[Tuidjy]

Bards are better than spies in a few small, but significant ways.

The extra stealth is very useful. How useful? In a game I am currently in, four
bards had shut down my capital. I had province defense of 25, a Call of the Wild,
a Call of the Wind, and a Watcher (50 men worth) patrolling, and it took me at
least three turns to catch them all. Before I summoned the Watcher, I did not
manage to catch even one. High stealth becomes silly. In that game, I was
brought from a surplus of 1500 gold to less than 200 in two turns.

The Bard is also a researcher, thus you can, and will mass them for other purposes.

The Bard is not helpless in combat. He has a number of songs that can be
useful, and the old favorite of "Eagle Eyes, Vine Arrow x 4, cast spells" is
there too. The combat AI is also smart enough to start using the Soothing
song when fatigue start running high.

And finally the bard can lead men. A bard, a monk, 15 stealth archers and
only a few wardens with protection are a hell of a raiding group. The archers
have to be found as indies, but even if you are not lucky in that respect,
wardens with Protection from the bard and the standard E4, N4 blessing will
do just fine.