Raise Dead vs. Raise Skeletons

[ioticus]

Which spell do you use, and why? Is there ever a reason to use one over the other? Or is it 6 to 1, 1/2 dozen to the other? The description states that Raise Dead is more effective if there are unburied corpses in the province, so does this make it better than Raise skeletons if there are a lot of corpses? How many would make it better?

[BigDaddy]

Skeletons are more powerful than souless (from raise dead). Mages automatically mix it up a little. The skeletons can kill things and land hits. While the souless have little ability to do this. They are, however, good at taking a hit. So, they keep the enemy busy.

[Endoperez]

The higher resource costs dead units had, the better armour/weapons raised soulless will have. Their att/def skill will still be very poor, however.

Some nations might get special soulless, but I think all that can get special soulless can also get special longdead (C'tis, Caelum, Jotun, probably Ermor BE & themes)

[Saber Cherry]

Soulless have minimal magic resistance and are very slow, so they get banished before reaching the enemy if there are any priests. Longdead are much faster and have higher MR, so they are more likely to reach the enemy.

You cannot raise soulless if there are no unburied corpses, so don't script the spell unless the province has unburied corpses, or until you expect some units to have died in battle. However, a mage will not cast "Raise Dead" if it won't work, he'll jaust cast something else (like "Raise Skeletons") instead. Soulless (dead civilians, from death scales, hurricanes, pillaging, and so forth) are mostly worthless. Soulless Warriors (dead soldiers, with armor and weapons) are sometimes useful.

Generally, I only cast "Raise Dead" as the 3rd+ or 4th+ script (once some units have died) and only in large battles, so that any dead I raise will be soulless warriors instead of normal soulless. The advantage is that you get 10 soulless warriors (total 150 hitpoints) per casting rather than 5 skeletons (25 hit points). Otherwise, just use "Raise Skeletons," as a single longdead is better than 2 normal soulless in most cases.