I suck with Pythium ... please help!

[Thufir]

archaeolept said:
relief is the key; hence the vital importance of an adjutant nature mage like a lizard shaman. that, and expecting any serious battle to kill of your (cheap) communicants. W/ relief I'm generally happy w/ 2 to 1 ratio, or even smaller for battles that look to be short. Castle assaults, otoh, will usually kill off all your communicants.

So, are you saying that with castle assaults, even if you have relief, you still expect to kill all your communicants?

Let's set up a specific example:
3 theurgs
1 shaman
8 communicants

In this case, if it is expected that all communicants die, I would've guessed that adding another shaman or two wouldn't be that hard, and would be well worth saving 8 communicants. Or is it truely that problematic that simply adding relief casters doesn't suffice?