Watch this space: I'm starting with the Sylvan faction but will add to this space as I experiment with the other factions. All information was playtested to a lowish degree and while it can be said to be acurate i'm not saying it is 100% correct.

The guide will be formated thusly: each faction will break down each unit give you a recomendation and then explain the reasoning.

The two Sylvan upgrade paths are either "Brown" units (the orginal) and "Blue" units.











Teir one upgrade: Sprites or Dryads:
Recomended unit: Dryads
Reason:
The reason I recomend Dryads for teir one is because the two units are very similar, Dryads do one more damage, but Sprites have one more Intive, both have a spray attack, are flyers and haveno enemy retaliation, the differnece is there active ablity. Sprites are casters, but can only cast clensing or Wasp swarm, and the Swarm has never impressed me, a 50 unit strong stack only does 4 kills to a unit of spearweilders. Clense does have some situation useage I agree, but it's not enough to overcome what Dryads can do. Namely: heal themselves and treants. of course: this is only of vaule if you actually have Treants but the ablity to heal themselves and a already strong unit make them winners.


Teir two unit upgrades:War dancers or Wind dancers.
Recomended unit: Situational
Reason:
This is a close one, and in the end I can't pick one over the other. I favor Winddancers personally, but the other unit has merit. Going over the stats Win ddancers have slightly higher stats in attack, damage and speed, but have almost twice the defense over the Wardancer. So why do i say there about even? Because War dancers have an AOE attack, they hit everything around which can double, triples or more the damage they do depending on the number of enemys that are standing aroudn them. Wind dancers have higher single target damage, but do less damage then a War Dancer hitting on two units at once. Also Wind Dancers have this. . . thing you need to be aware of to get the best results, it's not a good thing or a bad thing just a, thing you need to know to get results as intended. You see Wind Dancers trade out the AOE attack for Aglity, the more they move the more armor they get which is good becuase they can become very tanky over a seven tile run, but in battle they don't like standing in front of one enemy, they need to always move in order to keep the Aglity defense buff. So move them from one target, to another and there still very much alive.


Teir three upgrade: Master hunters or Arcane archers:
Recomended unit: Situational
Reason:
Like the War/Wind Dancers, the Arcane Archers VS master hunter argument favors the Blue unit upgrade on the stats alone. With slightly higher attack, defense and damage the Arcane Archers have the edge on the Hunters. But the Master Hunters take the edge back by attacking twice and applying there damage twice for each attack giveing them the Edge back. Further there Warding arrows can slow an enemy down and give you more time to riddle them with arrows. But the Arcane Archers do have two tricks that balance themselves. First they have no range pentaly so they also do there full damage regardless of range, secondly they ignore half of an enemys defense meaning heavily armored units are much weaker to there arrow then the Hunters arrows (they also can push an enemy back but one space just is not enough). Use the Hunters against light units, while Arcane Archers deal with heaver, higher teir ones.


Teir Four upgrade: Druid Eldar or High Druid
Recomended unit: Situational
Reason:
Again: situational unit choice. Stats wise these two units are almost identical, the High Druid have one more point of minimal damage and one more Hit point, but have one less defense. However Druid Eldars have a massive advantage in that they can cast lighting bolt, Endure and. . . I forget that stone spike spell thats a plus sign. High Druids only have Endure. So why is it situational? becuase high druids can boost the spell power of the hero. if you have a caster hero the High Druids can give your spells a boost. If you hero is not much of a caster, stick with the Eldars.


Teir five upgrade: Silver Unicorn or Prestine Unicorn
Recomended unit: Silver Unicorn
Reason:
Finely, a clear choice. The Silver has better attack and defense while the Prestine has both higher max damage, (and lower minimal damage) and more hit points while both have a blinding attack. The silver gives nearby units magic resistance, while the Prestine instead replicates light spells. If some one cast haste, (either side) it would also be applyed to the Prestine. The only situation I can think of you would favor the Prestine Unicorn is if your fighting a faction (Elves or Haven) who get light spells but in all other cases I would pick the Silver



Teir Six upgrade: Ancient Treant or Savage Treant
Recomended unit: Savage Treant
Reason:
The choice her comes down to Defense or Attack. The Savage Trent has better attack and Minimal damage, while Ancient Trents have more Defense and hit points. There ablitys are the same except for Take root or rage of the forest. Take root increase defense when defending and will respond to all attack against it, while Rage halfs defense and boosts attaack by the same amount. Genneraly speaking, I favor killing the enemy rather then waiting for them to hit me so I always go for the Savage, and if you take wounds thats what Dryads are for!


