To my surprise, this unit stormed ahead to win the vote for this week's unit guide. I hope all of you read ChimeraArtemis' colourful and informative guide to the Petsuchos last week. Much has been said whether this actually is a Myth Unit. As someone pointed out to me last week, in the proto files, all it is classified as is a military unit. Things get even more confusing when you take a look at the tech trees where the green colour coding this unit receives actually classifies it as a god power! I have been inclined to believe that this can be termed a Myth unit for the simple fact that is sure as hell isn't a hero, it dosen't look like a human unit and it is obviously isn't a civilian unit. I'm sure all of you have something to say on this topic so I await some second opinions. In my opinion, I'll accept this as a MU if it takes some extra damage from heroes. I'll come to that in the guide. Coming to the unit itself- what could be bad with a free unit? As I'll show later on in the guide, it isn't exactly free.

The Unit

Archaic Age
HP: 90
Hack Damage: 6
Hack Armour: 20%
Pierce Armour: 20%
Crush Armour: 99%
Speed: 4.00

Classical Age
HP: 99
Hack Damage: 7
Hack Armour: 20%
Pierce Armour: 20%
Crush Armour: 99%
Speed: 4.00

Heroic Age
HP: 108
Hack Damage: 8
Hack Armour: 20%
Pierce Armour: 20%
Crush Armour: 99%
Speed: 4.00

Mythic Age
HP: 117
Hack Damage: 9
Hack Armour: 20%
Pierce Armour: 20%
Crush Armour: 99%
Speed: 4.00

Bonuses: None

Cost: 1 pop

Special Attack/Ability: None

This is, without a shadow of a doubt the weirdest unit in the game. Before going into the stats, I'd like to explain how they are created. What the game manual says is that if one of your Hades human soldiers dies, you have a 20% chance that a shade will appear at your temple. This does not mean that you get 1 shade for every 5 human units you lose. What this means is that is for every human unit you lose, there is a 1 in 5 chance that you will get a shade at your temple. This means that theoretically, (if you are insanely lucky), you could have 10 shades for 10 human units killed. In practice, however, it is unlikely you will ever have more than 3 or less than 1 (none) for every 10 human units killed. One point worth noting is that you could press the delete key after selecting a unit, thus killing it, and still have it produce a shade.
As a unit, it is very ordinary indeed. The Classical Age shade is probably the most competetive version. You can only really get one in Archaic (from your scout) and it's too weak in Heroic and Mythic. The attack and hp could just be termed reasonable but for the atrocius armour ratings. These things die very, very quickly. One more thing that surprised me was the 1 pop cost which, quite frankly, sucks. I'll explain that statement later. Anyway, lets see whether the shade has any value at all as a combat unit.

Tests

1. vs Infantry - 1 Zeus Hoplite (126hp 10 hack damage 41% hack armour):
In this test, I send up a classical age shade agianst a hoplite. It is worth noting that the shade attacks once every 2 seconds. This means that it actually does twice the amount of damage indicated in the stats per shot. The hoplite does 9 hp worth of damage to the shade per shot. The shade does 8 damage to the hoplite per shot but only 4 per second. Net result, the hoplite kills the shade in 11 seconds losing 40 hp in the process. However, if two shades (pop equivalent) attack the hoplite together, they kill the hoplite fairly easily without losing even one of them. On a pop equivalent basis, the shades beat all classical human units. Its only when you get to heroic and mythic when the stronger units like War Elephants, Jarls, Fanatics and Myrmindons beat the shades on a pop equivalent basis. On the whole- individually very poor but quite decent on a population equivalent basis. Of course all MUs beat the shade even with pop equivalence (eg. 4 shades v 1 Minotaur) even though it is worth noting that none of the MU special attacks effect the shades.

2. vs Heroes - 1 Ra Priest (99hp 4 pierce damage 23% hack armour 16 range x6.5 bonus vs MUs):
This test should prove whether the shade can be classified as an MU. The answer is a clear NO. First of all, all the priest throws at the shade are pebbles, not the stars he throws at MUs. The shade sustains 3 hp damage per second while it does 11 hp damage per shot to the priest killing him in 19 seconds with about 40 hp left. I think this settles the argument about how to classify the shade. It is definitely NOT a Myth Unit.

3. Group Test- 10 Medium Hoplites vs 15 Medium Murmillos
Let us see if the shade can make any difference at all to a battle. Firstly, lets see how the hoplites did without the shades' help.
The hoplites lose in 30 seconds with 11 murmillos left.
Lets see if adding 4 shades to the fray makes any difference-
The hoplites still lose but they leave ony 7 murmillos. This test shows that the shades do make a difference to combat. Because they are free, they can be used to draw enemy fire.

Suggested Usgae

There is very little a shade can do in battle so it makes no point to suggest civ specific usage. One thing I can think of is to bolster you meatshield. As a Hades player, you would be pretty crazy if you did not utilize a large number of ranged units in your army. As a meatshield unit, a shade will go down really quickly, but your hades ranged units are so powerful that even a second or so delay could allow you to pick off more enemy units. One advantage of using a shade as a meatshield is the fact that things like the Hekagigantes' ground pound and the Battle Boar's spinning kick have no effect on them at all so you can still hold a meatshield while your stronger units recover their positions.

Sometimes, 2 or 3 shades can make a difference in a battle. The reason for this is more phsycological than practical. The shades look more impressive than the human soldiers (especially pre heroic). They will thus serve to draw fire away from more important human units in your formation.

The best use of the shade (in my opinion) is to use them to guard gold mines, hunting areas, settlements or bushes from villagers. They have a good line of sight with which they can definitely harrass civilian units and can help preserve such valuable resources from others by also providing an alert mecahnism to enemy encroachment to allow you to send additional forces to the spot. This strat falls flat on its face against Atlantean players though because their citizens are more than a match for the shades. I've heard some people suggest using the shade for raiding. I don't quite agree with this because it is too slow to raid with. Raiding is one of the most important facets of winning in AOM and it must always be entrusted to cavalry, ranged units or fast MUs which are perfectly suited to the task.

Because of its very low pierce armour, the shade is almost completely useless against buildings.

Conclusion

On the whole, this is not a totally useless unit. Using it in the ways I described above gives it some utility. One real use is to make your force 'look' more impressive than it actually is against noobs or people who would instinctively concentrate all their firepower on the shades.

In my opinion, the real negative as far as the unit is concerned is it's cost. Wait a minute! did I just say cost!! Yes, I mean the 1 pop cost per shade. True, you might not have to spend any resources on it but if you look at it closely, it turns out to be pretty expensive for what it does (or fails to do). Taking the 1 pop slot in isolation, it could alternatively be used to train another villager. Most experts tend to agree than managing a good economy is central to winning in AOM. A few villagers in place of the shades will definitely add to your economy in the long run. I really think that the shades should not cost us any pop slots at all. ES should look at it in their next patch.

On a final note, this will be my final AOM guide for some time. I'm taking a break from AOM and trying out some other games. If someone else wants to continue doing the Greek and Norse MU guides, best of luck to you.