best hero/race

Without a doubt a Human Pyromancer leading dwarves are the best race for a general fight. I also like Dark Elves simply for their Blackguard (My foes were always sorry! )High Elves are good for naval battles. No matter what though, a high level Pyromancer will anihilate all.

So what? Your archmage will be the only survivor. Kiss the rest of your forces and towers good-bye.

My personal favorite are the High Elves. They may not be strong in battle but their dragons rock!

All heroes are devastating at level 25 and above. If your hero cannot go face2face with a titan at level 30, you just threw away a lot of your gaming time.

The very best hero is the one achieving his full specialist advantages early in the game, say at levels 6-10.

Dark Dwarf Merchant is my favourite hero, leading, of course, masses of golems and siege machines, shadows and wyverns.

At level 7 I think, you have a merchant skill of about 20, plus 25% discount on all golems and siege machines, the backbone of your armies. You basically produce golems at the price of goblins. Plus, with your mines full of engineers (they count for two), resources flow steadily at the proper rate. Lastly, the race is well balanced in terms of resources dependency. You don't depend mostly on one resource, like minotaurs, humans or undead. Building golems with stone, shadows with crystal, siege machines with metal and wyverns with gold you can amass a mighty punch to your enemies. My favourite tactic is RAMPANT, for they can withstand hand punishment before falling, and having the hero around converting mines (just in case, put shadows "guardian" the hero).