Starvation victims abroad need help NOW!

[Graeme Dice]

Gandalf Parker said:
any national troop or longdead is better than an ethereal at drawing fire? They last longer?

The question is not one of lasting longer, but more one of cost effectiveness. If we are dealing with assasinations, then the best defense is having so many commanders that the ones you care about aren't likely to get attacked.

[Gandalf Parker]

thats cost effective over a few death gems?

[Graeme Dice]

Gandalf Parker said:
thats cost effective over a few death gems?

You only get three shades for your five death gems, so the comparison is between 25 gold independent commanders that protect every other commander from assasination, and spending half the cost of a bane lord to protect a commander is considerably more expensive.

[Gandalf Parker]

I guess so. It still smacks of the big-army tactics which are different than mine. But I can see the point

[quantum_mechani]

Gandalf Parker said:
I guess so. It still smacks of the big-army tactics which are different than mine. But I can see the point

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by big-army tactics, but I assume you mean as opposed to raiding tactics. That's certainly not counter to my playing style, I'm actually somewhat infamous for abusing any kind of raiding available.

But the key thing in raiding is to have parties that are more cost/combat effective than the defense that is mounted, and shades don't fall into that category even just against PD. In any case, raiding is extremely hard to counter with assassination, as it doesn't work versus stealth, and versus a good raider it is extremely hard to predict where to send the assassins.