Redeyes, thanks for the info on the damage of 34 on the primary boulder attack - missed that when quickly glancing at the mod file. That's certainly a lot more threatening than the 8, boosted to 12 with strength of giants, that I had mentioned.
Having said that, my tests of thugged Ri vs. boulder throwers still hold true.
Decourcy, I thought it might be helpful if I posted my test files. You can run the attached save game both with an E9N6 bless and without it (using spells and magic items to get the necessary reinvig and regen).
My test results were as follows (ran 10 tests for each setup):
Ri with a heros blade, silver hauberk, bracers and girdle of might with an E9N6 bless and scripted Bless-->Barkskin-->Mistform
vs
36 of the armored boulder throwers buffed with strength of giants and an E4N4 bless
90% success rate (effective prot was 30 body, 24 head)
Ri with a heros blade, black plate armor, bracers and amulet of resilience scripted Air Shield-->Stoneskin-->Mistform and with a Tuatha Sorceress casting Regeneration and Soothing Song x 3 before retreating
vs
36 of the armored boulder throwers buffed with strength of giants and an E4N4 bless
90% success rate (effective prot was 31 body, 24 head)
Ri with a heros blade, black plate armor and amulet of resilience scripted Air Shield-->Stoneskin-->Mistform and with a Tuatha Sorceress casting Regeneration and Soothing Song x 3 before retreating
vs
36 of the armored boulder throwers buffed with strength of giants and an E4N4 bless
80% success rate (effective prot was 29 body, 24 head)
A few comments:
* I was purely testing thug vs. boulder throwers. Obviously a smiting H3 knocking off mistform will cause things to go south quickly.
* I had air shield scripted on tests two and three to mimic the silver hauberk from the first test but you could probably dispense with this (but I'm too lazy to run the test again without it
). Also, the AI will cast armor of achilles (and of course a player might script it) so even though I didn't bother equipping the thug with a helmet you might want to do so since sometimes his armored was destroyed dropping his head prot to 15 IIRC.
* TNN is vulnerable early on and needs some research in order to really start becoming effective. They are not Mictlan, who can lean on cheap, powerful troops from the beginning of the game. The traditional openings are Alt./Constr. for thugging and Evo. for thunderstrike. I generally go for thugs first because I like the flexibility they offer (more than ever with the current CBM) but both approaches have their uses and it depends on the opposition you're facing.
* With the current CBM there is more of a case than ever to go with a light bless rather than a full E9. But I do recommend at least E4N4. Thugging is an important aspect of this nation (and a very fun one at that). A light bless will save on gem costs and you'll get your money's worth out of it. If you really don't want to do that then at least get an N4 bless since regen gear is more expensive than reinvig gear and it lets you spread your forging costs over different gem types instead of having it focused in N (though this may not be the ideal situation for it you will typically be forging a lot of N shields and rainbow armor is also excellent).
*
Advertising message: Doh! I really need to pay more attention to what mods I've got loaded when I run test games. So I recommend everyone check out GFSnl's
Dystopia mod - you'll need it in order to open this save game.
