[tvez]

OK I've solved the game as a warrior, and started again as a mage before i realized i was losing my life, and had to uninstall. So anyway here's my take on the best units:

Royal snakes: Can't say enough about how good these guys are, all the way until nearly the end, when i replaced them with ogres (i'll talk about how awesome ogres can become below). The no retal is one of the best melee abilities to have for melee units, for obvious reasons. But almost as important is their sheer maneuverability, especially with haste. If you do it right, you can slow enemy units, have these guys weave around and snipe from a distance, and they always go first -- meaning you can have them wait, and then they basically move twice (once at the end of the round, and once at the beginning). In the hands of a good tactician, these are the best melee units in the early and mid-game, and arguably even the end. They also have an excellent ratio of leadership cost vs. health/att/defence/damage.

Orc Shamen: I agree with everyone above. Good all the way to the end game.

Evil beholders: mind control, combined with hypnotize, can keep the enemy busy beating up his own units while you snipe them from afar. And they do great damage. An excellent unit.

Ogres: If you have the ogre sandals and ogre club, these are great (+20 dam, +1 speed, can take huge damage, no morale penalties to other units, like giants vs. elves). I replaced snakes with these after too many of my snakes were getting killed by dragons and high level spells. Their ability (which doubles their attack for two turns, adds two action points, and recharges) is excellent, and recharges.

inquisitors: Good to the end. The added resurrection is just too good to pass up, and their attack ain't bad either.

SO WHAT DID I HAVE AT THE END?
Well, since my wife was elven and I had an elven crown, I ran around with a stack of:

Elven archers (high morale), Elven hunters (high morale), shamen, ogres, inquisitors (good morale)
In reserve: giants (got bonuses from ogre club/sandals but lowered morale of elves) and knights (high morale, and circle attack made it a killer -- especially against dragons, which you find a lot of at the end).

If I knew I was going to be in an all-melee fight (with a lot of dragons for example) where my ranged units would be worthless, I would switch out the elves for the giants and knights, drop a mass dragon slayer, and let them come in for a beatin'!