[Renojustin]

I find several problems with your strategy, most of which come down to this: Maenads aren't really useful enough to base a strategy on.

-They are only worth 1/10th of a unit patrolling
-Don't they cost upkeep? If that's the case, this alone means that they barely pay for themselves even when patrolling.
-They have no armor, so it's tough to buff them with anything except Protection.
-Almost every turn with each archer shot = 1 dead Maenad, which means your tougher units are at risk of an automatic rout and become less in overall worth. You don't get Faerie Court for a good while, it's almost easier to wait for your harpy champion and give her a ring of wizardry. Till then, they get slaughtered everywhere like nobody's business if you don't blow an air gem on arrow fend.
-They're about as good as militia when you DO get them in melee... they are pretty useless against anything with good defense OR protection.
-They're just annoying - they pile up everywhere and I enjoy micromanaging as much as the next guy, but you have to draw a line somewhere. It seems like even LA Ermor isn't as bad.

I just take Order scales so I don't have to micromanage them all. When I do get maenads, I simply assign them to guard commanders, and they'll sometimes get sent out to sortie via berserk spells. Satyr warriors are superb units; you can build a massive army of them in no time at 13g/5r. They benefit nicely from armor buffs, and their high hps with good attack and spears means they can hold a line.

Maenads are fine to guard your bladewind/storm of thorns spamming Pans with. Using this strategy I just finished a medium-sized random game against 9 AIs set to Impossible. They'd be throwing 300-400 man armies at me each and every turn from midgame on.

Minotaur Warriors for early game, all the while building the fantastic Dryads... at Magic 3 you get some insane RP/upkeep. Not to mention you can get stealth dominion kills with them, or build a strategy around dominion. +20 stealth is as good as it gets and you should only see them discovered once or twice a game if you're careful.

With Order scales, your income goes absolutely off the charts once you can cast Nature's Bounty. With a third of the map that size you get about 10,000 gp income per turn. That's pretty much unbeatable.

My pretender had something like 4 astral/4 death, Order 3, Sloth 3, Growth 3, Magic 3, Luck 3, Dominion 4. Just some nice scales to go out and let your land bask in. It works well with Pangaea's 200gp temples and excellent Dryads. And you can get a nice death economy going with skelly spams or the almost frightening Nether Blast thingy. Death Cloud is also an extremely impressive and damaging tool.

Globals you want to get are Gift of Health (huge hps and very fast affliction heals for Pangaea), Nature's Bounty (a truly shocking gp income), and Mother Oak. The nice thing is that these aren't offensive in nature... they'll think twice about dispelling anything except Bounty.

A last note - Ivy Kings make very impressive SCs. 0 encumbrance, non-undead, regenerating, high MR, HP, strength, morale. Rat Tail (you can repel with whips, right?), Eye Shield, Black Steel Armor, Boots of Quickness, Flying, or resists, Cats Eye Amulet, and Amulet of Luck, set to cast Personal Regeneration and attack, and they are first rate.