[rdonj]

I don't think it would really hurt the dwarfs too much to lose them, either. I've been playing with o3/p3 using longbeards to expand, and they're doing comparably to the crossbows. I think I lose units more often, but I still win plenty of battles without any losses, and these armies actually have a decent mapmove on them. Plus I have been recruiting mages (engineers, magic 3) instead of prospectors, so magic is a lot healthier than it was under crossbow expansion.

The unit that I'm actually having the most trouble finding a use for is the runeguard. They're completely unnecessary for the purposes of expansion, though they are tremendously difficult to kill. But the difficulty in massing them makes it a bit hard imo to justify using them as a bless strategy. And the reinvigoration from an e9 bless is barely enough for your big mages to notice. Though they will appreciate it. Actually I think you'd almost want to go all the way to e10 if you really wanted them to work, due to their incredibly low numbers and high encumbrance. Otherwise they are begging to be overwhelmed.