It does. I have also used (fire and) ice drakes with non-resistant troops. I just spread them thinner. Not then as a major strategy, just something that can help.
And to drift off topic, cave drakes and giant scorpions can just be put inside groups of melee troops of the same speed. I don't mass them, but one or two can add a little bit of ability to a group of men.
In SP, I found that Geyser was a pretty good low level spell that did enough damage to take down the glamour on a lot of Helheim troops. If you massed enough mages together, it could put a big dent in those forces.