[Fantomen]

The simple truth is that we don't know yet, there hasn't been enough games after hammer removal to draw conclusions.

For the purpose of low PD clearing, Tir's thugs can be used naked and in pairs instead of kitted, and so can several other nations recruitable thugs. I suppose we'll see more of this, with players only kitting thugs chosen for special battles.

Add to that the removal/heavy nerf of several classic lategame options like Tartarians and gemgens(wish spam etc) which greatly increases the relative power of recruitable thugs and other midgame national strenghts.