Still off topic: Blessed basalt kings are great. E9N4-8(and possibly some astral or water) gives you affliction avoidance and good reinvigoration for the ultimate basalt bomb of doom - which consists of atleast one basalt king with E9 bless, summon earthpower and multiple reinvigoration items(boots of the messenger, amulet of resilence, maybe girdle of might) and other normal thug/SC equipment to give decent survivability and offensive power - charging into the enemy ranks and either killing everyone or killing some guys, dying(and killing many enemies in the resulting explosion) and then coming back and killing more
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Also, ive just noticed phoenix pyre is an underwater no-no so ignore the suggestion of it in my last post.
If you are going with basalt kings to soak up mind blasts dont forget to take other troops. Despite quickened basalt kings with firebrands killing around 6 units per turn they are expensive and will probably need support to defeat the large army you mentioned. As I said their large size, high cost, high health and proximity to the enemy should get them targeted unless you use flyers.