REALLY hard to hit units counter

[Forrest]

I like your idea of Breath of the dragon which would vastly add to the whole slow and poison them nature method.

Disclaimer A few N2's casting poison ward would put a wet blanket on this. However it is only 50%. They could be facing 2 or more poisonings from range spells. Then snake bladders and the mossbody if they hit you. Haven't tried it but it sure sounds nasty.

Don't forget your Pretender can also Doom which might afflict any that escape death from poison. He can also Will of fates for Luck on all your troops.

[Juzza]

Considering your nation a fairly simple option is to use Boulder throwers, one hit from a boulder and their down, defence won't help you against them!!

Or possibly javelin throwers, but they're likely to be less accurate.

[Kuritza]

Equip a Niefel Jarl with a vine shield. Van attacks .> he's entangled => his defense drops to 0 => he's dead.
If anything, its niefels who need a counter...

[Lord_Bob]

I think Jarls with their "stomping boots" on can do real damage to calvalry....

Really, if Boots of the Behemoth work, that's the way to go.

I think the size is ok. When I was playing in SP I had to fight EA Van as EA Argatha. Rather than lay down and die, I instituted a mass breeding program for trollgytes. They killed the EA Van so badly I almost thought I was cheating. Just pac-manned them up. No contest.

[Sombre]

I'm pretty sure trample wouldn't work too well against def 30. Trampled units get a def check to avoid damage entirely, see?

The vans you trampled probably didn't have an uber bless and equipment+mistform on them, right?

[Reverend Zombie]

I thought trampled units always took one point of damage?

[thejeff]

I thought they still take a point if they make the def check, blowing their glamour?

Not so useful against equipped Van thugs. But still nice.
If they are being used in large numbers, countering with one Neifel Jarl with trample boots would help drop the glamour. And a bunch of others to actually do damage.

Probably better to just try for area affect attacks.

[jimkehn]

You might try the swarm spell. Low level low cost nature. It is a surprisingly nasty little spell. I use this spell a lot of times in the arena and have brought down powerful pretenders with it.