Teir Seven upgrade: Emerald Dragon or Crystal dragon
Recomended unit: Emerald Dragon
Reason:
These two units are too similar for me to tell. I think the main difference is that the Crystal attack can hit enemy next to the target, while the Emerald can only hit those behind it. Stats wise, the Emerald dragon has the edge in attack, defense, while the Crystal has better max damage. However, it's the Immunity to earth damage the make me decided in favor of the Emerald Dragon, but really I don't know.

The Stronghold, or Orcs, faction are split between either more Agressive Demon blooded units, or less aggressive, tending to be more tactical choices. Also ignore the negitive moral and luck values, I took the photos in a week of light.











Teir one upgrade: Witch-Doctors or Trappers
Recomended unit: Witch-Doctors
Reason:
Here's the thing about these two units: In my play test I used the trappers but found there snares a bit under welming. They slow the enemy down, but heres the thing, your the ORCS!! you want them to run up so you can grind them into paste! waiting only costs you rage, so you need to run up and hit them plus the Trappers have no effect on units that don't move at all like shooters. The Witch Doctors have one more point of attack, two less defense and three less hit points, but do one more damage. However there ablity makes enemy caster units (of which every faction has at least one) pay for there ablitys with higher cost, weakened ablity or just failing them out right. Another thing I wish to not about these units is that There combat ablitys are useless, I kept my back and just use them for Sky Daughter fodder, I go into more depth about that bellow.


Teir two upgrade: Nomads Or Marauders
Recomended unit: Marauders
Reason:
Fuctionally, these two units are the same. Marauders have two more armor while Nomads do one more damage and two more shots. The only difference is there ablitys. Nomads have Maneuver which makes them run away from a target hiting them in close quaters, get a space away, then fire an arrow at half damage, remember that, that's important.. Marauders don't do that and instead stand there ground do there full damage in melee thanks to a no melee penalty. Marauders do there full damage when retaliate and remember centars are large creatures, it might not be possible for them to run away thereby invaldateing Maneuver.


Teir two upgrade: Maulers or Warmongers
Recomended unit: Maulers
Reason:
Damage. I used Warmongers thinking that the doing twice the retaliation damage would do more damage, but Maulers attacking twice does the same thing. Now mind, it's not 100% that it will hit twice, But Maulers with higher damage and attack, will do more damage in a single hit then the Warmongers will. Plus, as i said I used the Warmongers and I never saw Taunt proc once. maybe i was doing it wrong but I never saw the vaule in it.


Teir four upgrade: Sky Daughters or Earth Daughters
Recomended unit: Preference.
Reason:
Sky Daughters and Earth Daughters are both casters, There spell selection is mostly same, slow and haste, however Sky Daughters have chain lighting, but have to sacrfice a goblin of any kind, to cast it. Sky Daughters also have more mana base. In terms of stats the Earth daughters have much higher (3 points) attack, Damage (1 higher minimal, two higher max), speed (1) and two special ablitys, Hexing attack which puts a random curse on an enemy (Slow, suffering, Weakness or Vulnerability), and Swift attack which means enemys can't counter attack them if there slowed. All very good you think, but then you ask why this is even a debate after all, Chain-friggen-lighting, is a major point in the Sky Daughters Favor. Well the problem is that it's Chain lighting, out side of batles of heroes or special buildings, your not going to run into situations you can use it with out zapping your self, further it needs a full turn of set up, you stab the goblin, then wait a turn then cast lighting bolt. now it IS powerfull, don't get me wrong, a 46 strong unit of Sky Daughters can do 315 damage with chain lighting, but it takes time to set up. In random encounters I can't help but feel that Earth Daughters would be better, plus in a close fight you won't need have you casters sit there helplessly sacrficeing a goblin for a turn to be usefuly, you can just throw you Earth Daughters into the thick of it. I like the Sky Daughters a bit more, but between the two units I can't say which one is 100% better.


Teir five upgrade: Excutioners or Chieftain
Recomended unit: Excutioners.
Reason:
It's the teir three debate all over again damage VS defense. However in terms of stats Chieftains are not that far behind Excutioners in terms of damage with only one lower attack and the same max damage (they even have higher minimal damage) but have a full five more defense, however, Cheiftains ablitys that seal it as an inferor choice in most cases. units on nearby tiles have one higher Initiative and they can make an allies turn come faster, but they do some damage, but not a lot of it, as long as you have some blood rage it should not be so bad. However, while speeding an ally up is good, the Excutioner can inflct lots and lots of damage in one turn, a turn that the Chieftan has just spent pointing at some one and yelling at them to move faster. Now, i can see some combo by haveing a cheift shout at a sky daughter to get more lighting bolts, but frankly I rather just have my Excutioners cleave an enemy for two attacks. Additionaly, rather then the Initiative boost nearby allys it reduces nearby enemys moral by 3 points, if stacked with other moral dropping effects that is a lot of moral damage and can really slow down an enemys turn.


