I did use the armies, just not much. I played on the 360 not PC so it may have been easier. It was my first play through. Mages do TONS of damage. A lot of the time I would drop one of the mage's large AoE spells(Blizzard, Inferno, Tempest) where the enemies would come through. That would weaken them enough that a hit or two would kill them off. If I got swarmed by a large group I could use Cone of Cold to freeze them all and get some space. The only real use I had for the armies was when I was fighting the archdemon and just outside the Fort Drakon where, I can't remember exactly what was there but I think it was mages and archers. After I got the demon down halfway, I called an army to keep the minions off my back so I could focus on the archdemon. Things were not tough as long as the enemies would come to me. I had Leliana along to open chests and do some chip damage, Wynn to heal the part members and Allistar to keep enemies off me. I put Allistar in the Dragon Scale armor(complete set gives something like 75% resistance to fire) so I could drop the Inferno spell without hurting him much. Mages do crazy damage. edit: I should add that I used Fireball if a large group was charging. Knocks everybody in the area down and does a good amount of damage. I put almost all my points into Magic and only enough into the others like cunning so I could get skills and such. Honestly 2-3 hits and my mage was going down. If my mage got frozen or stunned, it was all over but the reloading.