Re: Guarding thugs
 

While expanding with EA Agartha I'd send 1 oracle plus 15-20 Ancient Ones set on guard. Everyone was positioned way in the back, and the mage scripted divine bless, summon earthpower, 3x bladewind.

The Ancient Ones held their ground while the bad guys walked through the teeth of the blade winds. Whatever got through was handled by guards.

Re: Guarding thugs
 

Guard commander is a great order to keep your troops out of fights. Often you have few elite troops/SC who can handle the enemy, but to siege enemy you need much larger army (which you certainly don't want to lose). So most of troops can be set to guard some commanders who stay in the back. I think they will also cheer for your real troops while on guard http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Guarding thugs
 

I often set 1-6 troops guarding a melee commander, and script the commander to attack from slightly behind my other troops' positions, which I have had a lot of success with. I'm not saying it's a super strategy, or that it will keep mortal commanders from getting killed by battlefield magic or a tough combat, but one of my main goals (especially playing single-player) is to keep my mortal commanders alive and able to contribute, and to follow their progress sort of like in an RPG, because I find it fun.

PvK