What are the best counters to Anti-Thug spells? (Mind Burn, Paralyze, Soul Slay, Bleed, Harm, Hellbind Heart, Enslave Mind, Horror Mark)

[Tanaka]

I was kicking ♥♥♥ in a siege battle and then all of my units were paralyzed and chopped to bits. How do I counter this next time?

[Althaea]

There's a number of possibilities. Most of the spells you listed are negated by magic resistance, so simply boosting the magic resistance of your units in some way would help a lot. The Antimagic spell - if you have access to it boosts the MR of all your units by +4, and there are many items you can forge in the game that can give commanders varying levels of additional magic resistance.

One of the best things you can do is simply to bring more units, though, preferably with high hit points since that affects the AI's targeting. Mages that are focusing on dealing with thugs aren't dealing with your army, and mages that are focusing on dealing with your army aren't dealing with thugs. Unless the mages are casting Gifts from Heaven or (if you lack shock resistance) Thunderstrike, in which most things you field will die equally quickly.

Be sure to bring units that are vulnerable to the same things as your thugs: a hundred longdead will be ignored by e.g. any mages who are casting Soul Slay.

It's hard to say what your options are without knowing more details about the situation. Another possibility, though, is to simply use thugs which are immune to the more problematic effects. Golems, for example, summoned/created with Astral/Earth magic at Construction 7, have kind of crappy stats and performance compared to many other thugs, but are considered a great chassis simply because they're mindless and lifeless, which means they're completely immune to all of the spells you just listed, in addition to other and more dangerous anti-thug spells like Leech or Life for a Life. (They can also teleport and are immune to Mind Hunt and most other remote-attacks.)

[Nrak555]

Golems are also magic beings so are venerable to the anti magic beings spells which also fall under astral like opposition. this still checks mr and golems have quite a bit of it.

[Althaea]

They're also generally shorter ranged and often cost pearls. Earth's Shatter is more of a concern, probably. I have at least once seen someone using a Golem thug get caught completely off-guard because they didn't know about the Control spell, though.

[Nrak555]

I would not discount the lowly arcane bolt either, I seen plenty of enemy and my own golems fall to it.

[Mount Nomad]

Cast Call of the Winds 10x and Attack Rear. Who knows? Maybe a bird will get lucky and poke their mages' eyes out.

[meglobob1]

Moon Blades 5S are dooooom to golems or any magic being SC / thug. Killed 6+ fully kitted out golems with dudes equipped with Moon Blades. Just script Attack Large and if you can give them flying so they fly directly to the golem and get the 1st swing in all the better.

[Tanaka]

Good stuff thanks guys!

[Rovsea]

MR is the obvious answer, as previously said. It depends upon what nation you are where that MR is coming from.