[Verjigorm]

I want to revise a little bit...

Ok, since the Soul Contract (hereafter referred to as a Devil Contract or DC), is responsible for providing both undead leadership 10 as well as supplying the devils, it is prudent and necessary in many cases to deploy the commander holding it.

So... What I am essentially changing about my proposal is that the two contracts, the LLP and the DC should not be placed on the same Jester, but rather on two different Jesters. Here are some points as to why I came to this decision:

1) Demon Jesters only cost 1 Slave each (and presumably 5 RP for making the extra one), so it's no terrible imposition to make 2 of them instead of 1.

2) LLP needs to be deployed to be of any value, but DC does not, and it will, at some point, become better to bring my DC's into a defensive location. This allows for a strategy wherein, I can deploy my LLP Jester and DC Jester together and then drop my 10 devils from the DC commander into the province garrison leaving all 15 devils in the province. Then I can fly my DC Jester back to a defensive position to retrieve additional forces and bring them to the front line without either recalling my LLP (which is bad) or taking my devils off the front line. The drawback, here, is that I cannot move the garrisoned devils out of the drop zone except via retreat, but it is of course not necessary to use this strategy, it just becomes an option when we separate the contracts.

3) At some point, I will want to deploy larger demonic forces that most likely include Spined Devils and Demon Knights. By the time I get this up to speed, it will most likely become necessary to pull my LLP Jesters into the larger, less agile force due to increased defensive capabilities of my neighbors and the obvious decrease in utility of the small insurgent Devil/Imp groups. Since the contracts are separated, when this situation comes into being, I can leave my LLP Jesters deployed with my forward army and withdraw the DC Jesters to a centralized base where they can be used as a conveyance for newly summoned demons since they both create demons and can deploy up to 10 demons to the field each trip and there will be no impediment to the army based on the speed of the commander who is 3-Flying thus, deployment speed for any group of units will be maximized. By this time, it will be assumed, that larger armies with slower, land-based units will be using land commanders preferably undead due to their high leadership and low cost.

4) The pair of Jesters, LLP & DC, together, even when deployed in the manner originally suggested for the combined LLP+DC Jester, will have a much lower probability of loss of either of the expensive contracts. It is much less likely that a given defense will result in the death of both the LLP Jester and the DC Jester than it would be for such a defense to destroy just one LLP+DC Jester.

Thus this division does two things:

1) It increases the versatility of our strategic and tactical options significantly.

2) Reduces our loss liability per Jester.

It does both of these things for the minimal cost of 1 Blood Slave and the research/turn value of a single Diabolist.

I will, concede that this method of deployment does seem to be the most effective means for LA Marignon to deliver demons to the field and conduct raids early game, since none of the other options I have explored are either (a) as cheap or (b) as simple as this one.