>I'll just post some of my experiences with Flagellants and Wardens.
Wardens backed by earth-9 can aid early game expansion while taking trivial losses.
See that? You whole post reduced to a single sentence. Sometimes "less is more".
I don't deny that such a strategy can be used to effect. I question is whether an equal gold/resource army of tower guard and longbow would be just as potent and much more cost effective in nation points.