In my opinion, being able to set up a strong base is most important. And beyond that, I happen to value quality over quantity.
Also, Abe, will we be specific gods of something, or are we all just sub-entities to the God of Light?
Glass, the main problem with reasoning is the logical differences of technology. Elves are physically weaker for extra agility and some innate magical ability, however they are also more expensive meaning that their would be less of them. Also if you compare the technology of the two, the Hoard is superior and here's why
Compare a basic but holy spear compared to the light bow. The light bow is straight up trash, 10 meters is a range slightly past point blank, it's at a range where you can easily distinguish the features of your opponent, and 20m the max range of the bow is barely past that, it's in the close-moderate range. Basically this "ranged" weapon has horrible range. Primitive bows had double that range, and increased as technology progressed. This so called ranged weapon is barely effective as a sling and stone.
The plant wand, is really not that practical, sure it could have usage with creating treants or whatever plant magic we want to diverge on, but it would take too much research on niche tools. Compared to an actual effective military tactic, that will allow us to establish territory, this is a no brainer.
The elves have a lot of situational and conditional usage, while a straight up melee force has some practical usage with it, it would also have usage as a force to attack with