2 small questions about horror mark

[DeathDaemon]

Boron,
Still using scouts with only 1 contract? For Abysia, I use indep. scouts all over the place to ferry slaves at most 2 turns movement to lab. But for the contracts I'm thinking about using indep commanders so that my building armies can guard commander. If my army fights or moves, commander is on his own for a couple turns. 30vs20 gold seems to be a safer protection for your contracts in my opinion. But are normal abysian troops going to do much? What about devils? I havent tried contracts yet in long games on anything but scouts.