Mictlan versus strong independents?

[Taqwus]

Hm, having played mostly with R'lyeh / T'ien Chi / Ashikaga / Ermor / Abysia / Jotunheim / C'tis, I'm not finding any of my usual tools -- bowmen or mindbLasters, really survivable heavy infantry, assassins, death magic... and the dependence on blood sacrifice for dominion maintenance seems to mandate fast expansion to get the blood machine going. What does one do -- try to amass huge hordes of the cheapest infantry, throw slaves in front of them, and hope that they get lucky sometime? Hire all the mercenary bands one can afford?