Good late game SCs?

[Baalz]

Mindless *and* lifeless. Lifeless means they can't be life drained so they're great for raiding previously mentioned leech-spamming blood hunters. That banefire shield really does a number on the imps they tend to otherwise default to.

[Edratman]

mathusalem said:
@Edratman how do you use Tree Lords ???

Via stupidity mostly. I had to empower in one air, air helmet him then cloud trapeze because I was unaware of his limitations. Worked in SP. Probably not the best choice, but it worked. Took several provinces all alone before getting red hearts.

I was playing Caleum (MA?) for the only time. I did not like anything about them. Very limited magic options. Couldn't summon squat. I think I picked up the treelords via enchantress site. IIRC I had to use empower more as Caleum than I have for everyone else added up (very minor exaggeration).

[Kuritza]

But poison golems have AWFUL stats. Afaik they are like simple golems, but they kill population and they dont have any magic... so with the exception of banefire shield which is maybe good vs chaff, they are even worse than an ordinary golem.
Who, in dominions 3, is a very, very bad SC.
Sea troll kings make surprisingly good SCs, when properly equipped. Quicken self, breath of winter (chill aura + cold immunity), regeneration, 60 hps, good MR, all in all a very good chassis. But they do need some reinvigoration, vine/eye shield and some low enc armor, rainbow or robe of shadows. Really, you should try it.
But thats more of a middle game choice - I thought we discuss top-notch SCs here.

[DrPraetorious]

The lack of astral is an *advantage* on the Poison Golem, b/c it means he can't be autokilled by magic duel.

Yeah, the poison golem is not a skilled combatant, but once he has boots of quickness it doesn't really matter, except in duels against other SCs, a task at which he is, admittedly, far from ideal.

[K]

About 3 out of 4 games I play as Lanka, so I have to say that I like the Mandaha. He suto-casts Darkness, has good stats, has a fatigue aura, can cast Soul Vortex, Mistform, Mirror Image, and Blood Vengeance, and can Cloud Trapeze into hot areas as needed.

[Baalz]

Equip a poison golem like this:
standard of the damned
fire helm
boots of quickness
armor of souls
amulet of MR
ring of tamed lighting/ring of frost (whatever makes sense for who you're fighting)

That makes a 29 protection & 85hp (constantly increasing from the drain life spam) and with that MR, lifeless, mindless he's pretty much immune to everything. Banefire shield handles most crowd control while the 2X AN life drain attacks will hit the larger foes. As mentioned, the lack of astral removes that achilies heel...the only way you're bringing this guy down is with strong anit-SC tactics.

[Kuritza]

Bad combat stats do matter not just against other SCs, but against anything that can fight back. Sacreds, for example. Damn, astral golems manage to die vs Abyssia infantry... and they have body ethereal, which poison golem lack.
Also, in my tests, thugs started meleeing with standard as soon as enemies were getting into melee.

[Shovah32]

Astral Golems may die to abysian infantry. But they have much lower natural protection.

[Edratman]

The fact that nothing is invincible is truly the best feature of the game. Otherwise first one to invincible wins and there are many games like that available.

[Kuritza]

>> The fact that nothing is invincible is truly the best feature of the game.
Sort of a pointless remark, excuse my bluntness of course. SCs may not be invincible, but when a so-called SC cannot beat national troops, he's just not an SC. Thats what I'm saying - astral golems are upkeep-free high-hp astral mages, poison golems are... well, a funny feature, maybe good thugs to raid and poison enemy lands at the same time. But there are not SCs.
I'll pay more attention to poison golems, though... perhaps are better than astral ones somehow. I still doubt they can beat properly blessed jaguars, though.