[Twan]

"Playing with dolls" is a necessity in endgame, you need SCs to carry your artefacts and survive mass destruction spells (or perhaps you may succeed with troops summonable en masse, with more than 20 hp, 20 or more protection, several resist, magical weapons... the problem is... you also need death 7/conjuration 9 to cast legion of wights).

Edit : I wanted to say it's normal that with level 9 research and level 7 skill (tartarians) you beat what other can get with level 8 research and level 5 skill (elemental royalty etc). The less normal thing with death is you also beat anything an elemental/nature only nation can use with level 9 research and level 7+ skill (and you don't fear their mass destruction spells with your SCs).