[Zooko]

I think perhaps Flagellants with Fire-9/Astral-9 dual blessing are the best. The reason is that they cost only 10 gold and minimal resources each, and they can be recruited in any fortress. And when you throw them into hand-to-hand combat, they deal out great damage before falling.

You can find evidence of this in Saber Cherry's battle simulator. It appears to me that if you spend X gold and Y resources on Fire-9/Astral-9 flagellants, then the resulting team of flagellants will decisively win in hand-to-hand combat against other national troops that you could have bought for X gold and Y resources, even if you get a dual-blessing of your choice on sacred troops.

Am I wrong?

Note: flagellants are susceptible to missile fire. An Air-4 blessing might be valuable, or else battlefield tactics to protect your flagellants from being decimated by missiles before they get into the fray.

Also note that your supply of Flagellants has to be continually replenished. They aren't like Vans or Daoine Sidhe or Niefel Giants who are intended to slay enemies and keep going. Rather they are intended to slay enemies, then die themselves, and then be replenished by a new wave of even more Flagellants.