Yeah, it says so, but 24+ AN weapons markata should have killed a single bane. (Each one gets higher chances to hit, and his 20 protection should have counted as 0 so each hit would have done at least 5 damage).
I was already worrying this was the case when I could not kill Ulms heavy cav with my tactic. But I assumed that was because they have high def and also get the meddeling buff.
Sadly, this was going to be my main battle trick. Just have hordes of cheap markata with luck an AN weapons. (high numbers of markata give high chances of hitting as iirc each additional attack on somebody gives -1 def). And AN weapons ensures any hit also does damage.
Sadly it didn't work out that way. And I did not have str of giants + weapons of sharpness researched. So I could try the same trick but with less effect. A well, should have tested better before the game