Units Guide

I list all the units in the game, give them a rating from 1 to 10, and provide a comment about the unit to back up my rating.

Introduction

This guide is based on my experiences playing Kings Bounty: The Legend. I have beaten it four times as a warrior on hard and twice as a paladin on hard. This guide is mostly directed twards giving a new player to the game a good idea of some units to try out and some units to avoid. I may add all the stats of each unit in the future, but for now if you're looking for them there is an excellent units guide on gamefaqs.com/pc/939197-kings-bounty-the-legend/faqs/54305. The only errors I noticed on that guide are - Snakes should read cost 70 lvl 2 ldr 30 damage 3-6, Wolf should read def 6 ini 5 hp 15, and vampire should read Abilities: Undead, No enemy retaliation.

Here is my rating system:
10 : Most powerful units in the game
9 : Outstanding units
7-8: Very good units
5-6: Mediocre units
3-4: Weak units
1-2: Awful units

When building your team, you usualy will want to prioritize higher rating units, but mediocre units can potentialy fit a theme better if you have gear for them specificaly. In most cases, if you can boost a units morale by 3 I feel that is worth about a 2 point boost to that unit's rating. The exception to this is the she-warriors(demoness, dryad, lake fairy, and sprite) for whom I have rated them assuming that if you use them you will use the agna's ruby artifact, which is available in every game as a quest reward, so I count those units as always having maxxed their morale for their rating. If you have the might skill tree abilities of Bowmen Commander or Iron Fist maxxed, or the magic skill tree ability Archmage maxxed, that is worth about +1 rating point to the related troops.

Human Army

Archmage - 8/10 - The Archmage has a very powerful defensive buff and is a fairly good choice for your team. It does low damage, but it has a chance to shock enemies it hits, which is also useful, reducing their speed and initiative by one. The defensive buff works great in combination with the target spell.

Bowman - 6/10 - The Bowman is an acceptable early game unit. Frost Arrow is a nice ability, but there are ranged attackers out there with much more powerful specials and better damage dealing potential. Annoying that arrows do lowered damage to bone undead.

Guardsman - 6/10 - The Guardsman is an acceptable melee unit throughout the game. Smashing blow hits fairly hard and its defenses are nice, but you may want to find something with better initiative and movement speed because 4 initiative and 3 speed without running may make it a bit hard for this unit to get off a first strike on the opponent.

Horseman - 7/10 - The Horseman has very good initiative and movement speed for a melee attacker but it is a mediocre or slightly below average damage dealer. The fire resistance is also nice.

Inquisitor - 10/10 - if you combo their rage generation ability with Lina's Chargers ability and you drag fights out through many extra combat rounds, you can gain enough mana to resurrect all your troops. their ressurect ability in combo with the gift ability can allow you to ressurect units higher level than your ressurect spell can ressurect.

Knight - 7/10 - The Knight is a very good tank with high physical and fire resistances, but has low speed and initiative. It can be a good strategy to teleport them forward and use their circle attack ability if you've unlocked it.

Marauder - 5/10 - The Marauder has good initiative, good damage, a useful special attack that strikes out across 1 tile so its kinda like it has 1 extra tile of reach for its first strike, and mediocre speed of 2+running. The Marauder loses points because of its low defenses.

Peasants - 3/10 - The Peasants awful speed and intitiative make them unlikely to get a first strike, and their awful defenses mean they will likely suffer heavy casualties before they can get a hit in. They might do above average damage especialy if you have low level gear like Isshara's whip and an assasin dagger, but there are far better units to take advantage of those items.

Priests - 5/10 - Priests have mediocre damage, and their bless and healing abilities are below average in usefulness. They can be ok to add to your team if you are facing alot of undead, or in the early game when you have few ranged attack options, but I usualy look for something better.

Robber - 4/10 - The Robber has low defenses, low speed, and its special movement ability is unreliable for positioning.

Swordsman - 5/10 - Low initiative and mediocre speed are the main drawbacks. they do have decent defenses(for a level 2 unit) and decent damage.

