Thuggity Thug [efficient thug builds]

[Rytek]

I prefer EA Pangea over LA Pangea for this strategy for a number of reasons. Blood magic has the heartfinder axe which adds to the beserk bonus and it also has the heart that makes assasins out of your stealthy Pans. Sloth 3 is a no brainer because White centaurs are so cheap resource wise compared to black centaurs and the white centaurs are just as effective vs independents for early expansion.

Also, the thing that makes the above mino thug so great is they are self sufficient. They dont need another along to bless them. That and they have very little encumberance. Finally, not being sacred is great because you are not slowed down by needing a temple to recruit them at a castle.

The one drawback (and it is a big one) you cant get this going until you get some astral mages. I was lucky in my game I started next to a lizard province which is fairly common in early age (another bonus of ea pan over la pan)

By mid game with dwarven hammers built it is easy to pump out 3 minotaur thugs every turn. Recruit 5 regular minotaurs to guard. 1 turn to consolitate. Put the 3 thugs in the front with attack orders. the 15 bodyguards in the middle with guard orders.

[Ydirbut]

I normally just play singleplayer, so Im not very good at most MP tactics, like thugging, raiding, SCing, etc. However, I gave it a try as MA Ulm, thinking it would be a nice change of pace. I normally play with indys set to 9, so, they had a little bit of trouble, but they did good raiding the enemies lands. This is what I used
Black Servant(Summoned by pretender)
Firebrand
Charcoal Shield
Black Steel Full Plate (Should I go elemental armor instead?)
Black Steel Helmet
Boots of Giant Strength
Medallion of Vengeance
Girdle of Might
What changes should I make to this? What are some other effective Ulm Thug strats?

[thejeff]

Black Servants have life drain right? I'd drop Firebrand and stick with the native life drain.

Luck Amulet instead of the Medallion. Horror Helm if you can.

[Shovah32]

Correct me if im wrong but black servants still have only 13 MR correct? Not a particularly good idea to invest alot in a low health, low mr undead unit.

[mivayan]

Rytek said:
Sloth 3 is a no brainer because White centaurs are so cheap resource wise compared to black centaurs and the white centaurs are just as effective vs independents for early expansion.

nitpick: black and white centaurs are *identical*. And both cost 12 res. LA lacks the sweet non-sacred 12-resource centaur warriors though.

Ydirbut - an amulet of antimagic is nice if facing priests or astral nations.

[HoneyBadger]

Amulet of antimagic is nice, period, when building any kind of thug, sc, etc. just for the fact that so many deadly abilities-petrification, charm, etc. are blocked by high MR.

If you've got a unit under 15 MR minimum, you shouldn't build it (give it items, make it a prophet, empower it, etc.) without including atleast 1 MR boosting item.
Personally, I like my SCs to have over 20.

[Shovah32]

22 Seems a fairly good number. Its certainly not unstoppable(as my batteries of magic monkeys casting soul slay will tell you) but it makes you resistant to most basic mages and pretty much makes sure you wont get blasted to death when raiding(unless they are prepared for 22 MR they probably wont have anything on hand straight away to deal with it).
It is annoying, however, when one of your SCs with 22 MR, full resistances, regen, huge reinvigoration and various other buffs goes against a single B3F1(or W1) caster and dies at the cost of 2 blood slaves.