Good Troop Summons
It seems to be a piece of accepted wisdom that most national troops aren't terribly useful by the endgame, although D3 isn't so extreme as D2 in this regard. Since we have a bunch of threads about how to kit out thugs and SCs -- who are commanders, rather than troops -- how about creating a list of recommended troop summons for the late game, broken down by path?
Ideally, we should exclude national summons from the list, or at least clearly flag them -- this should be made up of units that anyone (with the right magic) can use to supplement/replace nationals.
Air - Tricky. Spring hawks and draconians are good, but expensive: they work out to be 4/almost 4 (IIRC) gems each. The draconian chief can summon more, but still, is it really worth spending that much on troops of middling power, except as specialist raiders?
Earth - Easy. Mechanical men have thick armour, elemental immunity, and decent punch. Clockwork horrors have their attractions (they're fast and dual-wield), but fatigue out too quickly. Enlivened statues are slow and lack resistances. Maybe trolls, if you don't mind the fire vulnerability and having to use Troll King's Court to get the better kinds.
Fire - Fire snakes, maybe? They're cheap (around 2 fire gems each), and I seem to remember they do splash damage.
Water - Kydnides are reasonably priced (2 water gems) and have awe, which is very useful, but ironically their own morale isn't that good, and I don't recall that they're particularly good fighters otherwise. Otherwise, I suppose you could try sea trolls - but it would take you a long time to mass them, unless you used the expensive Sea King's Court. Ideas?
Death - Death has plenty of fodder, and plenty of thugs/SCs, but does it have much in between, leaving aside longdead archers? Legion of Wights effectively costs 1.5 death gems for each dude, which is cheap - but for 30 death gems, you could get 2.5 bane lords (not to mention you tie up a D6 mage). Are they any good?
Astral - None that I can think of. Maybe the ether warriors?
Nature - Lamias or vine ogres. Lamias are very cheap, but useful with the right buffs, and VOs (terrible MR aside) are great at damage-soaking. However, I imagine they both suffer from 'long time to mass' syndrome.
Blood - Talk about spoiled for choice! They all seem so good...
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