Dwarf Army

The Dwarves have the best chance to gain value to their rating because the mithril shield, king's hammer, and ale barrel are available in every game.

Alchemist - 6/10 - The Alchemist is a decent early game option for a ranged attacker but later in the game when fights get longer and it runs out of potions to throw, it has to resort to getting way too close to the front line for a unit with its poor health per leadership ratio.

Cannoneer - 7/10 - The Cannoneer does above average damage for a ranged attacker and has a very desirable 6 initiative.

Dwarf - 5/10 - The Dwarf has mediocre stats all around.

Giant - 8/10 - The Giant's earthquake ability does lots of good damage, and the giant is a great choice to cast target on and use the archmage's magic shield ability on because of its high health and defense. getting a pilgrim's boots or ogre sandals to boost the giant's speed by 1 is very important for them.

Miner - 4/10 - I don't like the Miner's 3 initiative for a melee unit. it makes it hard to get a first strike in.

Elven Army

Ancient Ents - 4/10 - The Ancient Ents are a difficult one to rank because as plants they have a very bad weakness to fire but a strong poison resistance, so with them you kinda have to pick the good matchups to use them against. Also with their awful initiative and speed they dont fit in with an attacking strategy so you have to set them infront of a ranged attacker or 3 and use their ranged damage ability, which is slightly below average damage. you would think with 1000health they would be good tanks but since you cant cast healing on them since they're plants that really detracts from that.

Black Unicorns - 7/10 - Black Unicorns have above average speed and initiative, decent defensive stats and average damage(but above average damage against demons and undead).

Druids - 4/10 weak damage, low initiative and low speed, weak summons.

Dryads - 9/10 - The Dryad has two abilitys that impact the battle in a major way, not just one. Her Lullaby ability puts all enemies levels 1-3 to sleep for 2 turns. That is often more than half the enemies in the fight. This is by far the most impactful crowd control ability in the game, and crowd control abilities are few and far between. Combo that with the Phantom or Gift spell and you can keep them asleep till you run out of mana. Even if you are facing enemies that are immune to mind spells or are levels 4-5, the dryad can still use her summon thorns ability to great effect. The Dryad also adds +1 morale to Ents and Thorns in the army so she buffs her summons too. The Dryad's health per leadership ratio of 25health per 20 leadership is also above average. The Dryad probably shouldnt attack much, with her below average damage, but she does have no enemy retaliation too, and it is not hard to buff a low level units damage. The Dryad also gets buffed by the Agna's Ruby artifact, which is often the best artifact you find anyway and is available in every game.

Elf - 7/10 - The elf does slightly above average damage for a ranged attacker, and has a decent initiative at a 5. If you use the telescopic sight and ale barrel combo their value goes up. good that they can be buffed by dragon arrows.

Ents - 6/10 - Similar to the Ancient Ents, Ents are slightly more versatile with 2 speed plus running.

Hunter - 6/10 - Hunters have slightly below average damage for a ranged attacker(except against beasts). Their 6 initiative is nice though. If you use the telescopic sight and ale barrel combo their value goes up. very late in the game when you start fighting dragons alot, they can be good because they are the best unit that can be buffed with the dragon arrows spell, which can be very effective damage dealing against level 5 units. personally I prefer using buffs like bless and dragon slayer since these buffs effect all 5 of your units at once with the rank 3 version of those spells, so I don't use hunters, but dragon arrows is an effective spell.

Lake Fairy - 7/10 - This rating is somewhat reliant on buffing them with items, but Agna's Ruby and Isshara's Whip are available in every game. If you luck into an assasin's dagger then that plus the Isshara's whip puts them at 3-4 damage per 7 leadership, a very high damage output to go with very high crit from the agna's ruby. No enemy retailation is also a big plus, and the reason they are one of the few level 1 melee units that I actualy like. They are somewhat of a glass cannon however with below average defenses.

