You need Sacrifice for getting more Royal Thorns. A stack of 20 of these is very nice. Only problem is they are vulnerable to fire, and enemy heroes love to throw fireballs at them. Use Peasants or Miners to Sacrifice for Royal Thorns.

Thanks for the laugh Waveform, nice style :)

P.S. Send those bears my way, luv them :cool:

Sammual,

I'm working on a spreadsheet for the units, and I've made a lot of progress, but there are two problems.

First, I've only had the game a short while, so it's pretty incomplete so far. I doubt I'm even halfway through the game.

Second, .xls isn't a valid file format for uploading. Is there a workaround for that? I'd rather post it somewhere than have to email every person who wants it.

Many ways to do spreadsheet of units. Here is one version already on forums:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=5103

Worth checking so you don't do same work that is already done. :)

Thanks. I was just totaling the stats up, along with abilities and talents, so I could make some overall sense of which units worked best overall. This is actually a lot MORE information than I expect to use, but as you say, better not to reinvent the wheel.

I haven't found even 1 Royal thorn on my hard paladin =(.

I found 2 on my hard mage and brought them up to cap though.

Currently I've found my sweet spot of units on my paladin (about 1/2 way through dwarf lands)

Full stack of griffins (have item that reduces leadership by 30%)
Shamans
Archmages
Inquisitors
Giants or Cannons (depending on the encounter)

I was struggling to find the right match of units, but this works waaay better than any combination yet. I can't say I have no casualties... but its no less than a couple units per on hard fights. Griffins/totems take the brunt of the attacker. The main spells I'm using are res/mana spring/trap/phantom ... and sacrifice only if I'm running out of a specific unit. Giants are great as a guard for my ranged units, and otherwise they make passable archers.

Here's what I am currently running with, level 16 Knight, close to finishing up the dwarf lands.

Giants - Slow, but with Running and haste they get where they need to go.
Horsemen - high level unlimited supply grunt.
Griffins - Do the griffin quest and you're set for them.
Archmages - Just have trouble keeping them out of my armies they are so useful.
Inquisitors - Same.
Reserves: tons of Horsemen and Griffins

Basically the Griffins and Horsemen are the grunts. I expect to lose a few per battle, the rest I can usually preserve their numbers without losses. Buff up the griffins with the Archmage armor spell, and Inquisitor's Holy Anger and let them retaliate against everything. I haven't had much luck finding a good source of Inquisitors so I maintain and increase their numbers with Sacrifices on Giants, since one or 2 castings will not kill a Giant for my Knight.

I used to run with Polar Bears and Royal Snakes instead of Giants and Horsemen. If I had an unlimited supply of the snakes, they would be in my army in a heartbeat. The Polar Bears were too slow and in short supply when my leadership surpassed max numbers available. I found a new source so I may put them back in when I get level 3 Haste.

If u take them as they are
 

First i was mage and i found 2 royal snake ring and that makes my royal snakes god like ( one ring gives you 3 to damage and poison ability => my royal snakes have damege 12-15 phisic and poison ).
Second i was a warrior and i found crown of the elves and i married with the elves female and all my elves warior became very powerfull moral high .

So if u take them as they are this is my list

Best units with no help from hero
Shamans - they are the best
Veteran Orcs - unique ability (2 strikes)
Royal Snakes - no retaliation
Cursed Ghost - 50% armor against phisical atack , drains life
Emerald Green Dragon - good abilities
Demons - better then griffons same ability furios (unlimited retaliation)
Evil Beholders - mind control

Worst units
Peasants - low hp
Miners - low hp
Goblins
Spiders all of them
Thorn- Warriors

Dryads are another excellent troop. They might be physically weak, but their abilities are amazing for a mere level 2 troop: summoning thorn warriors and, more importantly, lullaby - putting all level 1-3 enemies to sleep for 2 turns.

On the other hand, Cyclops are pretty disappointing.

Yeah, I've grown to rather dislike cyclops myself. They are the first level 5 creature you get, but their ranged damage is worse than any other equivalent stack of decent archers. They were pretty useful when I had 3 casters, cyclops and griffins as they are decent at range as well as if any units come near your troops.