[Humakty]

Well, after reading your post my view is all of a sudden quite different, as I hadn't spotted all of this. (I do not read all the DMs, lazy me)(it spoils quite a bit of pleasure too)

But, even knowing all this, I still think you could be quite hard pressed early on by, lets say, caelian infantry, or anything better using magic weapons.
What do you think of some sort of armored thralls, or mercenaries ? It would help diversify their base roster of units. You can even make them a level 1 or 2 construction/whatever, if you think armored stuff should stay exceptionnal.

edit : uh stoneskin uh ? Err maybe no armored goodies after all. Needs more testing to make my mind.