Re: Machaka screwed more than ever ?
How well armored are those heavily stealthed units?
Anyways, IMO able assassins doen't necessarily equate high stealth, but means of getting the job done. If you think of the bane spider as a sort of mafia hitman, rather than a stubtle type, it makes a bit of sense.
The stealth can be a problem, but I find assassins work best as a defensive tool, anyways. Since patrolling is such an easy counter. An invading army doesn't have the time or pd to patrol, and after an assasination is most vulnerable to counterattack. And then, you could easily cause enough unrest with your priest to prevent any patrols from being effective, making it difficult for them to take and hold any territory or lines of reinforcement.
A fire pearl does a lot for this guy, as well as being easy to forge if you're fetishing. Specifically in reducing the number of shield hits and carving through chaff. I don't find this guy's stealth a problem, just his magic resistance. Strength boosters are nice as well, and easily forgable, but earth isn't as nearly free as fire, though still easier to come by then death gems.
It is nice that they needn't worry about ethereal units either.
Not that assassins are reliable or survive much, but it is nice to note that when the random Intor Vadul is sieging your capital, a Bane Spider with a fire pearl and lycanthropo's amulet can send him fleeing to his death at 16 hitpoints, even if your Bane Spider barely survives with one measly hitpoint just before,
Anyways, my big concern with them isn't 20 stealth, its a miserable 10 MR, which turns out to be their biggest weakness, very hard to counter with your national paths or without a lead shield. A lucky mage can be their undoing, or a few mandragora, but at least they aren't stalled by a few dispossed spirits.
PS. Or sleep or whatever... point is, with 10 MR, even a randomly casting mage has a good chance of ending that battle.
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