Re: Making something out of nothing (Can you turn this into a Thug?)
 

Take a look at baalz's guide. But I am way in favor of dual wielding blood thorns, and probably AMR.

Re: Making something out of nothing (Can you turn this into a Thug?)
 

Great, thanks. Didn't thought of the Axe, seems like good stuff. :)

Re: Making something out of nothing (Can you turn this into a Thug?)
 

A Leo? (LA Pythium Mythraist heretic with F1) He has good stats for human and comes with armor and sword...
Vanherse/Helcarl/Dis? They are Vans and would probably be good - but Vanjarls are so much better! The question is - is there a cheap way to use them as something other than troop leaders. I thought about using missile weapons, but am not sure...
Amazons? I mean Priestesses and Sorceresses of various independent Amazon tribes. Of course, they are mostly useful for magic diversity - but did anybody use them as thugs?

Re: Making something out of nothing (Can you turn this into a Thug?)
 

I am in an MP game as Helheim and I have started recruiting a couple of Vanherses to be archers. With A1 you can self buff Aim, and they start with Prec 14 or so. The only equipment you need is the bow itself; these guys should stay in the back shooting, behind a screen of PD or whatever else is on the battlefield. So they are not thugs as such, but they are a way to use a cheaper commander instead of the ubiquitous Vanjarl. It's a side strategy, about 60-80% of my commanders are Vanjarls with golden shield & brand. I should add that I'm using an E9N4 bless.

Helcarls are actually pretty good for initial expansion, and do nearly as well as the Vanjarls as thugs early on. Unfortunately what sends the Vanjarl from good to awesome is Mistform. So one could have a bunch of Helcarls and Helhirdings and have a Hangadrott apply Fog Warriors. But at that point, again, these are not thugs, they're just very good line troops.

Re: Making something out of nothing (Can you turn this into a Thug?)
 

Best leo thug would be phoenix pyre. Give him a crystal heart if you absolutely feel required to give him gear.

Re: Making something out of nothing (Can you turn this into a Thug?)
 

But he can't cast it! :)

Re: Making something out of nothing (Can you turn this into a Thug?)
 

huh? why not? just give him fire gems

Re: Making something out of nothing (Can you turn this into a Thug?)
 

He'd suck with pyre, because he'd have insane fatigue just from casting it.

Re: Making something out of nothing (Can you turn this into a Thug?)
 

Well, he sucks as a thug generally. But he's cheap enough to throw 5-6 of them at a starting army and blow it up using pyre.

We have demonstrated that multiple gems will remove fatigue btw.. so if you give him 4-5 gems you might be able to control the fatgue question. I'm uncertain of that.

But like I said... if you feel compelled, give him the heart which does reinvig 10.

Re: Making something out of nothing (Can you turn this into a Thug?)
 

He's only got one level in Fire magic, so is only able to use one fire gem, so won't be able to reduce his casting fatigue by burning extra gems.