[Sombre]

MA ASHDOD

Conjuration

Summon Mazzikim - N1, RL3 - 8 / 3 Vanilla, 8 / 3 CBM. Castability: Average. Though Ashdod has no nature mages, getting N1 with indies isn't hard and that's all you need. Of course you'll probably be short on gems making them less attractive. These are basically imps. Their high defence is a plus and they have two attacks and good att, but with low str they aren't going to do that much in combat. Their cost is already pretty much fair.

Call Malakh - S2, RL4 - 1 / 9 Vanilla, 1 / 9 CBM. Castability: Very Easy. A Commander summon. The Malakh is potenitally thuggable, though its stats are only that of a semi-elite human warrior. It does have stealth, shock and fire res 50 and awe+3 as well as flight with mapmove 4. Having full slots it makes an ok budget raiding thug along the lines of the black servant or Bane, since it's H1 it benefits from a bless too. They have no leadership ability so that's all they're good for. I think the price is ok for that.

Summon Lilot - N4, RL5 - 1 / 25 vanilla, 1 / 25 CBM. Castability: Very Hard. A Commander summon. Ashdod has no nature mages, so getting to N4 and having the gems is unlikely outside of a pretender choice. These are effectively the same as Succubi - they have the same version of seduce that brings the converted commander to your home province. They have ever so slightly worse stats than the blood summon, but it's barely noticeable. I think they might be slightly overpriced and I'd be happier with them at 1 / 20 or so. They are just weaker succubi after all.

Call Hashmal - S3F1, RL6 - 1 / 21 vanilla, 1 / 21 CBM. Castability: Hard. A Commander summon. The Talmai has less than 1% chance of being S3F1. Hence this requires empowering a S3 Talmai in fire. These guys are clearly made for thugging. Awe+4, fireshield 8, H2, flying, ethereal, fire immune, shockres - only drawback is only 2 hand and 2 misc slots. Still I think they're well worth the cost as anti chaff thugs.

Dirge for the Dead - D3H1, RL6 - 1 / 25 vanilla, 1 / 25 CBM. Castability: Very Easy. A Commander summon, Summons up a Ditanu. These guys have only weak magic but great stats for thugging. Essentially ethereal fear+1 rephaim commanders. They come with full slots and decent equipment out of the box and are sacred. Price seems fair.

Call Arel - S4N1, RL7 - 1 / 39 vanilla, 1 / 39 CBM. Castability: Very Hard. A Commander summon. Ashdod has base S3 mages which helps, but have more trouble than Gath getting nature gems to empower. These aren't made to be thugs, but they could perform the role slightly better than Malakhs due to higher hp and awe+5. Their real feature is healer 50 which is pretty impressive and N3H3, which grants nature access to Ashdod, something they lack entirely. Possibly worth it for the path, almost certainly not worth it as a thug. I think they need a cost decrease, but there seems to be some thematic pricing going on, so I don't know what to suggest, maybe 1 / 31?

Call Ophan - S5F2, RL8 - 1 / 49 vanilla, 1 / 49 CBM. Castability: Very Hard. Everything that is true of the Hashmal is also true of the Ophan, though the Ophan is an upgrade in almost every respect with better hp, awe, fireshield, H3 and full shock and poison immunity on top of the fire immunity. Crucially they have natural prot of 21. They are enc 1 flying tramplers and they have patrolbonus 50, not that you'd use them for patrolling. You also get mapmove 5 and they're lifeless which is a plus for avoiding certain pitfalls. They are pretty much the ultimate chaff killers. The only downside is they only have 2 misc slots. I think the price is probably fair.

Banquet for the Dead - D4H1, RL8 - ? / 55 Vanilla, ? / 55 CBM. Castability: Easy. Summons 1 Malik commander and ? Ditanim troops. An additional cost is the death of the caster. I'm not sure exactly how many Ditanim troops you get, but it can't be many. The Malik is basically an undead ethereal fear+7(!!) Malqart. Where the Ditanu is a thug, this is potentially an SC. Again, full slots, sacred and good starting equipment, but here you also have useful buffing magic - D2B2H2 with 2 in a FES random as well. This does give Ashdod access to blood, but only B2 and they still don't have a blood hunter of any sort, so it isn't hugely important. It's worth noting these guys have shattered soul 15%. If there are 4 or so Ditanim (as I suspect) this is a well costed spell and needs no change.

Call Merkavah - S7F3, RL9 - 5 / 222 vanilla, 5 / 222 CBM. You get 1 Chayot commander and 4 Ophanim troops. Castability: Impossible. Almost certainly a pretender summon. The Chayot is a completely bat**** unit on par with the Seraph. It has 4 forms - S4, A4, F4 and E4 which it can change through at will. They are all shock, fire and poison immune, have awe+6, H4, flight with mapmove 6, fireshield 10, full slots and excellent stats. If he's in his S4 form in battle you have to kill him 4 times effectively before he dies. If he's A4 it's 3 times, F4 it's 2 and if he's in E4 by choice you can finally kill him with no second shapes. All this and he isn't even unique. The Ophanim are nearly as good as troops as they are as commanders. I don't even know where to start with a spell summoning this much muscle. I think 222 seems reasonable though. It really is that powerful.


Blood

Summon Se'irim - B2, RL3 - 8 / 33 vanilla, 8 / 33 CBM. Castability: Very Hard. No blood magic on recruitables, no blood hunter. Ashdod can get to blood via summoning of Maliks, but essentially they aren't going to be using this spell. These guys have some serious offensive power with 3 attacks at str 16 att 13 and berserk +4. They're also sacred. I'm pretty sure they're costed about right - great summon, just not for Ashdod.

Summon Shedim - B3A1, RL4 - 3 / 32 vanilla, 3 / 32 CBM. Castability: Impossible. You'll basically need a pretender for these and even then you haven't got a blood hunter. If you compare them with storm demons they are physically a bit more powerful and better in melee, but lack ethereality. Other than that they are very similar and should be costed similarly. Hence I suggest 3 / 20.