[thejeff]

Valkyries are 60, Helhirdings 90.
If you're going double-bless you won't have an awake SC, which slows down those initial turns.

I just played a quick first year with the classic W9F9 bless. Only 12 provinces, but I'd started fighting an AI and made a couple of dumb mistakes, snuck instead of attacking, that kind of thing.
My initial expansion army w/prophet & 2 Helhirdings from the first turn was still going strong. The others had 5/6 mixed Helhirdings & Valks led by a Vanherse. The weakness is archers. They'd probably do better with a few Serf warriors to catch arrows. That would keep me from sneaking when I didn't want to, as well.

I bought mostly Helhirdings and a few Valkyries when the gold split easier that way. Roughly a force every other turn.

The mixed Helhirdings and Valkyries worked better than I thought. I was afraid the valks would fly up and get killed before the cavalry caught up, but with everyone in the back on Hold&Attack closest so they'd have time to get blessed, the enemy would usually get into the cavalry's amazing range. So the Valkyries would appear next to them and then the Helhirdings would race across half the field and cut them down.