Land Armies vs Independants composed of Wingless/Mammoths work well.

You *can* use your initial units for patrolling since they count double and get yourself a good sized army.

Iceclads are somewhat unreliable since they have such low hit points, but remember that map movement of 3.

The mages are inexpensive (175 Gold) and can cast Quickness/LB/Thunderstrike.

For initial expansion look at a mammoth/wingless army, they trample quite well