Teir six upgrade: Foul Wyvern or Paokai
Recomended unit: Paokai
Reason:
Huh, I might have seen this guy in Dark Messiah, anyway, despite lacking a lot of attack and doing slightly less damage, (and one more attack) Pao makes it up with Hit points and lighting breath. To be blunt, Venom really did not do a lot of damage, but Lighting breath can damage more enemys then just the target unit and that settles it. Paokai's are aslo immune to blind, situational at best, but useful when it does come up.




Teir Seven upgrade: Untamed Cyclops or Blood Eye Cyclops
Recomended unit: Untamed
Reason:
Damage. The untamed Clops have two more attack, ten more minmal damage and seven more max, but have one less defense, one less speed and one less Initiative. now blood eye has a pentating attack and drops an enemys lack by 3, but the untamed hits a bigger area, 2 by 2 and can knock down city walls. (both can eat and throw goblins). For sheer damage, which is the point of fighting anyway, the Untamed is the better buy.

I sware, Inferno units are glassy as all heck, I had no were near as much trouble playing them as i did the Orcs or tree elves. Inferno offer the choice between "smolder" and "Fire" upgrades.










Teir one upgrade: Familars or Vermin:
Recomended unit: Depends.
Reason:
Familars and Vermin both have similar stats, (the Vermin has one more defense speed, max damage, but has lower minimal damage) but that's not why you get Imps, you get them for there Ablity, Mana Stealer or Siphon Mana. Both ablitys drain mana from enemy heros, but one gives it to your hero, the other gives it to caster units in your army, of which you have only one: The Pit Lord which has two very strong spells, fire ball, and metor swarm. If your hero is not a strong caster go wtih the Familars, other wise run with the Vermin.


Teir two upgrade: Horned Overseers or Horned Grunts:
Recomended unit: Grunts
Reason:
Speed. Stats wise these two are identical, Overseers only have more armor, however the ablitys make them differnt. Overseers can expload like a fireball spell while Grunts can jump into the fray for bonus damage, but they take more damage from enemy counter attacks when they land. Now, personally, the fire ball never seemed that powerful, plus Grunts can leap over walls, and do a lot of damage when they land. So I have to give this one to the Grunts.


Teir three upgrade: Cerberus or Firehound:
Recomended unit: Firehound
Reason:
You can't normally see at a first glance why one two units is better. Normally you need to think about it for a bit, not so with this choice. The Firehound has all the same stats (it even does one better damage) and ablitys as the Cerberus, but has another ablity on top of the others Fire breath which allows it to hit enemys behind there target. So no brainer of a choice.


Teir four upgrade: Succubus Mistress or Succubus Seducer
Recomended unit:Can't decided.
Reason:
Any one knows the Succubus Mistress is Dangerious with it's Super-burny-bouncy-ball-of-death so the Seducer has some big hooves to fill, thankfully it can deliver. With only two more Hit points, the Seducer can't sell it off its stats but instead it uses it's Ablity to make this close. Able to compleatly mind control an enemy unit and have it do your biding, attack, use magic, or what else this ablity is very, very powerful and can inflict a lot of deaths in an enemy unit by attacking and accepting the conter attack, or by moveing it out of position and closer to you so you don't have as far to run, or by holding open a gate for your creatures in a seige, all good choices and can help make battles less painful. But: again the Mistress can do a ton of damage. Bottom line: personal perfernce, but remember against the Nercomancers always use the Mistress, the Seducer can't mind control something that's dead.


Teir Five upgrade: Nightmare or Hell Stallion:
Recomended unit: can't Decided
Reason:
Both have the same attack, (Stallion has one less defense) hit points, but the Stallion does one more damage. The nightmare has fear aura which reduces moral of enemys by three, while the Hell Stallion does ten damage per stalion to nearby enemys that start there turn near it. While I do have fond memorys of a Stallion burning the last HP of a dragon the turn it started to move, you would need over 200 Nightmares to kill one full health dragon at the start of it's turn. On the other hand, Moral dropping effects like the Nightmare tend to be slower acting. When it procs it good, but it's not always gonna happen.


Teir Six upgrade: Pit Lord or Pit spawn:
Recomended unit: Pit Lords
Reason:
Lets get this out of the way, Pit Lords are weaker then Pitspawn, they have less attack, defense, speed, initiative, hit points and they are not magic proof 50%. even numbers, Pit Lords would lose to Pit Spawn. however, Pit Lords do not fight only Pit Spawn, and they shine against most other targts becuase Pit Lords are casters able to cast Fireball and Metor Shower. Stocked up with mana from a Verman and Pit lords are particly a second shooter. The magic damage of fire ball makes up for the physical stats between the two. That said, remember, Pit Spawn are the better in close combat. If you feel the Lords fire balls are not doing enough (you silly silly man) you can always swap over to the Pit Spawn.


