The spells work with armor but the mage armor perks taht really add al the value only work if you aren't wearg armor

Learn something new everyday.

To me a battlemage is a tank with spells and hits hard. I go for "arcane" or "magickal" looking armors. Such as Ebony, Glass, Daedric, Falmer, or maybe even http://i.imgur.com/waT7IlD.jpg.

Essential to my playstyle:

Enchanted mace and shield

Summon a minion

cast a cloak spell

alchemy for healing and buffs

Smash with brute force combined with magic.

Spray or wall spells optional. No ranged spells.

For me I have two rules for a Battlemage

1. A mage in armor and not a warrior with magic. I like my Battle"mages" to actually be mages. I therefore am not to keen on warrior weapons but prefer bound (conjured) weapons or spells.

2. Conjuration & destruction

My preferred playstyle is a hybrid type mage. You can go a lot of different ways with it. Classic battle mage is heavy armor, staff, destruction and conjuration. I don't like staff so my battlemage uses ranged spells and then switches to war axe + spell when enemies close.

Or you could do more of a spellsword. My nightblade uses a combination of illusion magic and stealth with some conjuration for tight spots. He wears light armor.

You won't be able to get the mana regen bonuses you can with robes, at least not until your enchanting skill is very high, but there has to be some trade-off.

My thoughts exactly, using bound weapons feels more mage like to me. Using conventional weapons which are highly enchanted seems a little over powered to me for a battlemage. The only difference between a pure mage and a battlemage is that the latter wears armour as opposed to robes, well that's how I define and play them anyway.

I think the magic regen is not that big of a deal with battlemages since you can switch to using enchanted weapons once your magicka runs out.

See that? I was right.

Yep!

I've played a conjuration and also a destruction mage before. Seems you almost have to have one or the other. The armor you're wearing seems completely pointless if you are not going to get your hand dirty in melee combat ... so conjured weapons seems to fit.

I only like focusing on one crafting skill as I find it hard to imagine a role-play where someone could actually master more than one (or even one for that matter), so, to be different I guess I'll go with enchantment.