Try this. Works on defense almost every time providing you are not getting deviled.
(actual numbers of units depend on your personal tastes and your mana income)
Archangels/Unicrorns
Unicorns/Archangels
Liches/Mind Rippers
Mind Rippers/Liches
Water Elementals
Ice Elementals
Zombies
Knights
Angels
Occasionally I shall see fit to throw salamanders or hydras into this stacking. The reason is just too be well rounded. I enjoy having something that will melee or do fire damages when people aren't expecting them. (plus hydras and salamanders munch fodder like there is no tomorrow)
I keep most every decent spell active. Hallucination is nice for devil protection, and is a must during armageddon, when every single turn counts. My defensive spell is slow, my defensive item depends largely upon who I think will be attacking me. (most people who attack me generally are doing a counter)
This is the absolute best defensive stacking I have ever come across. Unicorns rock at taking non-ranged damage, archangels rock at taking ranged damage. Mind Rippers, Liches, Water Elementals and Ice Elementals dish out such massive amounts of damage that your opponent will invariably lose the battle.
In the last several weeks on Server II, I got attacked 41 times. 2 broke my defense without multi attacking me. 34 of them barely scratched me.
Sylphs, sprites, sirenes, skeletons, lizardmen, pegasi, gorillas and werebears are all mostly a waste for a blue mage. Sirenes get munched by anything, sylphs and sprites get munched harder, skeletons suck in every respect possible when compared to zombies, lizardmen are simply pointless, pegasi are worse than sprites, gorillas are pretty much just like lizardmen, and werebears also simply have no real point in life for a blue mage.
The only exception I have ever encountered is sprites, used in absolutely fantastic numbers (we are talkin millions here) act a lot like a devil attack. Initiative 5 with extreme damage, wiping out the opponents first stack. Of course, they then get absolutely munched my the rest of the opponents stacks, which is why you always want to make sure your opponent does not have flying/ranged stacks that will annihilate your sprites. (scrying mirror for this purpose)
Hope this helps on the defense part.
Lord Scintael
Master of Deceit
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