Is it just me or is Hellheim troops way to strong?

[lch]

I think the issue here is that unexperienced people suffer extraordinary defeats compared to normal combat unless they develop and use "anti" tactics as somebody said (even if in some cases, it's just: "use magic"), instead of being able to just use a naive "My army is bigger than your army" assessment of the situation like they normally use to do. I don't want to generalize and say that everybody who says that Vans/Hels are unbalanced (hello? earth/nature bless Niefel? Ermor?) is an unexperienced newb, but that's the conclusion that they usually come to and they get exited about here on the forums.

[Kuritza]

Once again. I'm not an unexperienced player. I have played Domionions 1 and Dominions 2, some blitzes and pbem games in Dominions 3, some of these won. I know how to use magic etc, BUT:

In one of the games I play atm I have to face a e9/w9 vanheim as a MA Tien Chi. He rummages through my provinces and I cannot do much against him. Lightning bolt doesnt kill his units, falling frost is entirely useless because of defense check, gifts from heaven arent reliable against small and fast armies (not to mention I cant send my mages with crafted boots to all provinces he may or may not attack), frozen heart is not researched yet but even that is only useful with my capitol-only mages because vans have +3 hit points, my regular troops are scattering like dust without doing any damage. I have three SK Sea King trolls who can kill any amount of such vans (did some tests), but two or three vanjarls with simple equipment can kill him with 100% decree of success.

Gandalf, you say I shouldnt go head to head? Sorry, couldnt you elaborate how should I survive his raiding then? Not going head to head with Vanheim means playing on his own field - I wont outraid him, you cant raid better than 2-blessed Vanheim. Oh, before you mention it, there are two or three consorts in each of his provinces. Yet my income keeps dwindling while his stays the same thanks to the raiding.
Vanheim dies easily in late game? I beg to differ, he STILL has vastly superior troops and magic that matches my own (air 3, earth 3).