What to do when they come calling for you (anti thug/SC strategies)
 

Call them thugs...Call them SC's.....

what do I do about them? Full elemental resistance...Defense of 19 Protection over 23, MR of 20.....Morale high enough that they won't route.....Sure put ethereal and mistform on him or maybe Luck and regeneration and then for fun let them fly.

How do you counter something like that? It's going to eat normal troops for breakfast. Even well buffed normal troops.

I can't nuke it with elemental spells which is my first choice.

I can't break it's moral...

Anything with a MR check....well, I guess I could build some spell focuses and hit them with Shatter, Soul Slay, Blindness, Paralyze....What else?

Re: What to do when they come calling for you (anti thug/SC strategies)
 

Check out my Zen and the art of Thugging (linked in my sig) for suggestions on building anti-thugs. Also theres lots of spells in dominions, as I have no idea what you have access to I can't suggest much specifically but life for a life, leech, drain life, petrify, bane fire and gifts from heavens are classics that don't care what resistances they have.

Re: What to do when they come calling for you (anti thug/SC strategies)
 

There are always spells that couldn't be resisted by SC.
'Life for life' or 'drain life' for example. They are undead and you can't drain life? Cast 'dust to dust', 'whither bones' or 'maggots'. They are lifeless? Then cast 'shutter'.
And don't forget you can always lock them in inferno or cocytos. There are also some advanced tactics.

Edit: ninja'd. :)

Re: What to do when they come calling for you (anti thug/SC strategies)
 

MR of 20 isn't enough. Not if he's the only target and you can spam spells at him. You can go with a few mages w/ penetration or more without. Soul Slay, Enslave Mind. Charm or Hellbind heart if you've got those. Make sure you've got enough chaff to give you time for multiple casts.

Thugs of your own with AN weapons. Preferably no-buff flying ones to hit him before he can buff.

Life Drain? Infernal Prison/Claws of Kokytos?

It all depends on what you've got.

Well buffed troops might even work. Weapons of Sharpness, Strength of Giants, Quickening. If you can swarm him, that's 30+ attacks which makes his defense irrelevant. With AP, he's only got effective protection ~12.
Don't worry about protection on the troops, go for high damage.

Re: What to do when they come calling for you (anti thug/SC strategies)
 

The spell I see that neutralizes thugs more than any other is Paralyze.

There is also the E5 spell Petrify, which says in the description that even if it is resisted, you still get paralyzed for a while. So in theory that would work, but I have never seen it used.

Also, the Acid series of spells (Acid Bolt, Acid Rain,...) has nothing that resists. I think they are AP, so 30 protection + regen should be a decent defense against a 15 AP spell. But less protection than that or no regen and spam it and that will work.

There's also Mistform. Every attack that would normally do damage has a 1% chance of popping the mistform. I've lost more Oreiads that way...

Re: What to do when they come calling for you (anti thug/SC strategies)
 

My favorite antithug is a gargoyle dual-wielding axe of hate plus boots of quickness. It's basically invincible in 1v1 because the fatigue damage is unresistable. For cheaper solutions, stone bird + AN weapon + boots of quickness works quite well for me.

Re: What to do when they come calling for you (anti thug/SC strategies)
 

I remember that gargoyle from Corydalis. I can confirm with bitterness it is an sc nightmare ;)

Re: What to do when they come calling for you (anti thug/SC strategies)
 

Aw, thats not invincible - no such thing. Give the victim a wraith crown, and boots of the messenger and skelly spam.

Re: What to do when they come calling for you (anti thug/SC strategies)
 

By the way, if you got a lot of normal troops, plus skellyspam for good measure, you can just stop a real SC with them. If he attacks and isn't able to rout you in 30 iirc turns, he autorouts. If you are able to take his retreat route by raiding squad, you may even rid yourself of SC this way. Of course, later in the game you won't want to use such a desperate measures having access to something of the above...

Re: What to do when they come calling for you (anti thug/SC strategies)
 

It's 50 turns, but yeah, skellyspam is quite useful for this, and can be a good way to get rid of a pesky SC. And yeah, drop your own thug behind him to take out his retreat-rout, and you've just dealt with your SC, no problem.