[MaxWilson]

Re #2, you can use serfs as well as indies for knocking down walls. Also consider magic items like the Gate Cleaver.

Re #1, you do have recruitable-anywhere A2 mages who can cast Thunderstrike if there's a Staff of Storms around so they can cast Air Power. For the research, it's probably best to take at least Magic-1 so you can leverage any cheap indy mages you find. That said, I originally started this thread when Svartalfs were recruitable-anywhere, which made Helheim a lot more fun to play. I'm a fan of recruitable-anywhere mages, and so in my SP games if a nation has no good ones I will sometimes turn a capital-only one into a recruitable-anywhere and raise the price by 15%. I did that with Helheim because IMHO that's what Svartalfs "should" be.

-Max