Yup, its the cold aura which is the real killer, made worse by the onset of winter. E/N bless is for longevity and its quite difficult for any swarm of mundane troops to consistently crank out so much damage so early.
Of course, where the bless strat falls apart for niefel is the fact that the giants are cap only; for future reference his capital is at (214) by the way, just to the south of the centre of the map
