I think I'll redirect you to Peter Ebbesen elegant post:
Quote:
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" For the love of god, don't take what is "the only sensible way to play a nation competitively on Lamaserver" as being the same as "the only way anybody sane would play a nation" and don't denigrate those who quite correctly point out that the changes made to balance one playstyle (that happens to be the favourite Lamaserver style for the nation in question) significantly hurts another playstyle. "
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I've seen people using W9 Marignon Chalice kinghts, for devastating effect. I've seen people -like myself- using D9S9 Vestals(which work great), I've seen people using blesses other than E9 in sauromatian cavalry, I've even seen people using W9 on Fomoria Unmarkeds, go figure. Plus I've seen several times people buying sacreds with just average rainbow blesses (like W4F4E4B4), becouse +2 to most stats plus higher than average morale is often worth it.
There are actually several guides in this same web that offer different approachs to what you say are "mandatory" blesses. For example, S9F9 flagellants are named in some guides here, instead of your "must have W9 or they are useless" approach. I can link you a couple of other guides where people is suggesting different blesses for some of the troops you mention, if you want. Baalz Sauromatia Guide suggest, among others, a W9N4 bless and a E9W9 bless, maybe you should PM him and tell him he is completelly wrong and he should play the right way, which is your way.
Until it fell off from the favor of masses to be replaced by E9N4-8, W9F9 was actually "the" must have bless in almost any guide. It was not until Thugs and SC replaced completely troops in the most usual playstyle, that E9 replaced W9F9. So the whole "half the sacreds need E9N4" is utterly wrong. Actually, most the time, E9N4 is the bless you put to your thugs to save gems for reinvigoration items.
Even more important: there's a difference between a unit getting a high benefit from a bless (for example, Jaguars from W9, or Vestals from S9), and that bless being *mandatory* for them. Encumbrance 7 units that are outnumbered 10-1 *need* E10. That's beyond question. You have said it yourself. However, you can use Vestals, Knights, Wardens, Spiders, Jaguars with several different blesses, and they'll work. They might be more or less optimized, but they never stop to function.
I bet, however, that we can say everyone else (including those writing the guides liked in the first posts of this forum) is wrong, and you are right. So all sacreds are made to build just 1 or 2 bless strategy on them, anybody trying different approachs is idiot, fine. Let's move on on the next subject then.