[shovah]

i find anything with decent build in regen (including highish hp n9 sacreds) can make a decent thug with relatively few/cheap add ons.

heres a new thug for you to try:
white centaur commander with f9 n9 bless
gloves of the gladiator
horned helmet
ring of regen
(and if you gain access to astral a pendant of luck)

i used this along with a few others loaded out the same and their leader was the same except: he was a prophet with heroic toughness (which rounded out at about 102 health and 22 regen per turn), red dragon armour and a amulet of reinvig. every single one of these guys has the ability to go berserk (one of the most important things for a team of thugs so they dont all rout), 5 high attack flaming attacks each, good defence, good health, good regen, good speed and with any decent armour (such as dragon armour) good health.

thier stealthyness makes them excellent raiders and except vrs high health/very high defence opponents they can all be expected to kill whatever is in the square they attack. they dont have any life drain but they make up for it with regen and killing power and ive yet to lose one in the sp testing im putting them through (playing vrs myself so i can chose exactly what i test them with) they seem to do well and they are pretty cheap (25 nature gems+80 gold for 1) and the prophetised uber thug (id still say hes below SC level) seems to be able to solo most early/mid game armies without fire resistance/anti sc (which isnt hard to avoid due to stealth) as can 2-3 of the regular variety.
they are pretty easy to churn out (especially if you can get mother oak) so all in all you have a fairly cheap thug who is hard to hit, gets mad (and harder to kill) when you hit him and has great killing potential
main downside ive found atm is the vunerability to crossbows or ulmish arbalests which actually makes ulm one of the harder nations for him to raid (next to jotunheim and aby)


ps: sorry for my bad habit of using too many brackets

edit: hurry up and have fun telling me all the flaws (i know many exist and i know you love to tell me)