One thing I thought about with early game forging is, as a strategy, it can help your thugs get above 6 in their defense vs generic types they might face. I believe that the difference between attack and defense must be rolled on a die 6, and each time a 6 is rolled then another roll is done and added. Thus for attack and defense differences between <0 to 7 it only relies on a single die roll but above 7 you need two rolls in your favor to score a hit (the first to get a 6 and the second to be greater than 1). Thus the odds of getting hit start to go down greatly. And then if you get over a difference of 13... Given that some thug chassis have high base Def (the Vanheim commanders start with around 22-24?) then an Ice Sword and quality shield can push their def into a realm where your average melee type wont hit them this side of the next ice age.
Perhaps thats a reason to forge early, or perhaps an over analysis?
