Perhaps another approach, which obviously requires careful testing, would be to revise the Wizard Training to Level 1-2 in One Elemental School. This would bring the relative strength of the Earth Wizard back down some so that all additional Earth spells are not as easily available to the Earth Wizard.
It stuck me that you could do something to bend the power curve of the Wizard down a bit. the most logical would be to have the other elements cost triple. So if you are playing an Earth Wizard, spells like Dissolve, Acid Ball, Geyer, and Surging Wave cost triple.
This would be a major nerf though so I wouldn't expect it.
You could also just say opposite elements are triple so Earth vs. Air and Fire vs. Water. This is less severe and maybe a better route.
Eh, Wizard is on top right now for another month or so, but then Plants vs. Zombies comes out and we'll see. Wizard is going to have a hard time playing the control role against Druid, which has a exponential growth curve that starts slow but overwhelms, and Wizard books will have to adapt from a Turtle (never be the aggressor) mono-strategy.
Speaking of "Who's the beatdown?" what roles do people think a Warlord book should have against the other mages, ideally?
I know that roles are an unsettled issue in Mage Wars, but it occurs to me that part of Warlord's problem might be role confusion. He's a 9 Mana caster with +1 melee, but his Dwarf personality (that I keep harping about) wants to play a spawnpoint and Outposts and walls and that line of play is just doomed against Wizard or Turtle Priestess's higher natural channeling.
He could potentially be a really flexible caster because of this in-between design, but again, that means finding his strengths to explore.
I've been thinking that strategically the real currency in Mage Wars is actions more than Mana (at least right now). I should write something longish about that, but for now-if you'll indulge me- I'm going to propose that whoever takes more actions wins. Yes, I know it's not true. I'm saying that it might be true enough. It's like that joke about a physicist asked to simulate a farm, who says, "First, assume a spherical cow."
The consequence of this model is that Mana is only important because it let's you take actions: Available mana limits actions, but actions almost never limit mana: it's rare that you'll have huge amounts of mana and just not enough actions to use it all. Usually you'll just use a more expensive spell, or a more expensive mode of a spell you already plan to cast (e.g Teleport for 12 instead of 6).
From this perspective, competitive agro books either have to play a cheep spawnpoint with cheep actions (usually Battle Forge and low cost equipment) or use free actions like the mage's melee attack to save Mana to power a more expensive spawnpoint. Usually they do both.
To get back to where I was with the Warlord, thus means that if the Warlord wants to be a 9 Channeling control book, that might be OK. Mana isn't important is there are other ways to fuel actions.
Vet tokens are part of that solution because they have no mana cost and no action cost. Placing one really is free; They're a reward for doing something you want to be doing anyway: putting the pointy end into the other guy.
What if there were other low or no mana ways for the Warlord to get more actions (or action equivalents) : a berserker with a free activation whenever something dies in its zone. A renewed commitment to counterstrike in the Warlord. A Warlord Only Familiar Enchantment or Equipment which casts equipment like Sectarus casts enchantments. A siege engine conjuration that gets load tokens whenever it gets attacked (OK, that one might be Holy) . You get the idea.
Here are what I see the strengths of the warlord as and things that I've had some success with.
Grimson with an archer tower and walls. He can dish out quite a bit of damage.
Dwarf Panzergardes in guard mode and the warlord. He can cast the On Guard special ability to give them +1 attack and defense making them even beefier if they don't dodge the attack.
Fortified Position: It's amazing how much that 2 armor can help your soldiers.
Ring of Command: Makes the base warlord cries cost 0 mana. Good for saving up on other things.
The way I play the Warlord is play defense until I get up some veterans tokens. Have grimson out to deter wizards towers or cheap infrastructure on the part of my opponent. Usually give him hawkeye and archer tower and occasionally ranged +1 from Warlord. Get 2 panzergardes out and give one the battle standard. Start spawning butchers and heal the panzergardes with group healso they can keep taking the hits if they get too low. Once I feel I've got critical mass I swing on the offensive.
If they send no creatures my way I ping them with grimson and build up my army. I keep eagleclaw boots so they can't push me out of zone and I do run an emergency teleport.
I am the beast I worship..."
I think the Warlord has a strong incantation style of play. Both his innate ability and training in the War school give him a range of cheap mana options for temporarily altering the battle.
He has the ability to scale this style across the arena using soldiers and commands. This gives him the ability to affect combat at multiple points in the arena without needing to be in the proximity. This ability is not subject to interdiction by the opponent through actions such as dispelling enchantments.
He also has the widest selection of soldiers to use with the Outpost conjuration. This gives him the ability to conjure his creatures in locations where he is not located including enemy positions without a zone exclusive conjuration. While other mages can use this ability the Warlord has the lowest spellbook cost to implement this along with more breath of spellbook capacity to hold soliders.
I am still learning how to make these and the other ideas posted here become a winning strategy for the Warlord. He has a terrible win - loss record to date in my local group.