The Guard droid - repair droid - repair droid is a very good lineup as already mentioned. The repair droids can repair a huge amount, so its ok to split them. And defence on droids is good, except when fighting mages and priests, inquisitors etc.

You could also get the free green dragon on Rusty Island. Just bring 50 robbers, pirates and bowmen to the guy on the beach, and you will get a key to the cave.
The barbarian guard can be lured away, and inside the cave you can get a green dragon for free.

You don't have to split Repair droids after you get the phantom spell.

I disagree...

You don't have to split them late game. But a 3000 leadership Paladin most likely uses all his mana to get around 40 % repair droids.
She would be better off casting stone skin and slow and such and wait with the phantom spell till she finds some mana items and gets a boost to intellect

As a start u should go with swordman, inquisitors, royal snakes, archers and bears. U can use sea dogs from scarlett instead of swordman (they work really well) if u run out of em. Once u manage to clear scarlett, u should be able to go to bola island. There u can get polar bears and ancient bears. Also beholders. On my last game, at level 30 i was using evil beholders (i found a stack of 2300 on nameless island lol), inquisitors, paladins, royal griffins and assasins. Assasins are just amazing, and evil beholders works great. I got the -20% requirements equip for griffins, inquisitors and paladins. Royal griffins are a very resourceful unit, lol, i just summon avenging guards, teleport em to the front and watch how they do all the work xD (while i get the ranger units). If u find the game going too hard, use royal griffins (u can get em on the barbarian side of verona) and summon avenging guards on the first turn. Then, teleport em (if u have teleport) to the front of the enemy line, so their tanks go directly to fight the avenging guards. With a paladin, the game should be very easy on normal mode.

Since units are somewhat randomized you cannot be guaranteed anything of the sorts. In my last game as a mage I got em at the lighthouse in Verona. In my current game I havent found anything useful in Verona (no Paladins, Royal Griffins, good level 5 units). Finally got Paladins at the bridge to Tekron.

Well, royal griffins spawn almost always on the verona barbarian side, if not, maybe on montero (only a few) or if u are lucky on the debir castle once u have got the stone 6. U mean temple of the bridge to montero, u always get paladins there. sadly i only got paladins on that bridge, . So.. xD. But i played 8 games, and i always get royal griffins on the barbarian side on verona. U can try assasins, they are really good.

Random, but bounded. I think it is pretty safe to say that you will get Bears and Barbarians in Bolo, and elves in Elon. And some other areas are also fairly consistent, like that you will get Royal Griffons somewhere on the NW part of Verona. A little less consistent than others, but still a decently good bet.

Then there is the fact, that you can always get certain creatures certain places.

Royal Griffins are random all over the islands, but you can always get them from Frederic after getting the 6th stone.
a few paladins are always recruitable at the university after 2 stones and even more after 4 and 6 stones.
Several other examples, but I'm too lazy.

I have always found the Royal Griffins in Verona, but I never saw them on Bolo, so suggesting a tactic involving those aren't really good advise..

Not really. To find royal griffins on another island that is not verona is very hard. And on verona u almost always get em on the barbarian side.
And when u reach the 6th stone, u NOT always get royal griffins , only if u are lucky (u always get horsemen, for example but u can get royal griffins or knights instead and knights, usually on very low ridicoluous numbers). Fortunately i found a 2000 knights stack on the samman castle on sheterra.... (no comments.). Its a shame that u cant use more than 5 troop slots (i was playing all the time mixing assasins/royal griffins/red dragons/knights/inquisitors/paladins/evil beholders).