Sprite - 6/10 - Very similar to the Lake Fairy, the sprite adds vulnerability to fire, a drawback that slightly outweighs adding the dispel talent. They are still a good choice if you want to take advantage of Isshara's whip and Agna's Ruby.

Unicorns - 7/10 - mediocre initiative, good speed, decent defenses, and average damage(but above average damage against demons and undead) their defender of beauty ability is somewhat of a wasted ability as if you are using dryads and sprites you probably are using agna's ruby so they probably have max morale anyway.

Werewolf Elf - 5/10 - In werewolf form, they have below average damage, below average defenses but decent speed, in elf form they have bad speed, average damage, and average defense. in either form they have a bad health to leadership ratio for a melee attacker. Frenzy is nice but unreliable. Wolf cry is bad, it effects very few units and those it does effect it only actualy works against 50% of the time, but i guess even a bad crowd control ability can be situationaly good. There are very few crowd control options in this game.

Orcs Army

Catapult - 5/10 The Catapult does mediocre damage even when you factor in the fire missile ability hitting multiple targets, and has mediocre initiative. It has slightly above average health per leadership for a ranged attacker, but has vulnerability to fire.

Furious Goblin - 6/10 - with a very wide damage range of 3-8, the Furious Goblin can do anywhere from below average to above average damage with its hits. It has high initiative and speed(with running).

Goblin - 4/10 - mediocre stats for a ranged attacker, no special abilities, takes a long range damage penalty past 5 tiles and only has 2 speed so can only move 1 tile and still fire so can't close the range down as effectively as thorn hunters. still at only 35 leadership each they could be kinda ok if you want to use isshara's whip and assasin dagger.

Ogre - 6/10 - The Ogre has decent damage, and good defenses, but below average initiative.

Orc - 6/10 - The Orc's 65health per 60 leadership stands out as a bit above average, but their initiative, speed, and damage are mediocre.

Shaman - 9/10 - The Shaman's Dancing Axes stands out as a strong ability. The two totems can also be good, during the midgame a totem can take more than one enemy stack attacking it to take out, so that provides a good distraction to keep the enemy busy. They are also a very tanky unit for a spellcaster. Their defensive totem can also be used late in the fight to distract the last enemy left long after the fight should have been over, allowing you time for ressurections.

Veteran Orc - 8/10 - The Veteran Orc's initiative, speed, damage, and defense are good. their counterattack special ability often gives them a second attack on their target when they attack.

Undead Army

If you have the dark commander ability maxxed that is worth about +1 to the rating of most of the undead army.

Ancient Vampire - 8/10 - In bat form they have very high initiative, good speed, low damage, and a bad health per leadership ratio for a melee unit, but the combination of no enemy retaliation and drain life is still very good. In their normal form they have slightly better health per leadership, mediocre damage, good initiative, and poor speed. They also have Death's deception in normal form which can be a good defensive ability.

Black Knight - 7/10 - Lots of good stats but I don't like their 3 initiative.

Bone Dragon - 5/10 - Great initiative and speed, low damage.

Cursed Ghost - 4/10 - Some aspects of the Cursed Ghost are desireable but their Soul Draining ability can put them over your leadership cap, sending them out of control and making them very hard to use.

Decaying Zombie - 3/10 - decent damage but poor initiative and poor health per leadership for a melee unit.

Ghost - 3/10 - Some aspects of the Ghost are desireable but their Soul Draining ability can put them over your leadership cap, sending them out of control and making them very hard to use.

Necromancer - 7/10 - Excellent initiative and an Excellent ranged attack that hits multiple targets. I'd probably bump their rating up a point if you have the skill in the magic tree that boosts their leadership.

Skeleton - 3/10 - I dont like their 3 initiative. Mostly their other stats are mediocre. level 1 melee units generaly take losses too easily for me.

Skeleton Archer - 6/10 - If you have invested in the tolerance ability this can be a good unit for a low level team to take advantage of Isshara's whip. The Skeleton Archer has good damage for a ranged attacker.

