Re: What am I doing wrong?
 

Don't full kite thugs. Full kite only SC. 2 optimal kited thugs costs same as 1 full kited but are much better.

Re: What am I doing wrong?
 

Use a full kitted Wraithlord. With Soul Vortex you are quite strong. Add stoneskin boots, gold shield or lead shield, luck pendant and antimagic amulet, with a "brand sword" of some sort. Put some heavy armor (blacksteel) or maybe rime hauberk for extra Area of Effect damaging aura.

You get 21-25 MR, high prot, etherealness, luck, two damage auras, life leech, AoE sword, fear, good hp and a couple of inmunities.

Double damage auras are very destructive.

Re: What am I doing wrong?
 

The Wraith Lord is immortal, full kitting it is pointless. They work best as defensive troops with minimal kit, as the kit is easily replaced. Soul Vortex, Charcoal Shield, Frost Brand, Luck Pendant, Antimagic Amulet, done*. They already have solid armor, so it usually isn't worth sticking either armor or a helm on them.

*If you can get away with less than that, do it.

Re: What am I doing wrong?
 

My aim is to "rainbow kit" my thug. Spending 10 gems of each type is better than spending 70 gems of one type, unless I have an alternate use for them which is better.

Maybe my thug is good enough for stomping troops, as long as I avoid particularly troublesome mages.

Re: What am I doing wrong?
 

Using thugs against the AI is different than against players. Players will kill your thugs whatever you do, generally sending something specifically designed to do so, whether be targeting specific weaknesses or using anti-thug thugs. Thus you make thugs as cheap as you can and hope to raid a few lightly defended provinces before they get nailed.

The AI won't react to what you do. So you usually only have to worry about covering his major paths. MR if he's got good astral, lightning resistance if he's got Air, etc.

OTOH, players tend to leave a lot of poorly defended provinces around since a good thug can take a lot of PD and actual troops are needed at the front. The AI tends to buy PD and have a lot of troops wandering around its backfield. This means you'll run into more generic troops and for a thug to be useful it has to be able to handle that. Which usually means a more expensive chassis and/or more gear. Which is OK, since they're not guaranteed to get targeted and killed as they are in MP.

To get any real use out of a thug in SP, he has to be almost an SC. Able to deal with pretty much any amount of normal troops. 20+ protection. Luck. Awe/Vines/maybe ethereal. No fatigue. Probably regen. AoE weapon.

Re: What am I doing wrong?
 

Lol, in the game that I'm playing right now there's a tug of war over my earth kings...

He charms/ hellbinds heart them, I return the favor...

Lead shield, amulet of am, ect...

Its funny to see them attack one side then change and attack the other...

Sometimes they just stand there in confusion...:lol