ea pangaea vs tienchi

[earcaraxe]

btw we play in vanilla, so cw is not an option, and - if cbm is any indication - my troops are still quite expensive. I tried thugging with pans: ironskin, blessing of gaia, summon EP, and snake bladder, vine shield, regen. ring, snake ring, balck steel amror and helmet, boots of messenger. they were quite succesful vs armies 20-30ish in numbers (this whole experiment was in SP), but in every battle with at least 40 soldiers they got hit with 28 hp by a single strike (from something like a spear). I know critical strikes exist but i thought they just halve protection.
so how is it possible?

Is there an economical way to make them even better thugs, or thats all i can expect from a (pan) thug, and use them in pairs vs greater armies? i also wonder if those 30 gems and 320 gold could be spent more efficiently, for instance 1 nature gem can be converted into 1 vine ogre with ivy crown, thats about 30 ogres, and not counting the gold.

Do i think correctly that when planning melee thugs it pays to sacrifice the high defense in favor of great protection?

thanks