SC/Thug rating

[OG_Gleep]

I was thinking of posting a related thread, I was wondering how you guys liked to spec higher end summons like the Elemental King/Queens or the two Troll Kings (w/o artifacts, you can't always plan for those).

[Saber Cherry]

Troll kings are pretty weak; they don't compare to uniques. With unlimited gems they can replicate exponentially, though

You ought to check out the old Supercombattant tournament thread:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...fpart=all&vc=1
You can also download the game to see the results - they're worth watching.

Most people entered 10-death-gem Tartarian Titans

Elemental royalty are extremely powerful, but very risky in big games because you don't know who already has them, and you can't risk wasting 50+ gems. Most people go with Air Queens, I think, since they start with ethereality and lightning immunity and so forth. I prefer Earth and Fire, but then again, I prefer Ice Devils anyway - much cheaper and lower path requirements. Royalty lack foot slots, too.

[Vicious Love]

Saber Cherry said:
Most people entered 10-death-gem Tartarian Titans

Ten gems to cast the spell, about twenty more to get the right kind of titan, and sometimes twenty more to imbue said titan with reason. Repeat until the titan in question has the desired path combo. Then heal said titan's afflictions. The supercombatant tournmanet was pretty lenient in this regard; no one was expected to be cost-effective.

[OG_Gleep]

I watched the battles and it was interesting. But people were specced for the most part to combat 1:1 sc's. Troll kings aren't high end I, sorta grouped that in with the Elementals, but they can be pretty good thugs.

That would be fun to do over again with more emphisis on Combat.

[Oversway]

I think Troll Kings are good thugs. They come with high hp, regen, good attack score, and from earth magic you get some reinv and 30 protection (assuming you can cast invulnerability). Pretty easy to add a good weapon and flight and/or quickness and let them go.

Although, some of the time I use them for blade wind casters and troop buffers.

[shovah]

i find anything with decent build in regen (including highish hp n9 sacreds) can make a decent thug with relatively few/cheap add ons.

heres a new thug for you to try:
white centaur commander with f9 n9 bless
gloves of the gladiator
horned helmet
ring of regen
(and if you gain access to astral a pendant of luck)

i used this along with a few others loaded out the same and their leader was the same except: he was a prophet with heroic toughness (which rounded out at about 102 health and 22 regen per turn), red dragon armour and a amulet of reinvig. every single one of these guys has the ability to go berserk (one of the most important things for a team of thugs so they dont all rout), 5 high attack flaming attacks each, good defence, good health, good regen, good speed and with any decent armour (such as dragon armour) good health.

thier stealthyness makes them excellent raiders and except vrs high health/very high defence opponents they can all be expected to kill whatever is in the square they attack. they dont have any life drain but they make up for it with regen and killing power and ive yet to lose one in the sp testing im putting them through (playing vrs myself so i can chose exactly what i test them with) they seem to do well and they are pretty cheap (25 nature gems+80 gold for 1) and the prophetised uber thug (id still say hes below SC level) seems to be able to solo most early/mid game armies without fire resistance/anti sc (which isnt hard to avoid due to stealth) as can 2-3 of the regular variety.
they are pretty easy to churn out (especially if you can get mother oak) so all in all you have a fairly cheap thug who is hard to hit, gets mad (and harder to kill) when you hit him and has great killing potential
main downside ive found atm is the vunerability to crossbows or ulmish arbalests which actually makes ulm one of the harder nations for him to raid (next to jotunheim and aby)


ps: sorry for my bad habit of using too many brackets

edit: hurry up and have fun telling me all the flaws (i know many exist and i know you love to tell me)

[Oversway]

The main problem I have with most of your thug suggestions is I never live long enough to get the reasearch/gems/etc. to try them out

However, this one seems good for early on. You just need const 4, right? What scales did you take to get f9n9?