Based on conversation a bunch of us have been having in one of the PBEM games, I thought I'd put this in a separate thread.

These are units that make a Shrine of War (instant Silver Medal Upgrade) a great production choice. Here are the Silver Medals upgrades that seem to be most significant:

Best Silver Medal upgrade:

Elven Tree gains Strangle – This must be a 1.4 change since it’s not shown over at HeavenGames.
Tigran Sphinx with Dominate gains Drain Will.
Multiple Goblins gain Underground Concealment
Undead Death Knight gains Unholy Champion

Worst Silver Medal upgrade:

Archon Saint with Floating gains Water Walking.

In one of our games, Southern specifically chose to buld a Shrine of War in an Elven City with a Secret Glade rather than bothering to make the usual War Hall and Champion's Guild.

This let him build a Treeman every other turn that had the Strangle ability. This was a particularly good strategy for a map with lots of forest (letting them use their forestry and concealment skills) and Strangle is awesome against strong flying units since a strangled unit gets no retaliation attacks while they are stuck on the ground. (And every time they get strangled, the other ground based units get to attack rather than fleeing the battle like usual against a flying unit.)

Gotta give props to Southern for this one.

Most of the Swordsman/Axeman variations get Extra Strike. Basic Archers get a level of Marksmanship.

But none of those are "wow" attributes. Extra Strike is pretty cool, but not for a cannon fodder unit that is just there to die while absorbing retaliations in a battle against any solid Level 3 or 4 unit thirty turns into the game. :)

Archers rule the world for the first twenty or so turns and then they turn into free XP for higher tier units. Especially ones with Block (+5 Def against ALL MISSILE WEAPONS).

I don't think there's anything comparable, that I saw in the patch 1,4 changelog.

However, I do still value it quite highly for units with leadership.