[shovah]

And having 4 thugs expanding by turn 30, all of which are stealthy is nice. Priests rarely, if ever seem to damage mine and with thier 26-28 prot and good defence almost no basic troops can hard them, they usually make enough with lifedrain to stay alive (although i kept playing that test, one of my servants lost and arm and his lifedrain in the process).

Another option instead of removing lifedrain would be making them have very low strength, i tend to boost the strength of mine alot (boots of strength, girdle of might and sometimes bearclaw talisman/lycan amulet) so reducing the strength reduces lifedrain which reduces their effectiveness. or you could give them a fixed (say 10ap) lifedrain attack so they cant drain too much.

By turn 30 (as ulm) in that test i had 2 earth boots and dwarven hammers, and rainbow mage (3 in almost all, higher in death and earth) so i had good research and forging. I had 6 (nearly 7) construction and 2 in conjuration on hard research.

This was just a test and i made all the servants without even searching for any sites due to my forge bonus, had i used my rainbow mage to search for sites i would have had great income and would have had the black servants out only 2 or 3 turns later at most (since they used almost exclusively lvl 2-4 items my smiths could make), i agree there are counters but the fact that 1 guy i had out before turn 15 can solo a priest,20ish crossbows (maybe 30) and 20 knights is just wrong.

The fact that i can have 4 of them (or possibly better versions) out by turn 30 while still producing masses of arbalests (mainly for SC's/very tough troops life neifels), black plate infantry (when backed wtih priests or mages can handle practically all chaff/undead) and smiths/priests (research, preaching and battlefield support) and still have some gems, cash and good research power just seems overpowered (although ulm does need all the help it can get). Also black servants with a good shield (charcoal is good), marble armour, horror helm and amulet of anti magic has great prot, defence, routing ability and priest resistance.

Id prefer (as i suggested earlier in this post) them to have reduced strength but not lose lifedrain, that could make black servant packs useful. 3 or so at a time, all with good prot and some fear and berserk (lycan amulet?). Very hard to kill and with their cold aura+alot of attacks could be useful but take lnoger to get working.