[Norfleet]

Originally posted by PvK:
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.

A Shedu pretty much asks to be played as a bless....since it sure as hell isn't any good for anything else: You can't slap on gear to turn into mean wafflestomper at all, due to lack of slottage, and it's not really serviceable as an SC due to his severe and incurable encumberance problems.

8 + Earth protection and 230 base hit points counts as pretty formidable "resistances" to almost everything.

You'll be surprised how little this matters when the Shedu has no regenerative ability, and spends the battle passed out on the floor.

Trampling and 30-damage hoof are not bad.

If he USED his 30-damage hoof attack, that would be great. He doesn't, because he fancies trampling instead. This vastly bumps his his reinvigoration needs....but he has no slottage to spend on it. If you're really fond of the entire trample-fu, the Fat Momma does a better job of this: Same lousy encumberance, same trample-fu problems, but she has humanoid slottage, is quite tough, AND has regeneration. Also, no astral weakness, and is 50 points cheaper! While her encumberance cannot be considered an asset, at least with humanoid slots, it can be compensated for. The Shedu gets benched fairly early.

Yes he often gets killed if sent against a group all alone. Combined with a flying force that is formidable by itself, though, it's two deadly forces that go great together.

This is serviceable. I didn't pay 125 points for that, though.

He won'd get swarmed while there are enough fliers swarming around him with Guard Commander orders. Again, adding multiple fliers with different strengths and weaknesses together, can let them cover for each others' weaknesses.

Wind Riders are outlandishly expensive in both resources and gold...difficult to afford under Sloth. Also, if everyone is set to guard commander, the entire group routs the moment somebody bites it. And somebody will probably bite it that way. You can partially offset this by towing around a groundpounder team in the back, but then you've shot your flying army in the foot: It's no longer a flying army.

I say all this not to assert he's the "best" choice, but to point out that he's far from weak or "most useless" (tm, pet peeve).

I'd have to say that yes, he is definitely weak. Useless, though...well, technically, useless is an absolute term. You don't get more useless, you're just useless. The Shedu manages to avoid being "most useless", though, only by edging out a few even crappier pretender choices, like the "nerfed into oblivion" Sphinx, who is completely overshadowed by otherwise similar and cheaper options like the Oracle or Statue, which can actually still be teleported. The Sphinx, being devoid of teleportation, manages to land the prize here because his physical toughness is meaningless if he can never bring it to bear. Thus, the Sphinx still holds the crown for "crappiest", in my book.