[K]

I've found that the best Bless is an E9/N9 on an Earth Mother. It creates the most survivable Bandar Log overall. Avoid the Tiger Riders. For the price, you can get four White Ones and four of them beat single Tiger Riders hands down.

Shoot for Conj5 for Ghandarvas and you'll have an elite squad of almost unkillable units with the E9N9 Bless.

Also, the precision on the Longbowman is pretty bad so avoid them until you can cast Wind Guide consistently. The Atavi Archers are nice stealth archers.

Remember that you get Lanka's good Death and Blood summons, so breaking into these economies as soon as possible boosts your overall survivability quite a bit. Since its an MP game, trade and bargaining is your best best, though I've gotten lucky with Akashic Record before.

If you went with the N9 Bless, tossing down Foul Vapors and poison immunity on casters means that you can eat through lesser armies.