The best PD ?

[thejeff]

What's interesting is that some of them can situationally good.
Caelum may have lousy PD in most situations, but against self-buffing raiders fliers are devastating. Pan is the same way, though they're better overall.

Monkey PD isn't usually good, but the sheer volume of ranged attacks do pretty well against barbarian attacks, and that's really what PD is for, right?
(That and I had 1PD lame an Ember Lord recently. That Atevi Chieftain was awarded the Iron Banana. Posthumously, of course.)

[Amhazair]

Originally Posted by thejeff

What's interesting is that some of them can situationally good.

This is the key really. While I broadly agree with most candidates mentioned in the thread, both good and bad, it really depends on what they're asked to do. In my last game as Marverni for example I had been using (pairs of) teleporting druids as well as some lesser horrors to quickly take large numbers of provinces, (against Kailasa/Lanka, Abysia, Fomoria and Ulm, so quite a bit of variety there) but that tactic imploded spectacularly against 1 PD from Vanheim. Now, I wouldn't call Van's PD exceptional in most situations, but the 1A mage was just enough to lightning bolt the horrors to death, while against the druids he kept summoning phantasmal warriors, which were then targetted by the druids (Gifts of Heaven or Bladewind) until the druids passed out and were skewered. (Intrestingly enough, if Vanheim had upped his PD to 10 or so, the same pairs of druids would probably have routed them without too much effort.)

[Kobal2]

Originally Posted by thejeff

Monkey PD isn't usually good, but the sheer volume of ranged attacks do pretty well against barbarian attacks, and that's really what PD is for, right?
(That and I had 1PD lame an Ember Lord recently. That Atevi Chieftain was awarded the Iron Banana. Posthumously, of course.)

OTOH I got a quick education on just how crap monkey PD can be some while ago when a raiding group made up of ~30 Yomi archer goblins took out the 25 points of PD at my capital without breaking a sweat, however. No mage or priest support, no fancy thug or shifty placement tricks required. Didn't see that one coming.

Then again, earlier in that game EA Agartha's capital had been taken out and besieged right out of the game by a militia attack random event of all things, so I guess it could have been worse .