Hey everyone, I've been playing this game for about a month now. I'm playing exclusively skirmish on Expert, although I have not yet won a single shard on this difficulty level. These days I mostly play with Scout or Commander. Using a solo warrior gets boring after a while and I can't think of another way to play this class as effectively. The Wizard simply eludes me for the time being, but that doesn't belong in this thread.

My problem is that once I have conquered my first and second circle and get to the point where I can get rank 2 units I have no clue which ones to go for. If I can afford it I always start out with Swordsmen+Healer, as they tend to stick around longer than all other rank 1 units. If I don't have enough income in the first circle I will instead use Barbarians or Brigands. With these units I can take almost all provinces in the 1st and 2nd circle. By that point I usually have a granary in all provinces with high income and some +income buildings. My army generally consists of a couple of healers + a bunch of swordsmen/barbarians. This is where I'm starting to have issues.

My goal is to conquer more provinces for increased income so that I can afford high ranked units as soon as possible. At this point I only have rank 1 units so taking third circle provinces is a matter of luck. Instead I try to do some sites within my kingdom to find loot and get more money while building a fort and prerequisite buildings for unit dwellings. However I am thoroughly dumbfounded when it comes to deciding which unit to get first. As a Scout I only have room for 2 rank 2 units anyway, so getting 2 Monks is often a good idea. With a commander, however, I have to rely on my units to take on hard enemies.

I'm ruling out Horsemen and Horse Archers for the most part, because they don't seem to synergise with my rank 1 units. Until I have more rank 2 slots available they aren't going to be so useful. Likewise, I generally don't get monks for my commander, as I always will have healers with experience, while my hero can cast Astral Energy, effectively making monks obsolete.

Out of all the others I can't tell which ones I should be getting. Are there certain strategies they excel at? All the units would fit well in my army except for Assassins, but those are very powerful anyway. Another point to consider is the guards the buildings give you access to. The Shadow Guild is a great guard to place in provinces you have conquered from enemies. All the other guards are really expensive and I only seldomly use them. I have never personally used the Dark Tower so I can't say how powerful or worthwhile it is.

TL;DR: WHICH RANK 2 UNIT TO GET FOR WHAT PURPOSE?!

If you play evil Thugs are often a very good choice. I prefer Asassins these days because i love Agility and i tend to rush for Executioners for the Commander. Also the Assasins add Poison when i need it.
Thugs are solid though, good HP good Damage.
Once i get them i switch my Rank 1 units, either to nothing (except the healers) or to shamans.
The Barbarians then go the second Hero.

For good...well if you are using a Scout Guardsmen to replace the Swordsman works nicely.
Swords go to second Hero aswell.
Function for the Guards is the same as the Swords earlier. They stand around and get hit (they block and tank only).
You need atleast 3 Guards for that to work so you have to keep your best Sword for a bit.
I skip Monks for such a build and go Clerics for Rank 3.

Playing good with a Commander is smt im not good at sry.

I know you said you don't like Horsemen, but I'm still going to call them out as a great lvl 2 unit, and one that actually goes quite well with Swordsmen. The main thing to keep in mind with Horsemen is to not treat them like tanks (their armor is decent, but not enough to really soak up the damage), but to instead use them for flanking and picking off lone enemy units. With charge they can do some great damage and their mobility really lets you control the battlefield. The main tactic I like to use with them is to let my swordsmen (backed by healers) make a defensive line to tie up most of the enemy force, then use horsemen to pick off enemy units around the periphery (where other enemy units can't gang up on the horsemen). They work particularly well with heroes that have the Pathfinding skill, since that will allow them to move freely across any terrain, and on difficult terrain this can be massively useful (the horsemen can really easily pick off enemy units while those units can only move one hex at a time).

Don't underestimate T1 units: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDXv9qk-x9M

For good commander transition from swords and heals into crossbowmen is pretty solid.
Buildable T2 units for this commander are mostly useless, target for spider with web or dryad with roots. (Ballistae can decrease armor per hit, though. but impossibility to heal it through any means other than comm/warrior 20th level bonus makes it very situational)
If you pick strategist, horse archer will become really interesting unit. He can get doubleshot on 10+ level, and pathfinding let them easily focus targets.

For evil side really interesting choice - pick low hp T2 units (harpies, sorcerers) and transform them into demons with dark pact spell(easily obtainable through events). You will get fiend this way, they are pretty strong fighters on their own + decrease morale per hit + commander's bonuses. You can take 3-4 fiends, couple of web spells and scare hydra to flee. There is medal suited for evil side - score at least one kill in battle, where you lost 80% units(not including hero). You can, basically, take mage + fiend +4 slingers, leave slinger to die, then buff fiend and get him this medal. It gives +5 hp +3 morale + 2 attack +1 counterattack. With 3 medals fiend will hit 45+ hp and 20 attack without commander and level up bonuses.

Thug is also solid choice, crushing blow, ^medals, and web/astral energy spells would make something scarier than ogre

Thugs are the best, I think. But in my campaign I play pure good, so I like Horsemen or Pegasi, I do use them as mobile tanks, once they get levels and defense medals they can be pretty tough and best of all, they can just fly back to heal and then advance again. I usually just send them in to the enemy ranks and buff em up with stone skin, armor or phantom form if things really get tough.
But they are not optimal for this job, dryads and spiders are better, but unreliable to get.

Commanders are the class you really have to dual with. All the other classes, with possible exception of Warrior, do much much better as pure classes.

Comm/Scout is quite good so that if you use Crossbowmen Or get the Elven Archers you have very strong 1st rank Archers. Add to this good T2 or T3 units and the Scouts Terrain bonus it's just super effective. However they only get 5 T1 and 2 T2 spells. Also this will let your Hero use a bow if you don't have a good banner.

Comm/Wiz - These guys get 1 each of T3/4 spells which can mass cripple the enemies along with the Resist boost. Although not sure if the Summons/Necros get the stat boosts though.

I think the Comm/Scout would have the easier time beating a Dragon. Since they can get multiple Spiders to Web and Poison it for a long time.

I'll put another plug in for Horsemen. They are damage-dealers extraordinaire when moving long distances, and as long as you don't park them in the middle of a melee and ask them to go toe-to-toe with multiple heavy hitters, they can wreak havoc. They're also great at picking off shooters and spell casters from the other side (who can otherwise quickly thin out your Healer ranks if you're not careful).

I actually like them more as a complement to armies that have a significant ranged component.