No ranged weapons seems contrary to your thesis.

I would use ranged units in addition to your melee troops.  I've found success using max armor/hp/def troops with counterattack weapon and defending every turn while very offensive (no defense) range troops pick away from the back.

The reason that I am leaning against ranged weapons is that bows are rather slow to fire without the "Master Archers" perk.  So that would be a loss of two perks, right there.  At high difficulties, the enemy has so much health that you have to be able to rotate your troops out of combat, and you have to have armor. So I thought about going without bows.  Don't get me wrong, I love bows, I just do not think I will be able to afford them when the A.I. gets insane bonuses at research and production.

I do not want to use juggernauts, because they are only available to one race.  It would be like using henchmen - i.e. free heroes, except better than 90% of the pre-generated ones.

But I am thinking that "Warrior Race" is not good enough.  One extra level is nice, but Lucky I think will do more.

Also for the sovereign, I think that wealthy and armorer may be better for the troops - to speed up the start.

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And I doubt I will be doing more than one map or difficulty.  Frankly I find the current balance a bit on the slow side.

Are they?  They are an early bloomer, but at higher levels and difficulties, their damage pales against the enemy health, their lack of armor gives them no staying power.  Add their low initiative, and I really do not think they are all that.  Furthermore, the AI is pretty good at using fire on their troops.

Your suggested 0.98 Playthrough sounds like an excellent idea!   The caveat on what I am about to say, is that I am not nearly as good (or as focused) a player as you; but I would suggest that you drop your playing level at least by one, to conduct a more relevant test. 

As we have previously agreed in another thead, the Build Times (building times in city queues) have become so terribly slow, that (otherwise) I think you run the risk of conducting a very abbreviated test.  The city building queues are terribly crowded as well; but I suppose that you could skip almost all buildings and produce mostly just trained units.  That would still result in an atypical game (at least atypical for most of us), but it would otherwise be a fair/reasonable test of your theory.  In any event, I would be interested in seeing you at work again ...        

My faction would look more like

"Yithril Blood": +20 Weight, +1 Damage.

Bonuses:
 - Huge weight bonus and free damage helps during the start up.
"Quick": all units start with +3 initiative (If it works, I have a theory it still doesn't work)
 - This is important on heavily armored troops.
"Warrior Caste": Trained units start off 2nd level.
 - This is not too good on its own, but stacks nicely with fortress level bonuses.
"Lucky": All units have +25% dodge and +25% accuracy.
 - A really nice bonus to both dodge and accuracy, allowing you to spec a lot of troops for dodging attacks instead of tanking them. (think you easily can hit 20-25 dodge without this trait, another 10 later on with new traits and shields unlocked.
"Defensive": Units defending cities gain a 10% bonus to accuracy, attack and defense, It also unlocks bronze shield and one handed spears (Bronze shield is an upgraded "Round Shield".
 - one handed spears is worth that much.
"Light Plate": Light plate instead of Chainmail's, they are heavier but give more protection.
 - This is mostly if you also run Yithril as I probably would try, its free anyways, so thats completely up to you.

Oh and btw, if you are going to actually use your sovereign, switch something for master scouts.

Weaknesses:
"No Ranged Weapons": The faction cannot use ranged weapons.
This seems detrimental to some, but it skips researches so you can gain the high-end weapons quicker. (I see it as a Bonus )
"Uneducated": -10% Research
One of the biggest penalties if "No Armor" wasn't bugged , I would alleviate this by picking scholar on my sovereign.
"Vulnerable to Magic": All units have -20 spell resistance
Who cares for some meagre spell resistance on units, the bonuses are never going to be big enough for it to matter on trained units anyways.

Sovereign:
Profession: Warlord, This means you can sustain twice the army, so your empire needs less focus on gildar income and more focus on producing troops.
Weakness: Vulnerable to Magic, Tiny little weakness for +1 point
Earth Apprentice - Gives enchanted hammers and Aura of... Defense? (+2 defense per essence to units trained in the city), Earth apprentice is still the best level of magic to gain, even after they changed enchanted hammers they decided to buff it with an army sustaining spell.
Scholar: - more research to alleviate uneducated... (If it works )
Wealthy: - give that good start

Now depending on how much you want to use your hero, and how good you are at tacticals... You have 3 points left,
for a hero where I would usually put it in my capital after lvl 4 to really try out the trained units to the max:
Upgrade Earth Apprentice to Earth Disciple: - Gives access to stone skin, this can help some troops.
Attunement: - +1 mana per turn for 1 more stoneskin active even on a crap-start.
Tactician: - For when you must have a leader for your army, this hero have a little something for all the troops.

For a leader that will lead the army non-stop:
Might: - Gives a big oomph every time your leader hits something, also helps starting out by miles.
Hardy: - +2 hp per level is awesome.
Crown of Porcupine: - Free enchants, like nature's cloak and stoneskin on one hero of choice.

Just my 2 cents, hope you don't get wiped out quickly, half of this is designing the right units, since the standard unit designs are flawed.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Tuidjy, I generally try to play without a heros. But with such a low rate of production, the game units are very similar to game heros. 1 - 2 group of units available at 150+ season.It is almost if not to build a building. And rush production units for the money. That money produced not citys! -- the sale of skins and weapons.( OMG!)  I do not see the difference. I do not see the strategic decisions on the map. I think it's what you see.

Can I suggest doing it in 0.981 or whatever the new drop was?  Production got a slight bump

The drawback means nothing if you don't use heroes in tactical...

Edit: BTW enchanters perk might help you boost those spells that boosts trained units... (+2 defense, initiative or hp, or +2 to all of them in a high essence city)...

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

This is shaping up.  Thanks for the advice, Heavenfall, Kongdej, Orion42, Poko8 (in alphabetical order, and if I am forgetting someone, it's because I'm an idiot)

This is what I believe I will go with:

The race: Krax OR Yithril blood.  No ranged, vulnerable to Magic, lucky, master scouts, master smiths, defensive, light plate.

The leader: The Duchess.  Wealthy and cowardly scholar and armorer, with Life and Earth magic, and Procipinee's crown.

The settings: Large map, Expert OR Ridiculous, normal pacing, random everything else, all eight standard AIs

The home rules:  The Duchess is too scared to leave friendly Dominion.  Her champions are made physically sick by hostile dominions.  They cannot enter them, and they leave them by the shorts path.  I.e. no shopping from anyone but allies.

I'm taking arguments in favor of a specific blood or difficulty.