Undead Spider - 3/10 - mostly their stats are mediocre. level 1 melee units generaly take losses too easily for me.

Vampire - 9/10 - In their regular form they have decent initiative, poor speed, slightly below average damage, and a bad health per leadership ratio. No retaliation is still a big plus. In bat form they have an even worse health per leadership ratio, poor damage, slightly above average speed, good initiative, and drain life.

Zombie - 3/10 - mediocre stats mostly but poor initiative.

Demon Army

Archdemon - 7/10 - high initiative, high speed, bad health per leadership ratio, low damage. Their 80% fire resist can make a huge difference in some of the late game fights however.

Cerberus - 6/10 - mostly slightly above average stats. slightly below average damage for single targets but the three headed attack makes up for that. Fire resist is nice.

Demon - 8/10 - They can hit very hard, and get unlimited retaliations. Bloody Pentagram and Summon Demons are decent abilities. Fire resist is nice. Their 4 initiative is mediocre however.

Demoness - 7/10 - The Demoness was a very tough one to give a rating to. On the one had their Infernal Exchange ability is great, but on the other hand they are a melee unit with a very poor health per leadership ratio. Fire resist is nice.

Imp - 5/10 - Their fireball attack is nice but when it runs out of charges they have to get a bit too close to the enemy. Strike and return plus no retaliation is nice. Fire resist is nice.

Scoffer Imp - 5/10 - Similar to the Imp, they have to get even closer to the enemy once their fireball attack runs out of charges, but they also have a sneer ability that is nice.

Neutral troops

Ancient Bear - 5/10 - The Ancient Bear makes a good early game tanking unit but I dont like their 3 initiative.

Barbarian - 4/10 - I don't like their 3 initiative and don't like relying on the AI to pick my targets.

Bear - 5/10 - The Bear makes a good early game tanking unit but I don't like their 2 initiative.

Beholder - 7/10 - It has a mediocre damage ranged attack that has the paralyzing ray ability built in, which has a chance to paralyze the target, making it lose 1 action. The chance increases the lower level the target is, if the target is level 1 then its 100%, so if you use it on a level 1 target then it is a reliable crowd control ability while doing damage. Because crowd control is so scarce in this game, this makes this unit highly desirable. With only 4 initiative it may be a good target for a battle cry spell so it can act before its target.

Berserker - 5/10 - I don't like relying on the AI to pick my targets for me.

Black Dragon - 5/10 - They have some very good abilities but they cost way too much leadership per unit. I also feel the immunity to spells is more a drawback than a plus. Remember this rating is from a warrior perspective, I understand mages can abuse the immunity to spells with a spell that hits the whole battlefield. Doing fire damage is also a negative for some fights.

Cave Spider - 1/10 - level 1 melee units are too squishy, even with stone skin, and their 2 initiative is bad. It is harder to take advantage of their web ability than the fire spiders because of their 2 initiative and only 1 charge of web compared to the fire spiders 2 charges.

Cyclops - 6/10 - very low damage and an awful 1 initiative, still if you go for all tanky units they can be ok through the whole game. it is nice when enemy spellcasters waste a spell on them that gets 0 kills.

Devilfish 5/10 - 6 initiative is nice, but the terrible ability isn't quite as good as no enemy retaliation, and their 3 speed still makes it kinda hard to get a first strike, and I don't much like level 1 melee units.

Emerald Green Dragon - 9/10 - They are not as badly overpriced as their fellow dragons, and they have two useful talents, Target capture and Mana source, which both don't allow the enemy a retailatory attack when used. Mana source generates mana for you which is highly valuable. They also have fire resist and do physical damage, which is desireable late in the game.

Evil Beholder - 9/10 - The Mind Control talent is very good. They also have a 5 initiative which makes them better at taking advantage of paralyzing ray than the Beholder. Like the Beholder they may be a good target for battle cry to better take advantage of paralyzing ray. Paralyzing ray is a good crowd control ability, and crowd control abilities are few and far between.

