[Twan]

To get heroes in reliable manneer you need positive luck, and it cost too much for this nation I think (then of course you may get one with misfortune 2, but it's really... luck).

I find woodsmen rather great with correct placement (you need some chaff to catch arrows, except that where is the problem ?). They have very small encumbrance meaning very few critical hits ; with good regen and increased protection they just stay alive forever, and berserk +2 give them a reasonable attack skill. Also Utgard has good astral mages to cast antimagic, it reduce a lot the weakness of small armies of giants against MR slay spells.

Anyway earth/nature bless is the best for thugs (when troops without magical weapons like woodsmen are more asking for fire to be able hit ethearal beings).