One more note on Abysia. While it posed a problem for me when Agartha didn't join in the attack on Ermor I wasn't unhappy at the thought of Aby being eliminated. My pretender was an Oracle with Dom 10 and great scales and I planned to go heavily into blood and mass produce vampire lords. The only nation that I thought would be able to stop the spread of my dominion was Aby (this was also the only other blood nation so their removal was also good from that perspective).
Side note: IIRC three of out of six pretenders in this game were Oracles. In case anyone is wondering why they've become more expensive in the latest CBM.
I agree with your analysis of minotaurs. Nice against size two units, also of some use against easy to hit larger units but not good against cavalry - especially untiring undead cavalry. And with only one attack per round and only two units per square they'd have to get very lucky to get a hit against your sacreds. They were there because I got worried and rushed an attack and that's what I had available.