Fire Dragonfly - 3/10 - They are extremely fragile, even for a level 1 melee unit.

Fire Spider - 6/10 - 6 initiative is good and the rest of their stats are fairly mediocre. web is a form of crowd control that can potentialy work ok. If you combo web with the teleport spell or the archmages telekinesis ability then you can crowd control a melee unit and get the fire spider out of melee with it in the same turn.

Griffin - 8/10 - The Griffin is a great tanking unit, good initiative and speed, and good health per leadership. They have somewhat low damage, but unlimited retaliations somewhat makes up for that. With the griffins banner they upgrade to the best health per leadership ratio in the game and mediocre damage, so with that I give them +1 rating.

Hyena - 4/10 - They have poor defenses for a melee unit and mediocre initiative and speed. Scavenger is unreliable for positioning. Preparation is nice however, so they do decent damage.

Lake Dragonfly - 3/10 - They are extremely fragile, even for a level 1 melee unit.

Pirate - 4/10 - They have poor defenses for a melee unit and mediocre initiative and speed. With the right wife and gear they can be situationaly +1 rating and useable.

Polar Bear - 7/10 - The Polar bear is a good tanking unit. Mediocre initiative and speed, decent damage.

Red Dragon - 7/10 - The Red Dragon has some powerful abilities, but costs too much leadership per unit. If it wasn't as hard to find and recruit them as it is, and if it's attacks weren't all fire damage, I'd consider using it as a main tank for the target spell. update, if you're lucky they can be available in demonis, and they did good damage for my latest mage, but weak against demons since they do fire damage.

Royal Snake - 8/10 - Their 6 initiative and no enemy retaliation are great, decent speed with 3+lunge, decent damage, mediocre defenses. With Frog Feanora and a ring of the snake king or snake boots they get +1 rating.

Royal Thorn - 5/10 - Their 2 initiative, 1speed, and being a plant are all major drawbacks, however summoning thorns is powerful even if they can't walk up to the enemy and summon them in their faces like dryads can. If you use the crown of blackthorn and team them with dryads thats worth +2 to their rating. The crown works for their summons as well as it works for them.

Sea Dog - 8/10 - Usualy I don't favor glass cannon melee units, but Sea Dogs realy put the "Cannon" in glass cannon, and aren't too glassy. With Mirabella and either jackboots or the boots of the mystic they get +1 rating. They can reliably take out 3 full stacks of enemies on the first turn of the fight in "match" or easier fights with their fury attack with Mirabella, if you are playing as a warrior anyway.

Snake - 4/10 - They have a decent 5 initiative. 2 speed + lunge is slightly below average positioning. They have low defenses. They do pretty good damage though. With Frog Feanora and the ring of the snake king they get +1 rating.

Swamp Snake - 4/10 - They have a mediocre 4 initiative. 2 speed + lunge is slightly below average positioning. They have low defenses. They do pretty good damage though. With Frog Feanora and the ring of the snake king they get +1 rating.

Thorn Hunter - 6/10 - 2 initiative and being a plant and taking a long range penalty for attacks farther than 5 tiles away are all major drawbacks, however they are the hardest hitting ranged attacker in the game by a wide margin. The margin is more than double if you team them with dryads and use the crown of blackthorn and Isshara's whip items. With those items I give them +2 rating. There is no doubt they are a glass cannon, but glass cannon ranged attackers are easier to use than glass cannon melee attackers. If you are going to use them you will have to accept that you will lose some of your force to attrition even in easy fights however. They are no good for a no losses run through the game. Their Sowing talent is not often useful, but when it is, it is great.

Thorn Warrior - 3/10 - Being a plant is a major drawback. Being a level 1 melee unit is a major drawback. They still hit very hard if you team them with dryads and use the crown of blackthorn and Isshara's Whip items, so I give them a +2 rating in that situation.

Venomous Spider - 3/10 - level 1 melee units are just too squishy generaly.

