Yes! I wish he had fast animations too. I get so impatient waiting for him to dig up chests.

I prefer rage box more, since it's more suited for power gaming.

One of my favourite strategies in the original is to fight with a single stack of green dragons and then:
Invis (Level 3) -> Demon Portal -> Demon Portal -> Mana Well -> [Sleem's Rain] on Dragon -> Invis (Level 3) -> [Reaper's Rage Steal] -> REPEAT

yup ;-)

rage box is splendid:D

dragon is just a cheap rip off:)

I prefer Lina's chargers to the dragon's mana orb because she put out several of them: each of several units could potentially move an extra hex, or one unit several extra. Some times, just that one extra little bit of move is what you need. (Mind you, there are times when getting that extra TWO hexes from the dragon make all the difference... :)

I also prefer having Time Back as a rage ability, because having to cast a spell to do it eats up the spell for that turn. What if I want to Sacrifice + Time Back in the same turn? Whoops, can't. Or Time Back and then Haste? Can't do that, either. Or...

But overall I agree: different tools with different capabilities in different games. They both work out.

The Egg isn't so bad in certain battles. I "had" to choose the 100 % leadeship, since the other upgrades weren't useful. And immediately I put it into use: It can't be wise to face Thomas Thorkves 2 X 50 Paladins with my 25, especially as Thorkve casts God Armour on them repeatedly. Instead I laid 2 eggs and killed Inquisitors first. The eggs gave me Royal Griffins and Hayterants (I guess I was lucky, too) which I used to stop the Paladins. Then I started using Balls of Lightning:) and ranged fire on the Paladins. I used Nature's Call, too and Pain Mirror. But still the encounter took a long time; clearly it would have been unwise to let the paladins come near my units.

the thing i miss most is glots armour best ability ever;-)