Ah, I guess this noob might learn something in this thread
The horse tribe chief still lacks forest survival, so for 25 bucks I get a much tougher guy with forest survival, recuperation and who is a level 1 priest.
I've not played many MP games, but is money that tight? For MA Man?
Leading troops: The Castellan is 10 gp
cheaper than the usual indy commander, with leadership 80 instead of 40. Are you implying you never have any fort where you have no money for a mage, so you build one of them? I usually have lots of forts as MA Man. (In fact I don't buy indy commanders nor Castellans but let my mothers with leadership 55 lead those troops most of the time, but thats another point).
Now outfitting thugs, perhaps I can learn most in that field: I am fitting out Lord Wardens similarly to what I mentioned above. You think thats to much on a fragile human commander? I use them as raiding thugs and with some success, not only against noobs. Advantage is they are stealthy.
I don't understand all that about the bane. What makes him so good? You say with a brand and a shield I could leave the squad at home. From stats I would say 10 Knights of Avalon with nothing else would wipe the floor with that bane.
I just checked one of my recent battles with a bane. I admit he had no equipment other than a PoL. He died upon first contact with my knights. I'd guess not more than 4 actually fighting him.
I don't see why they are so high rated as thugs. If I compare them to my Lord Wardens the big advantage is I need no boots of the messenger on them. Other than that they are somewhat stronger and have the chill aura. But I can't use them as raiders, cause they are not stealthy. So why does everybody love banes as thugs?