Wolf - 3/10 - They have an awful 15health per 30 leadership. The wolf cry ability is a bad crowd control ability because it works on such a small percentage of units, and even when you find one of those units it only works 50% of the time. If you realy want to use wolf cry look to the Werewolf Elf. The Frenzy ability is nice but unreliable.

Some Suggestions(spoilers)

totally rewriting this section on 10/21/2019 to make it a bit less long winded and get the best advice I can give as effectively as I can give it. about a month ago I played through on hard for the second time as a paladin and learned a bit more.

To build the most effective team, my suggestion is to build a balanced group with a unit to fill each of the following roles: 1 main tank, 1 melee damage dealer, 1 ranged damage dealer, 1 ranged healer/buffer, and 1 spellcaster.

Main Tank Role & Options: the top unit choices for this role are Griffins, Emerald Dragons, and Giants. you want to cast the target spell on this unit. if you have 3 points in onslaught ability in the warrior tree, you may want to wait until after your main tank has finished it's action on the first turn of combat but before any enemy acts to cast the target spell to squeak an extra turn of duration out of the target spell. Giants and Emerald Dragons get the healing spell casted on them, Griffins get Ressurect spell on them. It varies from fight to fight, if the Main tank should charge the enemy line or hang back infront of the ranged units. the reason to charge forward is to catch more of the enemy with the target spell. for example, enemy shamans and imps have damaging spells that they will use on a random target instead of obeying the target spell if they are not in range to move up and melee the tank that turn, but they will obey target if they are in range. even worse, enemy sprites may dispel target if they are too far away to obey target that turn.

Melee damage dealer Role & Options: top unit choices for this role are Sea Dogs, Veteran Orcs, and Royal Snakes. possibly dwarves could be used in this role if you're going to use Giants as your tank and go heavy into dwarf equipment and have Gerda for wife. there are some battle maps with two choke points and you can put this unit in the choke point your tank doesn't occupy and don't have to cast target for some of those fights. A party without a unit to fill this role but instead a second ranged damage dealer or ranged healer or buffer can also be good. In order to use Veteran Orcs in this role you likely need to be using the sacrifice spell to fill their ranks. you are unlikely to find any big recruitment bed for them.

Ranged damage dealer Role & Options: top unit choices for this role are Cannoneers and Evil Beholders, also filling this role well are Thorn Hunters, Beholders, Elves, and Hunters, and early game, Bowmen. pretty simple, attack from range.

Ranged Healer/buffer Role & Options: top unit choice for this role is Inquisitors, though you are likely to need either the sacrifice spell rank 1 or the paladin's signature ability to get enough of them to fill your leadership, if you don't get enough Inquisitors in your game, use Archmages, if you can't get enough of Archmages or Inquisitors, use a second ranged damage dealer. Inquisitors can ressurect your units and get the gift spell casted on them to ressurect your units more. Archmages can buff your tank with Magic Shield for half damage.

Spellcaster Role & Options: There are only 2 units that I really feel fit into this category, Shamans and Dryads. Early game until these two units come available I'll use alchemist in this slot. I highly suggest having either shamans or dryads in your party for as much of the game as you can, but if you'd rather give away some effectiveness to increase a dwarf theme, you can continue using alchemist. Shamans may require having the sacrifice spell to fill their ranks. read up on what I already wrote in the shaman and dryad sections of the guide.

Here is a strategy for inquisitor + shaman + emerald dragon or giant: when you start to get near the end of the fight, leave one very small stack of enemy units alive, preferrably a slow moving low level melee unit. move your melee units out of it's range and drop a shaman defensive totem near this enemy unit. the shaman defensive totem cooldown should be shorter than the time it takes this unit to break this totem, so you can drag the combat out over as many turns as you need. now you can use gift on the inquisitors and lina's chargers ability and inquisitors holy anger ability to recover all your losses. also, in easier fights, you can have started the fight with slightly less units than your maximum leadership cap, so you can potentially use Peacefulness rank 3 and Sacrifice rank 1 and healing rank 3 on your Giants during this time, to gain reserves in a couple of your harder to supply units without losing any units, your sacrifice spell should do less damage than the amount of hit points your Giants have with Peacefulness on them.

