[Soyweiser]

I still wonder if it is worth to 5 additional e gems to buff them up.

And the E bless helps, but not much, trample gives fatigue for each square trampled, so even at e9 you stay neutral for 2 attacks each turn. (And you get haste by the national nature spell).

Perhaps better is the owl quill, you get 0 enc that way. (But you still get some fatigue from trampling, if berserked). But you lack the paths for that. The only reliable source of that is either the pretender or conj 8.

If only you had the national mages to cast the earth armor buffs on them. (Then you would be able to get 25 protection with the berzerk, no need for bracers then).

Personally, I would go for something like e4n4, or no bless at all, scales are probably better.

(All using CBM)