Even in CB are black servants too strong?

[shovah]

Agrajag said:
There's also a penalty in enemy dominion, and that bonus is percentile based, so even a huge bonus doesn't amount to much HP.

In only lvl 5 of my dominion my guy had around 55 health, thats a pretty big bonus imo.

[Wish]

all I am saying is I sent one in against dark vines, and he won. I sent one in against knights, and he won.

this is on level 9 indes. mind you he also had hells of bless bonuses, since I made a rainbow alchemist. (who had magics at 4 in all but two paths.)

[shovah]

yea, i had a rainbow mage too (although the only blesses it gave were a4 n4 d6 e4) and he did well. I sent a non prophetised BS against knights+crossbows+priests, another vrs dark vines+woodsmen+bloodhenge druids and a third vrs garnet amazons (1 priest and one fire mage+gryphons and amazons) and my BS's won all 3 matches. They were equipped with ONLY items that my smiths could make, charcoal shields/gleaming gold shields, black steel hels, black steel/marble plate, boots of strength, girdle of might and bracers of protection. They had 20 strength (and lifedrain is ap), 28 prot, 17 defence, 14 attack and either fire shield/awe.

[Graeme Dice]

Wish_For_Blood_Slaves said:
all I am saying is I sent one in against dark vines, and he won. I sent one in against knights, and he won.

You could also do that just as easily with your pretender by turn 5.

[Saxon]

You make a strong case for Ulm, but I am still not convinced. I have lost too many of them to feel they are overly strong. Last night I lost one to Charm and another to Blindness. Their MR is not great. That said, I am nervous about how the one I lost to Charm is going to be used against me!

[Wish]

heh, its true, also: if it gives ulm a little something, then it certainly helps. I mean ulm needs help. cheap viable thug chassis are something that could make ulm work.

[Boron]

The black servant is so-so. He is good at raiding other players. Full gear is not worth it imho, but if you simply give him a shield + an armor he is already quite ok and costs not that much. But he can only be used as a raider.

Vs. real enemy armies he is way way too fragile. Since he is undead and has low hp, it is not worth it to invest too much into him.
A tartarian can survive a few dust to dust or lightning bolts etc., a black servant does not.

But by being available so early in the game he is a perfect raider. Unless your enemy is lucky and has priests or a useful mage as pd the black servant can easily beat pd.

It is not so easy to defend vs. them when they are raiding. you would need to detach 1-2 mages or some priests to every important province to stop them reliable.
You can do this, but if you do this your enemy has already achieved an important goal: to severly slow you down.
Imho the black servant is fine as he currently is.

[Morkilus]

My only issue is that he's not SUPPOSED to be an uber-dude (as in, flavor of the game). He's supposed to be a cheap stealthy summon for scouts, since Ermor doesn't get scouts. If he was some sort of hero or banelord, that would make more sense.

[Wish]

maybe they need a shadow lord, similar to a bane lord, but made of the same stuff as shades and black servants.

[Endoperez]

Wish_For_Blood_Slaves said:
maybe they need a shadow lord, similar to a bane lord, but made of the same stuff as shades and black servants.

Isn't Wraith Lord already a bit like that?