Q about blessings --> niefelheim pretender strat

[Aezeal]

my options as I see it now war

imp cyclops E9N6
dom 5
order 3
prod 3
cold 3
growth 1
misfortune 3
drain/magic 0

OR

imp son of fenrir W9N6
dom 6
order 3
prod 3
cold 3
growth 1
misfortune 3
drain/magic 0

SO it's W9 and dom 6 or E9 and dom 5
all other things equal (son of fenrir and cyclops both reasonable combattants with the cyclops having the best equip options (the whole set of 7) and son of fenrir near 0 (only 2 misc)

[Shovah32]

go with the E9. The extra defence from water is worth almost nothing when swarmed(which happens alot to size 6 units) where-as the protection bonus and the ability to never tire make E9 extremely useful.
W9 will boost your killing power a little, but it's surviving+the cold aura that makes Niefels great.
An E9N4-9 Niefel Giant is extremely hard to take down and certainly much harder to take down than a W9N4-9 giant. In the long run, due to the survivability, the E9 giant will also probably do more damage.

[thejeff]

The extra attacks aren't a big deal for the giants. The cold aura really does most of the damage. Since they're so big, they are easily swarmed so the Earth does a better job keeping them alive.

The reinvig is very nice for the Jarls, too.

As a side benefit, Earth is a path you don't have natively, so getting it on your pretender is a nice bonus (hammers), while you've got plenty of water mages.