Of course, using Morrowind's enchantment system, you could enchant a ton of ebony staves with an on-target shock damage and weakness to shock, and distribute those to the army in addition to their standard swords (which could also be enchanted with absorb health).
You'd just need a bunch of soul crystals for the enchanting, but someone with Azura's star and a high conjuring skill could summon high-level daedra and trap their souls repeatedly to do the job of mass-producing the lightning staves for the army.
There, you now have an army which can wield simple magic in battle without actually knowing magic. This is even better than inventing guns.
Of course, this doesn't work as well in Oblivion's enchantment system. It doesn't allow the player to enchant staves, or to make on-target enchantments for weapons - you'd have to enchant a bow instead to make a ranged lightning weapon. You could still make absorb health swords, though. Even though the casting cost is doubled, the largest soul size is also increased (although not doubled).
You could enchant the armor more easily in Oblivion, however - making each piece add a add a magic reflection effect, for instance, and give the soldiers constant effect rings and amulets, etc.
An army outfitted with the best heavy armor, enchanted to give them magic reflection along with additional trinkets for it, as well as magical weapons, is going to trump a mundane army, and even wizards if magic reflection is 100%+ (Although who knows what the absorb health would do if two 100% magic reflect guys hit each other).