[VedalkenBear]

Tharsonius: Actually, the rulebook is right, in a purely mathematical sense. Almost every PD cost-per-unit is ridiculously low. Let's use Arcoscephale (EA) as an example.

At 1 PD, you get a Myrmidon Champion, a Peltast, and 2x Cardaces. Using CBM gold costs (which is lower than vanilla costs, in this case), a Peltast and two Cardaces are worth 24g. Since you get this per point of PD, this is far more efficient than simply recruiting them.

Let's say you recruit 10 Peltasts and 20 Cardaces. For PD, that's 55g. 'Normal' recruitment would cost 240g. That means, should that province get attacked, you get a greater than 4:1 return on your investment.

Note: this also ignores upkeep on those units.

Now if you get twice that, in normal recruitment that's 480g, while PD now costs 190g. Not even 3:1 in that case. But overall it's still more efficient.

Please differentiate, though, between efficient and effective. I am not at all claiming that you'd want to do this, since many/most PD troops are not nearly worth their cost (even under CBM).