Try an Oracle pretender with, say, Astral 9, Fire 9, Water 9 and recruit jaguar warriors en masse. They can decimate knights without any losses.
Sure, you'll have to take Drain 3 for such a God. But your all-powerful Oracle will be able to do some research early, and then you can move your mages to some province with Drain 0 since your dominion doesn't spread by itself.
Later you can empower your Oracle with Blood to summon Ice devils, or maybe research Blood 6 first and empower a Priest of Sun to summon arch devils. (Then research construction 6. With such a blessing Shroud of a battle saint becomes a very viable item all of a sudden).
