Sylvan vs. Necropolis

To avoid making unsubstantiated claims, I'll try today. I last played as Elves about two years ago, and I remember considering the Direaeli option and, in particular, overwhelming enemies not with swarms of wasps but with hives. However, the maps didn't often provide me with enough tomes, scrolls, or quivers of arrows, or the items I needed, so Direaeli ended up as a buffer, and the troops did all the work. Also, at that time, I usually played with 3 opponents (over a Wi-Fi local network), so there wasn't much talk about effectively using the "Rain" spell against enemies.