Teir Seven upgrade: Arch Devils or Arch Demon
Recomended unit: Situational
Reason:
Arch Demons have more armor and hit points, but less speed and initiative, but the reason why it's Situational is simply becuase in a seige i rather have a Arch Demon to help drag an allied unit over the wall, while in most other cases I rather have the Devil becuase it can summon up Pit lords to reinforce me if one of my units dies.

Let me put this up for Haven, I can't decided which of the two upgrades is better for most of them. Stats wise the Red units have more attack and less defense, while the blue Haven flips it. While I strongly favored the Red units, it's becuase i'm Aggressive, I don't like waiting and want to run up and punch them in the face not wittle them down over time with arrows before finally clashing. That's Red's things, but I do see the Meirts of the other upgrades and I hope to give you my thoughts on the subject.

Teir one upgrade: Brutes or Conscripts
Recomended unit: Depends on Teir three choice.
Reason:
These two have the same profile except for attack and defense. Conscripts have two defense with one attack while Brutes have two attack and one defense. The difference is that Conscripts have Bash and Brutes have Assault. Conscripts can make any enemy not retaliate to them and have it's turn show up later, while Brutes have a chance to make a second attack. So, what unit is better? as i stated, I can't say. I would however say this: if your useing Vindicator over Squires I recomend Conscripts for there Bash ablity, while if you use Squires the Brutes added offensive power will be a welcome boost.


Teir two upgrade: Crossbowmen or Marksmen
Recomended unit: Personal preference.
Reason:
Crossbowmen have one more attack, but two less shots before they run out, so these two are basicly even stats wise. At ranges under four spaces the Marksmen will out damage the Crossbowmen as they can ignore the enemys armor, but at ranges greater then four spaces, the Crossbowmen do a lot more damage as the can inflict full damage at long range. (warning: I had some problems with this and castle walls so maybe in a seige there more equal but it needs more testing). If your playing defensivly, the Marksmen are better as your enemy will have to move up toward you, if your being aggressive and your enemy does not move much then the Crossbowmen will be the better choice.


Teir three upgrade: Squires or Vindicators
Recomended unit: Personal preference.
Reason:
The Vindicators gain a fairly large attack boost of three over the Squires, while loseing out one only one defense. Squires have two ablitys that the Vindicator does not, Sheild order which reduces the damage nearby allys take from shooting attacks, but not spells, Secondly squires get Bash which as stated under the Conscripts allows them to prevent a counter attack and slow an enemy down. Vindicators on the other hand have Cleave, leting them attack twice. The Squire works better when defending as you can "Turtle up" and make sure you suffer a lot less missile deaths. On the other hand Vindicators just kill stuff faster so it's a toss up, attack or defense.


Teir Four upgrade: Battle Griffons or Imperial Griffon
Recomended unit: Personal Preference
Reason:
Bizarrely Imperials have higher attack, initive and damage, while the Red aggressive Battle griffon has more defense and hitpoints. So what gives? the difference is that the Battle Griffons are supose to get into the thick of the enemy formation and then use battle Frenzy to give out increaseingly powerful counter attacks. They need to soak up damage, so they can hit back all the harder. I know that my Imperial Griffons had a nasty habit of being glass cannons and they were easily the smaller stack (compared to there spawn rate) in my army. That said, the ablity of Imperial Griffons to battle dive on enemy shooters, (becuase every one else is going to be moveing) for double damage makes them a very attractive chioce as well. I don't consider Rush Dive all that powerful personally since it does less damage, but then again it does it to more targets so it does even out i supose.

Teir Five upgrade: Zealot or Inquistor.
Recomended unit: Zealots
Reason:
What is this? a clear choice? Heresy! Zealots are the better unit on stats for although they lack two armor compared to the Inquistor they have four more attack, but two less shots. So the Inquistor has to make it up with his spell books, whch just can't do enough. inquistors have Haste, Endurence and Divine Strength. Zealots have Cleanse and Righteous might, and an ablity that can turn any attack into something that can remove enemy positive spells from them. Even in a defenseive tactical set the damage a Zealot puts out, (particaully since Haven heroes tend to be very good with Light Magic) is worth more then the blessings of an Inquistor.

