Encumbrance and blessings

[MaxWilson]

I've come back to an old favorite recently, Helheim. W9 is of course a classic bless for sacred cavalry, but I've been really impressed with how nice an E10 bless (off a Cyclops) is. Not so much for the Protection, although Prot15 (18 with Legions of Steel) in EA is pretty nice, but because a net encumbrance of 0 makes a huge difference against indies and other hordes of chaff. I'm kind of used to seeing things stack up bodies for 10 rounds or so and then suddenly evaporate when fatigue gets so high that crits start happening, but with an E10 bless those valks and helhirdlings keep going *forever*. Actually I'm using an F4W4E10N4 bless (low dominion and moderately bad scales, in SP). One Dis by herself, no equipment, took out 30 indies, which certainly isn't something I'm used to seeing happen.

So, I'm impressed by the E10 bless. Experience gives you attack and defense, spells can increase your strength or damage dealt, but it's really, really hard to keep fatigue down. You need to either be a thug that can have reinvigoration items, or if you're dealing with non-commander units you need to cast Relief (meh) or start off with 0 encumbrance in the first place. That means Earth blessings are one of the few truly unique blesses. (F9 and Death being the others.)

Disclaimer: yes, often hordes of chaff are going to be as effective or more effective in competitive play than a handful of elite units with a bless. Sometimes elite units are more fun than a scale strategy, and sometimes they're not. (C'tis is lots of fun even with unblessed units.)

-Max