Generic start with scout + barbarians + healers into thugs
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/am2o6xfo98czgr8/Gem.mp4?dl=1

Some evil tricks:
1) Early dark pact spell(some evil events give this) + harpies = fiends in your army. They have innate -morale on hit, add web spell and you can attack unbeatable otherwise sites
2) Harpies on their own very strong units - 3-4 harpies can kill 3-4 trolls, by using web(spell) + agility(their skill)
3) having zombie/skellies in spellbook allow to attack sites with poison units.
4) Ghoul + phantom form = REALLY good combo. Practically, you can cast phantom form, stone skin and let enemies die from disease.
(similar, but neutral version - slug + phantom form)
5) Magician have mind control spell. Dominate someone strong with low resist and cast spell with sacrifice (like summon devil) - killing Hydra or Elephant this way can be devastating.
6) Sorcerer can decrease resist and cast fear. Combine this with scout diversion, T2 necromancy ritual, cloud of fear (T4 spell) and all living units will be terrified. Units with low morale have really heavy penalty to attack. Like executor in Inquisition site after first fear have 8 attack.
7) Barbarians with will for victory medals can achieve something like 30 attack.
8) Don't choose answers which will piss off your peasants. You can execute deputies (-karma, -corruption), cast evil spells, hire evil units and it will be enough for evil karma.

It's still not very clear to me (also because I've never tried being evil) what is the downside for bad karma. High corruption? Unrest rate? Is it really that bad?

Downsides of bad karma:
High morale penalty to good units and morale penalty to evil units if you mix them. This means that you can't easily include fairy or healer into evil army. ( Have you seen "adventurer" guard? Remember how much max morale thief have? 1). Due to this (all healing units have good karma) evil armies usually have problems with healing, especially undead units - they can consistently heal only in army where hero have "necromancy" skill or in army with commander/warrior subclass. He gives regeneration to all units - having ghost or catapult with regeneration very interesting thing:)

high unrest rate in provinces with good races.

Bad events happens more often. Like crop failure, rats... -> population decreases -> income decreases.

Evil lord have lower corruption, because evil answers decrease it more than can achieve Pure lord.

Also one quite big downside to Healers is that they have no range on their heals, they have to be right next to the guy. Tier 2 Monk's can do a much better job but the problem their is that Tier 2 spots are much more useful to have almost any other T2 unit in. Healers also have no ranged defense which makes advancing with the rest of the army a dumb thing todo.

Fairy fix this problem but are kind of tough to find reliably in single scenarios. They can get Healing ability by like level 1 and get add to the ability a bunch after level 4. Give these guys things like Healer medals and they rock. Also that Haste boost right off is so good. They have a sweet 6 Ranged defense straight off. While Fairies do not get the ability to regenerate their shots like Healers do they start with 8 compared to the Healers 4. They do cost 3 gem upkeep instead of healers 1 but to me it's worth it.

Ok thanks, very useful infos as always :)

I just noticed that you have two healers in your party. When do you add your second healer?

I can't name exact moment because 5th slot will be opened on command 2, scout have 3 max, and game gives only 1 guaranteed command on 1-3 level up range. So, technically, you can get 5th slot around 10th level.

Mostly I took second healer because first couldn't get meditation for long time (got it on 12th level)
I prefer composition in top left corner:
scout healer swordsman
swordsman swordsman

lesser amount of warriors - more exp for each.

So that's after 3rd swordsman, right? I believe order of recruitment was more important for KHHill, than precise time.

That's what I tend to do recently when I play with scout.

2 swordsmen +2 healers and later third swordsman is more failsafe option.
Usually I play 3+1 when plan early attack on site with fliers.

Wouldn't it be better to get the 3+1 for the swordies to gain medals earlier? Healers can always gain healing medals easier than your swordies gain their useful ones.

As a failsafe I always make sure my Hero has 1 or 2 Heal spells for seriously damaged units though rarely does he need to use it past early encounters until I start having my Rank 2 guys going out in advance of everyone to gain exp. Like to have my Healer right behind him if safe and have my swordies make a flying wedge to protect it as well as to keep main guy from being surrounded.

When you have 2 veteran swordsmen and 1 novice, you can be sure that enemies will focus novice - he will get medals very fast.

2+2 is good for attack on big free settlements, when you need to heal both swordsmen and damage from ranged attacks.

How do you keep them from slipping behind and killing off your healers though without a solid wall? So many of the enemy Spearmen and even Militiamen have Forced March which takes their speed upto 4. It only takes like 2 hits from them for you healers to die normally.

have some range between swordsmen and healers:

healer space swordsman
healer space swordsman

If you need to heal - use forced march, step back, heal, return to position.