Teir Six upgrade: Paladins or Champion.
Recomended unit: Personal Preference
Reason:
Paladins have more defense, but champions do more damage but have the same attack. Paladins ablity to remove curses is very useful for a defense army, imgaine getting ride of blindless and getting one of your units back into the fight. Meanwhile the Campions higher damage output and the ablity to stab though a target to the one behind it is very useful. however i feel like i need to put a note about Joust, Joust does more damage the further you run, and the farthest two armys will normally be apart from each other is at the start of the battle so for max damage a unit of heavy calvary wants to run into the enemy full tilt, so there both very offensive minded units.

Teir seven upgade: Archangels or Seraph
Recomended unit: Archangels for day to day fights, Seraph for "final battles"
Reason:
Arch Angels have, as you might expect, more defense, (a lot more,6,) but less attack and less damage. But it's there ablitys that give them that strange recomendation. Archangel can reserect an ally and so can help keep losses low, but Seraph instead have caster ablitys either Cleanse, (if your pet Tortosise die of boredom around you) or Divine Vengence which does more damage the more units have died. So to get the most out of Seraph you need to hold of on there ablity until the end of a long bloody battle, which becuase it's been a long blood battle needs to be your last battle or your find your self with nothing left FOR that next fight. Seraph shine, quite well design this is, on judgement day, when it's all comes down to one pitched fight to see who will be left standing at the end of it all.

The dungeon faction are mostly easy choices so with fewer indecisions to be had between units.












Teir one&six upgrade: Assasins or Stalkers, Shadow Matriarch or Shadow Mistress
Recomended unit: Assasins and Shadow Matriarchs
Reason:
were doing two units at once here becuase it's the same debate: shooting VS higher attack. The, ahh, lets call them Maroon units (Stalkers or Mistresses) both have higher attack, damage, hit points, speed and in the Stalker's case armor then the "Purple" Pre tribes upgrade, plus they have a new special ablity: Invisibility which for three turns makes them untargetable (except for unlucky AOE spell) and means that there next attack (if there still invisible) can not be counter attacked. By every standared, the Stalkers and Mistresses are not bad units, they are infact very good ones. but, and this is a big stinky but, they lose out to the Shooter version of the unit.

The issue is it takes three turns, two if your enemy helps you, to set up an Ideal strike with these units. one turn to Invis, then one or two turns to move into position to start whaleing on the enemy and in that time a shooter unit is shooting doing more damage over that same time frame even with lower stats. Secondly the Assasins ablity to posion enemys can do a lot of damage to normmaly arrow resistant enemys. I sware the elf i fought loved Missile protection, but Posion got though that. The DPS advantage shooters have over non shooters is what makes it so that despite how good the units are, I can not recomend them.

Teir Two pgrade: Blood sisters or Blood Fury
Recomended unit: Blood sister
Reason:
The blood sister just has better stats in all catgorys except initive. they even have an added bonus in being immune to Weakness. No contenst: Blood Sister is the better choice.





Teir three upgrade:Minotaur Guard or Minotaur Taskmaster
Recomended unit: Minotuar Guard
Reason:
Double attack. The Taskmasters moral aura does not have enough bang for my buck, further despite haveing higher stats in almost all catagorys, they can't out damage a unit that can hit twice and therefore double the total damage.




Teir Four upgrade:Dark Raiders or Brisk Raiders
Recomended unit: Dark Raiders
Reason:
Lizard charge. After only walking five spaces it complately negates the enemy defense and so allows much more damage be done to heavily armored guys like Dwarfs. Brisk Raiders instead get wheeling charge, which instead means they attack enemys as they move along the ground. Frankly thats tricky to set up since you can't say way points to get more then one unit. Both units however want the Lizard rider to be in motion, moveing from one target to the other for eithe lots of Wheeling Charges or Lizard charges. Stats wise the Dark Raiders have 2 more damage, but Brisk Raiders have two more attack and one more intuitive and are other wise equal.
Teir Five upgrade:Deep Hydra or Foul Hydra
Recomended unit: Foul Hydra
Reason:
The deep hydra may have one more defense and two more damage but the difference is not enough to warent the choice, the choice came down to Acid blood, or Regeneration. Regeneration i found, upon retrospect, to be too weak where as Acid blood, while no show stoper it self, does add more to the total tamage the Hydra puts out.



Teir Seven upgrade:Black Dragon or Red Dragon.
Recomended unit: Situational.
Reason:
Black dragons will always be the better buy against factions known for destructive magic such as Other Dark Elves as there immnity to all magic, no iffs ands or buts, means they are the better buy against such factions. However: against other factions the Red Dragon, despite haveing less damage and hit points, but with the ablity to do 50% more damage without risking a counter attack is better.

The dwarven faction is gennerally slow, but runes can make that up easily enough. The Red and white upgrades are faily similar and only differ in how exactly they function.