[UjinK]

Speaking of ghosts, it's fun that these are some of the best “summons”, as their leadership is not limited by anything in this case and you can “fatten” them up until you run out of enemies. The screens aren't in English, but I think it's clear to everyone:
https://pixhost.to/gallery/Gx7JQ

[Scathe]

I'll take your word on it and update ancient vampire and vampire, UjinK thanks for all the other comments I havent been keeping pace with, will update this guide

[UjinK]

Ancient Vampire - 8
Vampire - 9
Since regular vampires do more damage on leadership
Vampirism works perfectly, if somewhere does not work, then there is invisibility, there are no places in the game where there would be only thorns that see through invis and at the same time on them can not use vimpirism. You can safely go through the whole game with one stack of vampires on impossible without losses, the only problems will be with the Book of Evil and the doppelganger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y9Mmg4G5x8&list=PLWqGv-_rbg3PKt7tI8Vj2W8kIE5C981Cv

[Donuel the Daring]

I think you may have overlooked some things on the Druid. His bears summon may be fairly weak, but he has two other abilities that are pretty good. 1) He can take control of an enemy animal troop. This is very situational, of course, but it can really change the course of a battle - you can direct it to attack enemies; it makes a great target for the enemies to hit; and you can use Sacrifice on it to give yourself free units at your opponents expense :D 2) He has a magic ranged attack which isn't too strong, but it is one of the few basic attacks in the game with AoE damage. To me, the main drawback is their low initiative; but I like to use them with Dryads, which have that song for increasing initiative of allied elves.

I got lucky in my current game to find a small stack of Druids at the Trader in Verlon Forest. I got even luckier by finding an early Sacrifice spell, and then I was able to field a full stack of Druids for most of the game.

[Radagast the Brown]

Archdemons, demonesses, beholders, elves, ancient bears, cannoneers, alchemists, anc. vampires and cursed ghosts are in fact quite better than they are given credit for. Emerald green dragon is the easiest 10/10 ever, the combo with the pull ability and trap and his mana drain are relevant up to the far lategame. Shamans are 11/10. Can't get any better. Skeleton archer is mostly a 10/10, its the best archer in the game actually in terms of ratio in leadership, dmg n numbers.

Other units that are too good are the Demon (possibly most powerful bang for buck melee unit), Horsemen (great tank with movement) and the Royal Snakes (relevant for the whole game). All these can easily be even a 10/10+ unit, depending on other synergies in multiple runs.

[Radagast the Brown]

Its a good guide but some units are severely underrated and deserve higher ratings. Also if a 20/10 rating existed it would be the dryad, that's how broken it is. They can dominate the whole game with the phantom spell and allow for broken no loss strategies even on impossible. And using the Ruby artifact which is guaranteed in each playthrough with the small fairy units (sprites/lake fairies) is so great it automatically makes them at minimum 9/10 units. (10/10 with the +1 dmg whip and they win battles on their own, dmg is pure insanity).

[Opal the Siamese]

This is a great review, but I don't agree about the black dragons. You find tons of them in the labirinth, the money and leadership is totally worth it. I beat the final boss using only Black dragons and the armageddon spell and won in two minutes flat.

[Firehex]

I love polar bears as tank units, but it can be pain to find shop with big amount of them >_<

[Phoenix, Right?]

Black Dragons are only useful if you play a Mage and want to Armageddon everything, and even then it won't be a lossless run since Armageddon kills the Black Dragons as well. For Warrior their stats/gold and stats/morale ratios are subpar and for Paladin they are downright horrible because you cannot heal, buff or revive them.

[Carolyn (She/Her)]

Black Dragons are by far your best bet late game in a lossles run, and perform very well even in standard runs due to one single ability: Magic Immunity. Everything else becomes basically obsolete once you find Black Dragons.