Nations with weakest troops

[JimMorrison]

Bandar Log really must research Thaum to -some- degree to be competitive where it matters most.

So you are talking about a bare minimum of Thaum2, Conj4, and Ench3. Sure, that's not a lot in the "grand scheme", but with Very Hard (or he said modding it to some sort of Even Harder, or Plaid Research), that is a LONG ways off, before you can even hope to start dropping Strength of Giants on anything. Now if he also reduces Magic Site Frequency to further impede magic as a factor, then who knows how tough it will be.

Point being, he described a scenario where buffs are not really a part of the early stages of the game, and maybe are hard to really saturate even in the mid-game.