Teir one upgrade: Shieldguard or Mountain Guard
Recomended unit: Sheildgaurd.
Reason:
Stats wise Mountain guard have an edge in attack, defense, but lose out in initive. however, Mountain gaurd have a major problem, there ablity, Defensive stance which boosts there armor by five, which is combined with there base defense over twice that of the Shieldguard, but in order to use it they have to be on there starting space, it can't move. the Shieldguard Guards ablity, Sheild wall, on the other hand does can compleatly negate (up 90%) an enemy's attack. This is double painful for fast units like Blood Furys or Champions who move fast. the longer they run, the less damage they will do, and unlike the Mountain Guard, it does not care if you move or not. That flexiblity is what Leads to the SheildGuard recomendation.
Teir two upgrade: Skirmisher or harpooner
Recomended unit: Skirmisher.
Reason:
Skimishers are the better unit because of Crippling wound. With the ablity to slow a target down by in how far it can walk and in how often it can act. Skirmishers also have No Melee Penalty. These two things make up for the lower attack and damage. Also: why the hell does the Harpooner not have no melee penalty? it's main ablity is to drag the enemy closer you think that kind of unit needs that ablity more then a pure shooter? I would only use Harpooners with mountain guard so I could drag enemy units closer to my imobile fortress.
Teir Three upgrade: Black or White bear riders.
Recomended unit: Black Bear Riders.
Reason:
Stats wise the black bear has 2 more defence but two less attack, so it's basicly a dead heat. Black beared suffer less nerfs from enemy spell casters that reduce there armor with Curses, but that's not the reason to get one over the other. The real reason is Paw Strike, Paw Strike is much more reliable to get a Proc off then the White Bears roar thus will save you from counter attacks far more often then there polar coutner parts.

Teir four upgrade:Berserker or Battlerager
Recomended unit: Berserkers
Reason:
Berserkers are the nastyest teir four unit in the game, if used right. Berserker Rage lets them hit like a train, a train that can't be counter attacked, and if you get the Rune of Berserking, a train that runs you over, stops, then backs at full speed for a second pass, stack it with the Rune of Battle Rage, (and i should mention that battle rage is a tricky spell to pull off on a Berserker since you need to first get you Berseker in position with more then one enemy to each side, and you can't control you berserkers when they go mad) and you have a Dwarf smoothy maker. on the other hand, battlerangers do more damage when against large creatures, and when injuryed, but they can't do enough to outdamage a Berserke, which does not need large creatures to do it's best.

Teir five upgrade: Rune Patriarch or Rune Keeper
Recomended unit: personal preference
Reason:
These two units are basicly equal. Patriarchs have less attack, damage and hit points, but there attacks hit in a cross pattern. Meanwhile, Keepers do more damage to a single target, but can cast Fireball were Patriarchs have to make due with Firewall. If it was not for the cross attack I would say that the keepers are better for the fireball, but Patriarchs do have the cross attacks and can do it all day long, plus putting fire walls up over enemy shooters never stops being funny. There equal in my view and pick the unit you want.
Teir six upgrade: Flame Lord or Thunder Thane
Recomended unit: Thunder thane
Reason:
Thunder Thanes lack a LOT of damage, almost half as much, but they have more attack and hit points. So why do I recomend the Thunder Thanes? becuase the Thunder Thane Chain lighting attack is ALWAYS going to go off. Every time you attack or counter attack chain lighting is going to go off greatly uping the damage. The Flame Lords "flame wave" may be stronger, put not only is it less likely to go off, it's harder to get the most of since it only goes back, so aiming this thing is tricky.
Teir seven upgrade: Lava Dragons or Magama Dragons
Recomended unit: Magama Dragon
Reason:
Stats wise these two are pretty much equal. Magma dragons in out thanks to there ablity to deal damage to those that attack them via flame sheild and there fire breeth leting them hit more then one enemy at a time. Lava dragons on the other hand have the ablity to leave a blob of, well, lava behind on there target that does damage each turn, compaired to the almost double the damage Magma dragons can put put with a well aimed Flame breath and I find my self recomending Magma over Lava.

The Necropolis upgrades tend to trade special ablitys for weaker more limited versions, in return for more damage and better stats. The upgrade chioces are between "green" orignals, and "White" new upgrades








Teir one upgrade: Skeleton Archer Or Skeleton Warrior
Recomended unit: Skeleton Warrior.
Reason: those of you at home are likely confused by this Recomendation. Earlyer I railed and attacked the Stalkers and Shadow Mistresses becuase the choice was between a Shooter and a non shooter, so why do i now picke the Non-shooter option? Well first look at the stats, the Warrior has better attack, damage, speed and three times as much defense as the Archer. Further the Warrior comes with a lot of new ablitys, Large sheild, ( reduceing range attack damage by half), Sheild Allies (which does the same for allies next to the warrior), Bash (stun and slow) and magic resistance 25%. This is more then gaining a single new ablity in exchange for a shooting attack, this turns the Skeleton into a tank, able to take and give damage. I've tried the Archers, but found there damage output to be way to low, Warrirors are slightly better, but there tankyness makes up for it and lets them suck up damage.


