[Baalz]

I've used this strategy verbatim, I'm a bit surprised how many people are dismissing it without even trying it. The ultimate answer is it works very well (in most situations), just try it. There are several people commenting that it worked well for them, and near as I can tell the people saying it doesn't work are speaking from a (flawed) completely theoretical point of view. For a bit more of a technical discussion...

As I discussed in my thug guide, mistform is a game changer spell as to what can thug. Magic weapons are a no-no, but theres plenty of situations where that's nothing you need to worry about when you're talking about cloud trapeze/stealthy guys that can dictate when they fight. Excepting magic weapons, once you get any sort of protection 25 point damage blows just doesn't happen so you've only got a 1% chance of mistform popping each time you get hit. Awe/vine shields trigger before defense (easy access to vine shields, no reason not to double dip), so if you've only got a couple people actually swinging at you each round, even a fair defense will counter most of them and against most foes you're looking at getting hit in the rough ballpark of a couple times per round. When you're talking about having a 20+ protection (iron /bark skin on top of armor) most of the times you're hit don't do damage (no chance to pop mistform). Again, just try it. Orieads with any cheap armor and mistform will only take roughly 1 damage every round even against pretty tough opponents. With regen (and reinvig) they just can't be taken down by regular troops - a pretty solid definition of a thug. With nicer equipment I'm not exaggerating that they can clear whole armies if the army is not fielding anti-SC strats (I've done it more than once in MP games) - a pretty solid definition of a SC. Magic weapons or mindless troops are easy thug counters for many thugs, but against "normal" troops - even pretty good ones the Oriead will clean up. Being able to pick up 100% elemental immunity to whatever seems appropriate cuts down a good bit on magic weapons you need to worry about.

BTW, even if you get unlucky and mistform pops from that 1% you're still pretty solid against plenty of troops with a 25+ protection, good defense, awe, vine shield and regen.