Shamblers

[Renojustin]

30 gold, 1 resource.

Yet they cannot even defeat an equal amount of tritons. About 75% of the time they're thrown back with near total losses. Abominable.

They have 6 protection, 9 defense, 10 attack. Having 22 hps and 15 strength doesn't really mean anything when they die in droves and can't hit anything.

I hate Shamblers. They're like the cavemen of the deeps. Never, ever spending gold on them again.

[Dedas]

When I use them I always mix them with smaller units in the same squad. They are also pretty good as flankers.

[Renojustin]

They're not good at anything, just face it! Mix them why? So you have a big fat target in the square so enemies won't attack your 10 gold infantry instead? Gah.

They're 11 movement, how is that good flanking? Well, at least they get to face cavalry out there that will kill them in one shot with a lance with their pathetic defense and protection, and never be able to hit at 14+ defense. Good riddance!

Oh... I mean, they're actually awesome! You should definitely sink some gold into them and use them against me.

[Lingchih]

Shamblers are almost always a poor investment... unless they are the only amphibious troops you can recruit. If that is the case, and you need to take a water province, you recruit them en masse. As many as you can command. Very expensive, but en masse, they will take out most water indies. It helps if you can send a priest with them to keep up their morale.

[Dedas]

Maybe I lied a little but they are pretty good as flankers underwater when you don't have anything better.

[Renojustin]

Ling, that's the ticket right there. But it's pretty darn sad when you wish you could recruit net-throwing Ichtyids instead for 10 gold and 3 resources. I mean, this is a 30! gold unit we're talking about.

[calmon]

Shamblers are good if you're a land nation with a lot of gold, want to start conquering the sea and have to build up a big force very fast.

Some protection spell support helps.

[vfb]

I used Shamblers recently against R'lyeh, as Oceania. I use Knights of the Deep for fighting. But I need more weight to siege Rlyeh dark fortresses.

I can spend 30 gold on 3 Knife Tridents for 3 siege reduction, or 30 gold on 1 Shambler for 2 siege reduction. But 3 Knife Tridents are going to be stuck underwater costing me money forever. At least the Shamblers will do me some good out of the water. At worst, at least they'll die!

And I've got sloth-3, so resources are always critical. It's nice to be able to buy 60 points of siege reduction without having to drag it one province at a time from a faraway fort. I'm looking at pretty much only 30 points average of resources in unforted provinces.

By the way, if you're planning on invading R'lyeh underwater, Ichtyids are not a good plan. With 8 MR they will just get destroyed.


Above ground, I should try Shamblers out versus tramplers sometime. Defense 9 is a base 38% chance of taking just 1 damage, and Shamblers don't fatigue much. There's only 2 Shamblers per square to trample. They'll usually survive the first 20-point damage trample from a size-6 trampler. And 2 Shamblers is 4 15-damage attacks against one elephant.

... testing ... testing ...

I did some testing, and you pretty much need double the gold in elephants, then the Shamblers win. I tested with a big blob of 18 Elephants versus a big blob of 120 Shamblers. Guess I won't be winning any economics prizes. Still, a bunch of Shamblers up front could slow/disperse elephants somewhat, and Shamblers might fare better versus Troglodytes or Minotaurs.

[Renojustin]

Trogs are much more dangerous than elephants against almost anything.

But your point is well taken about the sieges, and amphibious nature of Shamblers. You can definitely build up a very nice siege force in no time with Shamblers, and then throw them away against some average PD when you don't need them anymore.

[vfb]

Okay, so I had to go test.

Shamblers are even better against Trogs than they are against Elephants. With even gold costs, Shamblers actually won 2 out of 5 battles (120 Shamblers against 72 Troglodytes).