Some units survive a battle with obuch. Would it be too much to consider that blacksmith’s repair armor of nearby units for free of course? Slowly, their armor restores by one every 10 seconds. This is a economic way to repair armor without having to use a monk. A monk cost 100 gold.
A perfect example I want to repair my group of paladins, without being forced to make a bunch of monks to heal them.
Also factor, the obuch armor chipping ability greatly exceeds the speed of the repair rate of the blacksmith.