Thanks Squirrelloid and Chris! You've inspired me to have another shot at this sad nation. It's probably fitting that their race is doomed, they suck so bad.
Anyway, I took a Dom6 W4E6S4N4 awake Ageless Olm. I don't seem to get that many less freespawn Olm Spawn than with higher dominion. S4 is kind of playing with fire, but he's a Golem Summoner, not a fighter. Sloth-3, Heat-3, Death-2, Luck-3, Magic-1, because Death-3 just gave me way too many plagues even with Luck-3. I decided to pretty much stick with the Water Oracle thug plan, but just go with Awe instead of a E9 bless. So, instead of Const-2, I needed Const-4.
I reached Const-4 in late winter year 1, and had a pathetic 9 provinces from my little Trog/indy/OlmSpawn/SealGuard army. That turn I forged frost brand and a gleaming shield, and finished researching to Alt-2. I would have made a girdle too, but that meant I'd miss Alt-2. I started site-searching with my god about halfway through the first year. He'll probably be pretty decent in combat once I get Conj-4 Alt-3, but that's a ways off. And he can eventually GOR Olm Spawn for the low low price of just 15N. It's a free E1H2+?FEDW mage! "Free" in this case means 15N though.
Anyway, my DivineBlessing/Stoneskin/HolyAvenger Brand/Shield thug passed his first test with flying colors, so in mid-spring, I was the proud owner of a whopping 12 territories.
Alt-3 and I can cast Ironskin instead, and with Summon Earthpower and a Girdle, I could probably even cast Quicken Self. Woo hoo!
Edit: Oh jeez! I never noticed before that Seal Guards are map-move 1. That's awful. And so is Ogon! What's up with that? He's not even wearing anything.