I usually go for crossbowmen + pikemen for defending them + healers to patch them up, then add a few swordsmen and if lucky monk in the mix, along with a scout/archer who takes care of anything big enough to cause damage. By mixing troops of the same alignment, your troops get a morale bonus, thus it's best to use multiple troop types instead of only one.

I'm going pretty similar, but for now bowmen/crossbowmen - former are great for eliminating enemy mages and later deal armorpiercing damage with support of swordsmen and a pikman or two thrown in. Swordsmen have superior ranged resistance and pack pretty nice punch. Sadly pikmen are only useful because of their first strike ability.

Also please mind that using barbarians will get you worse karma (they're listed as 'unscrupulous' which pretty much means 'close to chaos') and, most importantly, they have really weak defense.

Healer is of course a must, but without 'meditation' - ability which lets him regenerate his 'healing points' - he is pretty useless in long encounters. At least he gets XP every time you use him on wounded unit, so it's best to let him act first.

I use Barbarians,too. They deal lots of damage, have high HP and even get some DEF with a few levels. The last few shards I went from evil to dishonest,neutral,clever,merciful then wise mostly using barbarians, so they arent that evil. Just dont summon chaos creatures or raise dead people.

But they still incur a morale penalty when in group in any lawful unit, right? That means both crosbowmen, swordsmen and pikmen will be a bit weaker (and I found out that after 15 morale points they get really nice boost to their skills... and below 5 is 'pretty doomed' level). So either barbs and bowmen in the back or some other combination.

Although I guess barbarians can be used with shamans, which aren't that bad.

Good point, their morale isnt as high as it could be, because you have to take a healer with you, but other than that healer, I used only barbs.

1 Healer and the rest are Elven rangers,
as soon as I get the alliance with those uppity toffee-nosed stuck up Elves.

If I don't have an alliance I go for the Bowmen.

If you can get the alliance Elves are the best Tier 1 unit hands down. However, lacking that either Swordsmen or Barbarians, I'd say. But it's somewhat situational too. Pikemen can be great against some units like Horsemen (or cannon fodder against things like Trolls, where their First Strike ability lets them get that last hit in before they die). And simple Spearmen have mobility (2 moves) and one Javelin, which can be very good, and are cheap as they go for fodder that can still pack a punch.

In my last shard I used barbarians first, then pikemen. I used a line of pikemen to protect my scout, they never attacked, just defended, since their counterattack is much better then their attack. Along with my fighter they served as distraction, staying behind him, otherwise he would run out of stamina too soon and get in trouble. I didn't use a healer, but will do next time. Swordsmen don't look that good to me, and bowmen/shaman either. Elven bowmen are the only ones I'd invest money for. Might try dwarves too.

I like skellies and zombies. With high necromancy they heal extremely fast after battle, skellies absorb ranged physical attacks like pros and zombies have plenty of HP to take hits. With points in necro+summoning they summon at high level too. You can be summoning level 9 skellies/zombies on a level 6 wizard if you go for those 2 skills exclusively. They overpower tier 2 guys quite handily and are very easy to replace. Upkeep is cheap, though it is exclusively crystal so you will probably just want to use them on your necro-wizard.

bowmen - since my first shard i only use those - in early battles a spearman for tanking but later on if my army gets bigger pure bowmen

well now that i have rank 2 units available that changed of course :P

The best army is a single, uber-levelled warrior, seriously. If you solo provinces with him, he racks up exp real fast, and after you get decent gear and a few protection spells, he becomes unstoppable. Normal troops just steal part of the exp and then inevitably die with it, while soloing warrior saves you also recruit costs.

The only thing you pay for is gear repair. I had 20 lvl berserker with 19/16 att, 13/11/4 def, with a bardiche that had first-strike, so anyone wanting to attack first had to endure a big whack across the head - nothing more funny than a knight that charged against me, only to change his mind riding around inconspiciously, because he realized that attacking would mean insta-self-kill.

The only thing that stopped me was a dragon.

I like Bowmen for their range but I find they lack punch against armoured opponents unless they have armor piercing and/or extra fire damage. Mixing it up with crossbowmen can help to balance it out. I use Swordsmen exclusively as infantry to hold off the hordes until my ranged units can shoot them down. They have a nice ranged defense and good counterattack, especially with the Commander's skills. A healer really helps recovery early on when you don't have much time to recuperate.

Yeah but the question was what *tier 1 army* you like to use best. Heroes don't count ;-)

Me? Mostly bowmen or swordmen. Sometimes I'll go Pikemen and Healer, or Crossbowmen and Healer.
I don't see *any* point in using Militiamen once you get out of the Tutorial Shard ever again, or Slingers. I'm sure there's some use for Brigands and the like, but for the life of me I can't see it (Reduced income = Do not want)


*edited to add* Inevitably die...? Isn't that a bit harsh? =)
I provideth you with a screenshot of my uber-leveled swordsman that was with me for 320+ turns and outlived and outleveled every hero on the shard ^_^

Level 27. Highest hero was mine, and wasn't even 20. Don't ask me how it happened, because I don't know - and have yet to get a common unit above 10 again (Closest I've come was a gargoyle that hit 12 before falling to a Ghoul-Spamming Commander)

Militiamen unlocks both the cheap Militia guard and with Spearmen the Light Infantry Guard. Both options for cheap guards you can afford to place a lot to help with random events or sudden riots. But the unit itself - no I don't see the use past the first turn at least.

Brigands and the like - well Thieves (and Assassins in Tier 2) are good units with Agility (no retaliation). And the guards are very strong for their cost, so if you had a strategic province with low income it could be worth it. But I'll be honest - I never use them either, because there are other buildings I want with the limited 4 I can get in Tier 1.

That is absolutely awesome. I managed to get a Gargoyle to level 17 (and two medals) - he was virtually invulnerable, so if I had cared to grind levels instead of finish the Shard I guess he could have kept rising. He was still below my hero though.