Just as a note, they've got 70% chance to hit. Also as a note, about 3% of the time they'll miss all 3 shots. If you use that mage on average once a turn (sometimes it'll be 2, once on yours and once on the opponents turn, sometimes it'll be none) and if you use multiple mages (always fun), let's say 3, that is more likely to happen about once every ten turns than not. Just to give some perspective.
Wesnoth IS a very luck-based game, but the OUTCOMES of games are almost -never- based on luck. In fact, there is a community challenge: to produce a replay of a game that was decided by luck. I.e., you were going to win, and then SOLELY BECAUSE OF LUCK (not bad decisisons on your part) you lose the game.
I'd say a couple thousand games are played a week. None have yet been produced that were lost because of luck.
See, the main skill in Wesnoth is not just tactics: any decent player worth his salt learns that eventually (making them just that: a decent player). You learn what to attack with what, etc. etc. The GOOD players are learning the truly important skills of Wesnoth: risk analysis and management and strategic, longterm thinking. If you go from winning a game to losing it because a single unit missed, then your strategy sucked, no offense. If you will lose if you attack with your mage and he misses, then its simple. Don't attack. Honestly, the thing I don't like about Wesnoth is that at pro-level play games can start to bog down. Players are quite expert at measuring risk and they tend to be somewhat cautious at that level. That being said, there's nothing quite like watching leocrotta and Becephalaus go at it, for example. Both quite offensive players compared to some like Elvenking, a quite defensive player.
So, all that being said, yes luck is a HUGE factor in Wesnoth, but it doesn't decide games. The skill of the players in anticipating AND DEALING WITH the outcome of the luck is what decides each match. There are countless pro games where someone won despite being 'down in the luck', i.e. their expected damage output values (EVs) were far under and their EVs coming in were way up. It's about how you deal with it, not how the dice fall.
P.S. It doesn't stop it from being intensely aggravating when that Great Mage goes 0/4 though
