[Hoplosternum]

Originally Posted by thejeff

Supposedly the Oreiads make good thugs. I haven't really really played enough with EA Arco to give advice, but with a little gear the Awe should protect them from enough attacks to survive.

I have heard that as well. Baalz, or someone else, did a couple of example equipment lists for them which looked quite impressive.

But the Arcos in general are very 'Thug poor' nations. In general they have no access to Death or Blood (LA Sybils have a chance at a little death but thats it) and no national summons that can be made in to Thugs. Nor recruitable commanders that are natural thugs - unless you consider the (EA) Oreiad as such.

Until you get to the Elemental Royalty and the other high end summons (Golems etc) there is only Troll Kings - which are expensive - and the rather moderate Sleeper chassis to turn to if you want a Thug.

Many of the original races are like this. There are lots of nice things about them but they have key weaknesses which need to be either be overcome with your Pretender design or your strategy. Some of the later designs seem to be strong everywhere

If you want to try out Thug strategies then Arco is a poor choice. It isn't that Oreiads can't be made in to Thugs but they have so many other uses and make rather unusual ones anyway. If you are interested in trying out Thugs then there are much more suitable nations to practice with.

Any of the Giant Races provides you with recruitable Giant Commanders who have useful magic paths and / or self blessable Giant commanders (plenty of HPs & strength) which are well worth adding equipment to. Pythium, Marignon, most Monkey nations and the dedicated blood nations have many national summons which can be made in to very useful Thugs. Or simply choose a race with easy access to Blood or Death (which have recruitable Thugs as summons).

By the end game everyone should have access to SCs, but Thugs often come earlier and it matters which race you play.