremored and frozen.

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For hundred of hours spent in this game, the AI in version 1.3 do use devastating Strategy spells, provided their sovereign/champion can level enough to go deep in their magic tree before they get destroyed.

But they don't know how to used it effectively, and usually only one spell per turn, which hardly do enough damage to intruding army.

The most annoying spell they used are usually 'Tremor' and 'Frozen'. 'Wither' are common too, but AI seems don't have enough death shards to make the effect noticeable.

Finally, since their spell effects are quite weak, I can't tell do AI develops their strategy towards magic or not.

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Earthquakes are the worst. I tried doing an Insane defensive game, and then the AI spammed Earthquake on my cities..... failed. :/ (this was FE vanilla though)

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