undead question

[thejeff]

I think what you're missing is that you need a lot of priests, because you can get a lot of undead chaff very quickly. Either with Raise Dead spam or with reanimators.
Sure, if you're not fighting undead it's useful to have a couple priests in the army to bless and Sermonize, but it isn't useful to have 20. And you're not likely to have 20 H2 priests unless they're mage-priests, in which case they're more expensive.

Also, while undead are vulnerable to banishment and some other spells that normal troops aren't, they also are immune to some things regular troops are vulnerable to. Most of the chaff undead are cold resistant, fear and awe don't work against them, mind attacks fail, life drains don't work. Plenty of thugs that could slaughter regular troops will die to unexpected undead.