Teir two upgrade: Rot Zombies or Plague Zombies
Recomended unit: Depends
Reason
Rot Zombies have lower stats arcoss the board, except in attack where there the same. But Rot Zombies ablity,Weakening strike is far more powerful then the Rots Zombies festering aura. Rot Zombies weaken there prey (hence the name) where Rot Zombies reduce Nearby units (allies as well but undead don't care) moral by one, and drops attack and defense by two. The attack and defense drop is equal to one Rot Zombie weakening strike, except if the enemy walks way from the rot Zombies, the effect goes away, plus Rot Zombies can stack there effect by hitting the enemy again and again. Plauge Zombies do have higher stats though, and if your willing to sacrifice the ablity to reduce an enemy with each following attack, The Plauge Zombie is a decent chioce, dot, dot , dot, in some cases. If your fighting other Necromancers then always go for the Rot Zombies.
Teir three upgrade: Spectres or Poltergeists
Recomended unit: Spectres
Reason
Again: specters are lower across the board in stats, except initiative, but it's the ablitys that decide between the two. Spectres steal mana, while Poltergeists steal range units shots. Right of the bat you see the problem with that. One ammo cart invalidates the Poltergeists ablity and that has to be delt with first before the Geists can do anything. On the other hand, Spectres may have a lower range of targets (only casters), but IF they can get close before the the enemy runs out of mana naturally they can take enough mana away to deprive the casters of a spell, plus they can use that mana to heal themselves, Again the ablity makes up for the stat drop.
Teir Four upgrade: Vampire Prince or Vampire Lord
Recomended unit: Personal preference
Reason
This time the two upgrades are pretty much the same stats wise. The prince does slightly more damage and has more health, but not a lot more. However the differences are there ablitys, No Enemy Retaliation or Torpor. Torpor stuns an enemy unit for three turns and is unable to act, but it will not always go off, NER will always activate, and will always do it's job. It's hard to say what is better, the lord is Reliable, but the Prince has the better ablity.
Teir Five upgrade: Arch Lich or Master Lich
Recomended unit: Master Lich
Reason
Stats wise, the master lich resumes the tride of haveing higher stats then the the Arch Lich haveing better attack, damage and mana, but not by much. Arch Liches will out damage them if they can get more then two units under there death clloud. But: Master Lichs have one big advantage over the Arch Lich, master Liches know Raise dead and can cast it twice. Remember: for the undead, health recovered by Raise dead stay around after death and can really help you win a battle and allow you to win a war of attrition, fighting random enemys on the adventure map without takeing losses.

Teir Six upgrade: Wrath or Banshee
Recomended unit: Banshee
Reason
Banshee's are weaker the Wraths, loseing out on attack, defense and damage while haveing ten more hit points. But what makes Banshees better is there Scream ablity which does more damage the lower the enemy moral is, and between Plugue Zombies and the Necromancers own Banshee howl, and some lucky item finds, you can really drop enemy moral. I onced pulled of 75 kills with one wail, taken from three units. The Wraths Harm Touch only reduces an enemy unit by one: good for a low strength unit against a Dragon or somthing, but that's the only situation this comes ot mind. Speaking of lowering Moral. . .
Teir seven upgrade: Spectral dragon or Ghost dragon
Recomended unit: Spectral Dragon
Reason
stats wise, the Ghost Dragon does more damage but is more fragile. Every attack of a Ghost dragon puts down the sorrow spell which drops a enemy attack, while the Spectral dragon puts down Weakness, which does the same thing. . . and it lowers the moral of nearby enemys by one. no contest, the Spectral Dragon is the better option.

And lastly we have the Academy, my least favorate faction in term of there back story, (some of the most morally bankrupt people in the setting in my view, I mean, can you imagine what they had to do to make the Orks and Gremlins?) while also being one of my favorate factions in term of tactics, namely UNGODLY MAGICAL POWER!!!! The two upgrades paths for the Academy are between Blue (original) or Brown (new units). and yes, I know a few units break this trend but it's easer to when talking about one of the two units in general terms to have something simple to say.

