[Hoplosternum]

Tir has the advantages of Eriu but less of the downsides. Unlike Eriu it is not totally capital dependent (apart from Sidhe Lords, Eriu doesn't really have much to recruit outside the capital - troops or leaders). You have a decent reserach mage recruitable anywhere and decent glamoured Infantry at all castles unlike Eriu. So playing on a small crowded map negates their main advantage over their MA brothers - Eriu and some of the very capital dependent Early Age powers.

The Ri (Tuathans are Eriu) and Sidhe Lords are well worth a nature/earth bless so they can be Thugged. But this bless is not much use on their sacred glamoured infantry. At 50 gold each I don't think they are worth it especially as they are capital only and fairly high resources. Tir is a recruitable Thug nation and you don't want to waste the bless on those sacreds. Save the bless for your Thugs and expand with the none sacred glamoured troops (25 gold each and less resources). With the cheaper none glamoured troops as missile shields.

The Ri is weaker than Eriu's Tuatha, having one less Air. But he is still a great Thug with 2A2N and 110% AWEN. So glamour, high defence, masses of buffs, cloud trapeze etc. And at 330 he is only 50 more than a Sidhe Lord and a much more flexible Thug chassis. He is capital only along with the Tuathan Sorceress and the unusual 2A Assassin Tir have.

I think Tir is not going to shine in a really cramped map. They need the buffs to make the Thugs pay although the Firbolg infantry has decent stats for light infantry (high attack) and the none sacred glamoured infantry can be massed easily. And if the Thugs are likely to be swarmed by stuff that can actually hurt them (cold blasts freezing them) you could operate them with armies (!) While they buff the Yomi demons would waste their freezes and throw flames on your troops after which the buffed Thugs ride down the flanks to rout the demons....

While Tir don't suffer as Eriu does in research in the mid/late game as they have decent mages at all castles they still lack any easy way in to Death, Astral or Blood, including on their Pretender who is needed for a nature/earth bless. Nor do they have any recruitable clammers, fetish or blood stone makers. So the end game could be painful unless you have made that strong mid game of theirs pay.