I used the shroud of the saint with success in pbem. It gives blessing, even to units which are not holy. With blessing you get +3 attacks.
I needed this extra boost to reach 28 attacks with father illearths. Below 28, I had too few chances to hit the numerous ice devils of my opponents.
I didnt care about the defence of my 8 or 10 FIEs (dont recall the exact number), because they were bathing in my Gift of Health, and were at 250 Hps roughly (well my Prophet FIE was at 520 HP...). With the invulnerability they cast on first round, and the increased regeneration they get from the increased HP base, surviving some big blows from Ice Devils was very feasible. But while the quickened devils hammered on them, the FIE were replying with Flambeau swords, and won more often than not the duels (from testing, more than 80% of the time).
A more balanced FIE, or any other combos with any other items was loosing a duel. I tested perhaps during a whole afternoon with the powerful Dominions Scripting Engine (tm), and only this combos worked.
And then the turn after or so, the game was declared a draw
The moral of the story (aside from not spending countless hours on something which wont serve you) is that in dominions, when you think something is useless, than youd better check again (well I agree that I dont know how to use yet sandals of the crane)