I was messing around with various nations the other day trying to look for tactics that people normally don't consider.
One thing I tried with Marverni was a fire9/earth9 bless. The blessed sacreds are pretty much godmode against indies even in ridiculously small numbers. 4 Boar warriors and 1 blesser can rip most common independents to shreds. You can crank these armies out 1 per turn at the start of the game too.
I am thinking about trying them out in a longer game and tweaking the bless with a little less earth for better scales. Probably not the greatest strategy in the world, but it sure does entertain me
.