Advice for Abysia against Niefelheim

[llamabeast]

Just by chance, I've spent almost my entire Dominions-MP time lately fighting against Dr Praetorius' N9E9 Niefel giants - in one game as Sauromatia, and in another as Abysia.

I must say I hate the wretched things (no offence Dr Praetorius, you're playing very well with them). They really narrow the range of strategies you can use, because you simply can't beat them in a fair fight even if you outnumber them a hundred to one. They just keep regenerating (N9 bless), they don't get tired (E9), and simply won't die. I did eventually beat him in the Sauromatia game, but only using cheaty tactics of my own - lots of undead in the Dark, with Fog Warriors, and even then the battle was ridiculously close to a complete stalemate.

So, in the Abysia game, I have every advantage. I have lots of provinces, decent research (for turn 20-odd), heaps of money, lots of fire gems, quite a few mages and decent resources. Niefelheim is much smaller at the moment, although he is now expanding quickly.

So, given the fact that I can build almost any army I like pretty quickly, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to take on the giants? His army is about 40 giants and jarls. The tactic I just tried was a huge army of salamanders, 100-odd, with an array of mages casting Prison of Fire. It was fairly effective, his giants couldn't do damage that fast, and a lot of them nearly died from the heat - but then all the salamanders and mages got tired, and he wiped them out. Total giant casualties - two.

Any ideas, anyone? It must be possible to beat them somehow.

Thanks!

llamabeast