Shambler Thralls?

[Salamander8]

I was wondering what other people thought of these guys. I'm currently in a very long and drawn-out SP game as EA R'leyh and due to the Mind Lord's lack of magic item slots (2 misc, and 1 of these has to be an Amulet of the Fish to pursue my land opponents) and inherent command abilities (10 normal and 165 magical), I tend to fill them up with quite a few of these guys. I use less of them in Dom2 as R'Leyh and as MA R'Leyh thanks in part to the Void Gate summons, but I still used some of them to 'bulk up' my infantry blocks. They don't rout and are fairly large and trample, but they still seem to die a lot. The lack of protection is a large factor here I know, but what are other peoples' opinions on these guys?

[DrPraetorious]

Well, I wouldn't use them much against the CPU.

Against computer players you just want to avoid taking losses.

Otherwise, the shambler thrall is more fragile (per $) than Elephants, but does pretty much the same thing.

Against a human opponent it's a whole different situation - elephants are rather cowardly, and killing another player's army without losses is generally not an option (barring an extreme edge in luck, position, skill, etc.) So against another player, shambler thralls are excellent.

[Salamander8]

Against computer players you just want to avoid taking losses.

I do tend to lose less than the AIs. This is important considering the enormous armies they love to build. But some nations I tend to get chewed up more than others. I can usually minimize my losses, but sometimes these battles are real meatgrinders. EA R'leyh, with it's lack of solid amphibious troops, has me rely a lot more on independent troops than I normally prefer. MA R'Leyh has the lovely Illithids to Mind Blast the heck out of my enemies, but for EA R'Leyh, Gibodais and Giboleths have to remain underwater which hamstrings land conquest in comparison to MA R'Leyh.

I try to pair Slave Princes with Mind Lords to allow me to use more normal troops, and especially archers, when on the attack above the waves. In my current SP game I also have some Firbolgs leading large forces running around.

I still consider myself a beginner, and not the best mirco-manager so here is a fairly typical example of what I mean:

[Rytek]

I would definatley try and mix in some of those shamblers with the elephants to increase the morale of the elephants.

[Shovah32]

I could be wrong but i think i remember hearing that mindless/berserk/undead units dont boost to morale of regular guys in their squad.

[Evilhomer]

Im pretty sure you are correct here shovah.

[RonD]

But the idea is right - you want to take some high (but not 50)morale troops and put them in the same squad as the elephants.

[Shovah32]

Yea. Dosnt rlyeh have some armoured, very slow(and unlikely to reach battle) elite troops that have high(but not mindless) morale? I seem to recall them having them but could be wrong.

[Evilhomer]

well they do have meteorite guards (morale 12), but since sloth 3 is almost always used for R'lyeh you might not be able to build many of those (30 resources)

[Shovah32]

O well. I guess regular 10/10 troops with average morale would work ok too.