[Baalz]

Hehe, but I think you can make very cost effective thugs with pretty cheap equipment assuming you already sprang for a nice blessing so they make sense if you're running short of kings to equip. I think golden shield + fire plate + horned helm should give you a pretty serviceable thug for 12 gems which can erupt in numbers out of any of your castles. They might even make sense *instead* of Kings in some circumstances as you can field 3+ for the cost of each king, so they'd be a better bet for a broad blitz expecting to encounter mostly PD in dozens of provinces.