[Lazy_Perfectionist]

I'm using PD to great effect in one of my multiplayer games, in a province that hasn't even seen any raiding parties. Now the issue of whether its cost-effective will require a bit of thinking on my part.

The map is Parganos. I'm playing MA Agartha in the North West, in behind a mountain range with only three single-province chokepoints.

I'm highly troubled by the idea of R'lyeh's Starchildren assassins killing off all my researchers. At ten points, I get one measly destealth point. At twenty, 11. My infantry are slow, imprecise, and resource expensive- in short, bad patrollers. I've started recruiting a few spare indie woodsman archers each turn as part of a patrol force, ferrying them to that province. I've now got about forty archers and 20 pd there.

The basic stealth strength of a scout is 40, a Starchild 45. Hmm... Thanks to the PD I was able to redirect troops elsewhere. My light infantry was .9 destealth apiece.
My PD cost around 200 gold, no upkeep for 11 destealth. It would have taken 13 LI (@10 g, 10r apiece) to match that. 130 gold, ~9 upkeep. Not a gold bargain by any means, even if throwing in the cost of a commander. Still it allowed me to dedicate my limited supply of resources in more important directions. On the equivalent amount (in destealth, not units) of militia, I would have spent 77 gold. In woodsman archers (1.15 desealth), 100 gold.

So gold effective for patrolling? By no means. In resources, its a bit of a godsend- all those indie commanders I didn't have to recruit, ferrying units all over the place- it also saved me some valuable time and probably mages.

To match the stealth of a scout, I needed ~40 patrollers- about the limits of an independent commander, and not too hard to manage. But throw in the star children's stealth bonus and the 2d25 rolls on each side, and things are getting a bit iffy. I'm pretty certain quite a few more would have made it through if I hadn't backed them up with 20 PD. On the plus side, it made for a little bit of a fallback point or a rear-line if my forward force wasn't going to move from the siege. On the downside, it was by all formulae, a waste of money, though not resources.