[Blitz]

GE's Mystic is _2S_3?_ ! Seems to me you are spoiled by Arco's great magic, if you call this "nonexistant blood/death".

The mystic's 3 random picks are in the elemental fields. The Astrologer has a true random pick. This does indeed translate into a complete absence of blood and death magic.

As I just wrote, blessing is optional. But Shedu's Earth and Astral are both reasonable blessings. Every point of Earth magic will give your Shedu +1 DR, so maybe consider a 9 Earth blessing, giving the Shedu 16 base protection, your blessed troops (and Priestesses) +4 protection and +4 reinvigoration. 8 + Earth protection and 230 base hit points counts as pretty formidable "resistances" to almost everything.

A Shedu with level 9E and 4S costs... are you ready for this? 468 points. That's with no castle, no scales. Nothning but a dubious bless effect. Give it up man, the Shedu is horrible, and yes he may well be the most useless unit in the game when you consider Arcoscephale's other choices for a pretender god. This isn't a case where you can say "well slingers are pretty good patrolers haha". No. This unit sucks. It has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. It's overcosted, has no item slots, cannot provide a decent blessing, and isn't anywhere near what the wurm or virtue is as an early expansion aid. He's horrible, and it's almost amusing to see people try to defend him. Sometimes you can make an absolute statement about something. Yes he has the highest hit points of any mobile. He still sucks. Sorry.

Still seems to me like you are likely looking at GE as an alternative to standard Arco, without appreciating the comparison to Ulm and nations with flying strike forces (who generally do not have strong HI at all).

Well, it is an alternative to standard Arcoscephale, isn't it? And let's look at the other nations with fliers shall we? Vanheim has Vans and Einheres. Caelum has the temple guard, which may be capitol-only, but let's not forget mammoths, which are fairly strong on the front lines. These are the only nations with strong recruitable fliers, and both of these have superior ground troops to Arcoscephale. Caelum also has the Seraphs, which are stronger than the mystics, and a stealthy 3-strength flying priest. Vanheim's priests are amazing SC's. Priestesses are very good, but even if you concede the top priest spot to her, it's not like either of Vanheim or Caelum are lacking in the mage or priest areas either.

Myrmidons cannot go toe to toe with either Einheres or temple guards... let alone mammoths. GE has strong fliers, yes... but they are overcosted and do not have comparable ground support to either of the other "flying" nations.