Ok, some more thoughts after playing a longer game (bout 7-9 in all schools of research so far).
Castles - they're all nice, but a couple lower quality/cheaper choices may be worth it.
Any thought to adding 25-50% poison res? Might make them too powerful, but you figure many of them have poisoned weapons...
I still rarely recruit anything beyond med infantry, skirmishers to use up spare resources and very rarely miners when I have a tough nut to crack.
When I am EXTREMELY flush with cash I'll pick up 25-30 of the flying guys for a glaurung strike force. 28x50=1400gp for a very routable unit...can be devastating though. Set them to attack archers right off the bat, everyone else to hold/attack and they do a bunch of damage and usually flee. Unfortunately picking up the pieces afterwards is a chore with them being magic beings.
Not a fan at all of the scion of sirrush - way too expensive and limited. Not enough slots to be a good thug, bad research, way too expensive (again), good immunities, but I'd rather have a 3E sorceror for the variety. I MAY purchase enough to finally get a 4E (for 5E w/boots)...but doesn't seem to be worth it.
Still don't recruit a lot of rangers unfortunately...spies rock, but research is king. I think MP would be much different though.
Still haven't recruited a firelord for some reason, so no opinion.
Warchief's rock - primarily the 80 leadership. the summons is ok, but not amazing either way (could be nerfed/buffed and I don't think it would make too much of a diff).
Summoners rock, yet a bit niche. Went nuts with them this last game - 15 in a province, quickly got some nice flying strike forces. The flaming guys are better, but the ash wyverns are nice en bulk.
Sorcerors are great, really wish they were sacred though
upkeep hurts after awhile.
waterborn are good as well, rarely purchase, but nice not having to need a temple/lab.
Blesseds. Love em and hate em. I WANT the 2W and 2N for site searching. But that leaves me with tons of 1W and 1N or 1W1N guys just floating... so 140g for 3 research. Not terrible, but not great either. Luckily they're sacred. I must have really bad luck. I thought it was a 10% chance to get a bonus, but I had to have 40 of the buggers around before I got 2W (had 2x2N in the meantime).
Scion of Glaurung - rocks. Flying rocks. Flying with good leadership is better. ...with the ability to cast 2 great spells they rock even more. The sacred summons is a bit pricey, but those guys are tough... even 4-8 at a pop are good to strengthen the line. Flamecast rocks my socks off. Difficult to thug (easier than sirrush), but I generally use as a leader/caster anyway. Well worth the cost.
Summons
Ascendant - rocks, expensive but very nice.
Cursed - meh, didn't impress much. But think are good for battlefield summons or if you really need a size 3. Hmm... just looking at the icons above, I was getting striders as a summons when using the cursed spell.
Ancient Gargoyle - one thing I haven't summoned yet.
Dragon Ancestor - er, what's the point? Might want to add 1 path of something. Is this just an equivalent to a telastic animation?
Draconic Demilich - COOL! Very expensive, but real real cool. Haven't used much yet, but the options look real impressive.
Heros -
Got 2 of the strider guys, didn't use them much. Seems like they'd make pretty good thugs.
I got the summoner - if that thing had about 30hp it would make a very kick butt thug. Those are some cool abilities. Summons are very nice as well, 1 mapmove made me not use them though.
Haven't got the rest yet
Pretenders
Still haven't used the dragonstone - still don't get it, will try later.
Dracolich - still like it alot. Lack of change shape is tough if using as forger/caster (lack of slots).
Spells - love em!
What is castigation of sirrush supposed to do, doesn't seem to do anything.
All farsummons - great! I use it more for reinforcements then ambushes, which I think goes against the theme...still great.
flamecast - rocks!
er, is there a listing for the rest of the spells? I have the new mythology installed so get confused which spells are which. I'll remove the mod and check it out in a bit and edit.