Test games played

[Arnuz]

Well, orcs aren't slow. Sure, their early units don't have any extra stats, but they are cheap to maintain and don't have a resistance penalty so they are playable at least until the high growth enables the hordes or wyverns.
(also when playing Orcs you probably aren't building around your units but around being able to build every building with the best growth that type of race has.)

But that they have the same maintenance as every other unit in the game: half food. The money doesn't matter at all when these things matter. Could their units have 1/5 food maintenance as special bonus?

For Dark Elves, Cavalry might be able to take the same role as Horsebowmen on Nomads albeit I haven't tested. If not they they will need a new unit indeed, or just a buff to the ranged attack on the early basic units.

Not enough ammo and not buffable. Doesn't work. Please no more ranged attack. How about the apprentice early caster 10 unit?

[Seravy]

Caster 10 is too low to actually cast most common spells in the game.

[Kaiku]

Interesting mechanic I wasn't aware of. I have Evil Omens, and every turn Jafar threatens to kill me as long as it's up, and Rjak won't ally because of it. It makes sense, of course, I just didn't think such an effect was in the game. Really nice.

Also, Merlin is holed up in his famine'd, pestilence'd, evil presence'd capital filled with behemoths and heroes. Not sure how he's paying for their upkeep, as he has 0 mana.

[Seravy]

Fortresses produce power, that should be enough for at least a few behemoths.
Heroes cannot disband for unpaid upkeep because that would destroy items.

[Kaiku]

Tried a game on expert with Channeler, Archmage, 9 Chaos and Nomads. No specific reasons, just want to try things I'm not familiar with.

Didn't go well. I had a poor start, on a corner with a lot of ocean. Spammed Hellhounds, but they were unable to take any lairs. Made two settlers and sent them to good locations, but I hardly even had the gold to buy Sawmills, so they didn't grow fast. No Granary/Farmers Market also quite hurt. Three other wizards started on Arcanus and felt my continent to be a terrific location for new settlements.

So with hardly any progress or accomplishments after two years, and a lot of competition, I'm pretty sure to have no chance and will start over.

[Arnuz]

Caster 10 is too low to actually cast most common spells in the game.

Which is good!

• the unit can remain cheap
  
• it's still able to cast some iconic spells: web, drain life, holy armor/w, resist magic, firebolt.
  
• it can have low cost requirement buildings
  
• it becomes less useful afterwards but gives plenty of flavour to a race that is supposed to be magic expert
  
• it makes sense to bring one of them with a stack, for buffing, not to do a mono unit stack
  
• it can also use focus magic and be able to cast more expensive spells
  

What's not to love?

[zitro1987]

Caster 10 is too low to actually cast most common spells in the game.

Which is good!

• the unit can remain cheap
  
• it's still able to cast some iconic spells: web, drain life, holy armor/w, resist magic, firebolt.
  
• it can have low cost requirement buildings
  
• it becomes less useful afterwards but gives plenty of flavour to a race that is supposed to be magic expert
  
• it makes sense to bring one of them with a stack, for buffing, not to do a mono unit stack
  
• it can also use focus magic and be able to cast more expensive spells
  

What's not to love?

I like this.

[Seravy]

Well, the primary question is, is it useful enough to lose another unit? If yes, which one? Spearmen? Swordsmen? Not a fan of losing either.

We probably want at least 12 or 15 MP though, which also adds

Aether Sparks (12)
Fairy Dust (12)
Immolation (12)
Star Fires (12)
Cloak of Fear (12)
Heroic Shout (12)

Phantom Warriors (15)
Fireball (15) - speaking of which casters always know this spell, even if they can't cast it.
Healing (15)
Heroism (15)
True Sight (15)
Black Sleep (15)
Wraith form (15)

...I think for a cheap early unit, 15 might be a bit too good mainly because of Fireball, but 12 is definitely needed. We can even regulate which "15" cost spell we want by setting the MP to 14 and dropping spells we want to include by 1.

...if we drop both the Swordsmen and Halberdiers and add this unit to replace swordsmen and a stronger caster (30?) to replace the halberdier, that might be good. Would be weird to have a race without those basic units though.

[Domon]

i dnd concession i'd make for dark elves would be a drider unit. that could be your advanced caster.

[Nelphine]

Persomally I'd go 10 caster specifically to avoid the spells you mention (especially heroic shout!), and make them replace swordsmen. Make the standard unit for the race a caster, but only with the most basic spells.