[Tuidjy]

I have an awake SC Pretender in 90% of my games. I expect him to be _ready_ to
start busting heads by turn five. This does not mean that I will use him for
combat unless there is a pressing need. Sometimes, site searching is just as
important. By ready I usually mean Alt2 + Const4, but if someone comes knocking
at the door earlier, he'll go to war with an ice sword and a raw hide shield.
Without a good subset of Fire Shield, Body Etherial, Mirror Image, Mistform,
Personal Luck, Quickness, Ironskin he won't do much, of course.

As for secondary thugs/SCs, it depends on the race. Niefel's Jarls are fearsome
at the start. At Alt2/Const4, they are quite the threat to anything not cold
immune, including other SCs. So are Tir-Na-Nog/Vanheim/etc... mounted mages,
LA Atlantis Angakoks, Jotun's were-Skatti, Fomorians, etc...

If you are playing a race without recruitable thugs, then you rely on Conjuration.
Pyhthium, Marignon, among many others have great national summons. Death races can
use some great standard summons, up to Wraithlords/Tartarians. Blood races have
the Ice Devils, etc...

But my rule of thumb is that unless I play a very strong death/astral race, I will
start using at least thugs by the first year. I always leave 1-2 indy provinces
that will give my first solo unit 50xpt (two stars)