@Coshade- I don't play on OCTGN. Skellies are much more expensive in general than the zombies, and may not play well in a double spawnpoint environment. Zombies go up to 11 mana and skellies, not including the dragon, go up to 16. Different builds for different creature types is fine. Force master can give me fits, but half a dozen psychic immune creatures hitting him gives him fits too, and the corruptions are really meant for him in any case.
@Intangible0- Zombies are just about, and most literally true of the crawlers, half of most normal creatures. They have resiliency, but bad rolls can make them die quickly. I have played every creature in my book a few times now in marathon games. Maybe it's just a conceit, but after those games I tend to swear never to let that happen again.
@SharkBait- He's usually an early drop, though I've cast him late game as a final nail. Sending him out early against the druid is always fun, but I've used him far more often against local warlords. Something like, turn 1 drop a crystal forward and step right once. Turn 2, drop him and place a face down enchantment, likely nullify. Turn three, he steps up and you put on cheetah speed and mongoose agility, face down. Turn four, reveal enchantments and he runs up and hits the warlord's barracks, ignoring guards in the zone and usually taking it half way down. The enemy usually starts responding to him and ignores me setting up spawnpoints since losing their only one, and an effective 3 mana per turn, seems more urgent. If he can take out enemy creatures too, that is a pretty good bonus and I've had him last the rest of the game as well.
@gerni- Knowing when to hold a wall in hand is very important. Knowing when to have the cloak on early is important. This usually means that mages that want to directly hurt you are very close and near double spawnpoints. They can stand in a zone putting out the 2 creatures a turn if they want. The mage end of this book is definitely a finesse game; if you position yourself poorly, you will get rushed, and they will take something from you. You have to know when to develop, when to counter rush, and when to prepare a defense.
As for armor stackers, they take time to stack, which gives me time I need to take the creature game in hand. Zombies do have trouble against decent armor when doing regular attack rolls, but the chance to do 3 immediate non-mitigatable damage with the venomous zombies' taint adds up quickly along with an upkeep trigger of rot from plague zombies. Dodgers have to dodge too many creatures to come out unscathed. The ravenous ghoul/zombie brute+eternal servant combo is decent for a guard with piercing, though mana intensive. And I have had the book dissolved before and other games where the graveyard got hammered. It sucks. Never really stopped me, though. You still have a spawnpoint and your own full action. Necro zombie builds afford mana discounts that usually allow you to take that hit.
Still not saying it is perfect, or fast, but it has more versatility than you would expect.
