Hehe, is that you Cleve - I can't see?
Yeah, the Eye Shield/Sidhe combo sucked. I even had squeezed in an S blessing for a +1 MR boost knowing woodsmen can get pwned, but still ended up with legions of blind woodsmen and skratti on my disabled roster. Until, that is, I was able to find some warmongers who would trade me brands, which were worth their weight in gems, since even a blind skratti can hit the side of a barn with a frost brand.
Blind skratti can still research and blood hunt luckily, so its not complete disaster. But kudos to Cleveland for demonstrating to me, at least, the power of the Eye Shield. On a difficult research setting like we had in KM, it was a masterpiece of annoyance!