[Edratman]

I found that this is like a paper/rock/scissors game. Whenever I think I've found the best unit, it usually gets chopped up at some point by a counter strategy that I was oblivious to.

So how can you truly judge a unit? Some are merely good by themselves, but really trick up well with buffing.

Personally I love the rare, but strong independent mages that cover magic paths that I don't have. That may because you cannot tuly buy or make them, you have to get lucky and stumble upon them.

But think the correct way to answer your question would categorize the units as:
1. Very strong
2. Good
3. poor
4. Too expensive for what you get
Even with this, units change relative strength from early to late game. A prime example of this are mages. Without much magic research, most of them do not contribute much early and what they can do requires mundane troops to keep them out of melee. However, by the late game 4 or 5 of the right mages and the right spells can devestate a 500+ army.