[Humakty]

I think the gorgon is the must have pretender if you plan to have her awake. If I remember correctly, you have access to the centaur warrior in EA, and they are able to trash most of the opposition early on, and later on with buff spells (even in MA, CW are a force to reckoned).
I usually don't take turmoil or order, so as to have enougth gold to buy CW, and enougth maenads to end sieges quickly (in EA, you'll have ton's of pans (they're your only mage!)so you'll have lots of maenads)
I never tried it, but are maenads strong enougth to win battles alone ? It seems to me a big group of archers would trash them, even with mass protection (no shields+ low armor).