Teir one upgrade: Master Gremlin or Gremlin Saboteur
Recomended unit: Master Gremlins
Reason:
stats wise, it's too close to call. I used both and found they both did very similar amounts of damage, despite the Gremlin Saboteur haveing over double the attack. What makes the master Gremlin better is that they can heal and resurrect golems Saboteurs can only stop other mechanical units, (seige weapons, towers, and other Golems) for one turn, and i Generally found I want my Saboteurs shooting. Only use the Saboteurs in seiges, (both defending to shut down Trebs and attacking to do the same against towers), other Academy armys, or the Haven hero Vittorio, or the Inferno hero Deleb, who both boost the otherwise lack wiseing (in my view) power of the Ballista, but even then I still recomend Master Gremlins.
Teir two upgrade: Obsidian Gargoyle or Elemental Gargoyle
Recomended unit: Elemental Gargoyle
Reason:
Stats wise the two are pretty much equal, but there ablitys are polar oposites. Obsidians are immune to fire, water and Air spells, while Elemental Gargoyle take more damage from the same, but also make nearby units (Friendly or not) take bonus damage from them. Elemental Gargoyles increase the already titanic spell power of the Academy for both Heroes and Archmages. However a word of warning: you Elemental Gargoyles need to start as far away from the rest of your army as it can so an opening salvo of spells does not hurt you as well. Use the Elementals with caution.
Teir three upgrade: Steel Golem or Magnetic Golem
Recomended unit: Magnetic Golem
Reason:
Magnetic Golem have less defense and hit points but have much higher initiative, important for the slow Golems (seriously, get either of them a speed Artfact, your a wizard, you can do that) But while Steel golems are immune to slowing, and have Unlimited Retaliation and are 75% magic proof, Magnetic golems are just better. For one thing: magnetic golems are healed by distructive magic, and they drain half of the damage a distructive magical spell would do to an ally onto themselves thus healing them, and yes they can reserect doing this. So what does this mean? feel free to cast fireball with them in the AOE, so they can heal while also doing damage. It's a Win, Win.
Teir four upgrade: Arch mage or Battle mage
Recomended unit: Arch mage
Reason:
The battle mage has more attack and more shots, (while haveing less defense and one less hit point). Arch Mages on the other hand can cast fireball, which is much, much better. See Arch Mages and Battle mages both have a defult attack that can go though and hit more then one enemys racking up a lot of damage, BUT if your own unit is between them and the enemy they will get hit to. you can't "castle them" behind non shooters like you can other units. The Archmage can support allies that might get hit if they used there base attack with there spells, fireball or fist of Wrath. The Archmages ablity, Energy Channel, is also much beter then the battle mages sap magic. See, the Archmage means you hero has cheaper spells, while the Battle Mage reduces the amount of damage hostile magics do, but most of your army has SOME kind of magic resistence or immunity, so it does not mean as much as you might thing.
Teir five upgrade: Djinn Vizier or Djinn Sultan
Recomended unit: Personal preference.
Reason:
Stats wise there too close to call, the Vizier haveing only one less attack and defense, but 5 more hit points. The Vizier is also 75% magic proof and compleatly immune to air magic while the Sultan is only 50% immune to all magic. but the Vizier pays for it by haveing a less powerful ablity. Rather then blessing or curseing an enemy they can only give allies good luck or enemys bad luck, not a bad ablity, and when it does go off it's really good, but luck will not always go off, but a curse or a blessing will always do something. That said; the Vizier is far more magic proof so I would use the Vizier against heavy magic users, (Demons other Wizards) and save teh Sultans to fight Might armys, (Haven and Orcs)

Teir Six upgrade: Rakshasa Raja or Rakshasa Kshatra (trying saying that ten times fast)
Recomended unit:Rakshasa Kshatra
Reason:
Rakshasa Kshatra do more damage, run a space farther and do more damge, only lacking 5 hit points. Kashatra also hit the six square infront of them, (the two front, one on each side toward the front and the two spaces conecting the two) but lack No Enemy Retaliation makeing them a bit brittle, I orignally had "personal preference" for the recomendaton, but after writeing it down the obscene damage or Kashtra can put out just by hitting two or more enemy units puts it well ahead of the Raja.
Teir Seven upgrade: titans or Storm titans.
Recomended unit: Storm Titans
Reason:
These two have, literally, identical stats and it comes down to Storm caller VS call Lighting. Call Lighting is pretty much just a shooting attack that can be used if an enemy is next to you, but Titans (both) have no melee penalty and can just kick an enemy to death if they get close. Storm Titans on the other hand can weaken enemy shooters, and since enemys tend to cluster there shooters together for protection(at least with the Ai's) you can weaken a buch of shooters and save your army some missile deaths.

Well I hope this guide was useful, feel free to coment bellow if you disagree with me or wish to add some other thoughts and your reasoning in what upgrade you choose.