Royal griffins
 

Having read many positive things about them, I couldn't wait to recruit them into my ranks. I think they're a solid troop, but I don't find them especially good for some reason, or perhaps I'm not using them to their full effect. The rest of my army consists of royal snakes, paladins, inquisitors and shamans.

So, I'm thinking of swapping them for black dragons I found on the orc island. Good idea?

Well, as long as you don't lose the dragons (since you can't resurrect them), they'll be a fine addition.

The Royal Griffins are great, but they need some items and some complementing units to help them shine. For example, some items with + physical resistance will help greatly. Then, some items with fire resistance will help, because they have -10% base. Finally, target + Stone skin + magic shield from the archmagi and you're ready to use them properly :)

Well, I use them more of a support or 'surgical strike' unit than a genuine tank. Generally I cast Heavenly Guards on turn 1 and then wait them on turn 2 and select a soft target. Their other ability buffs the Inquisitors/Paladins, so I use that sometime, and their high hp means that you can take some damage with them. Plus they provide a morale bonus for human units, so for me it's win/win/win.

The only downside is the morale problem with Dragons. :rolleyes:

Well, there is no workaround that... However, if you manage to get a game with these 2 items - Slippery Cuirass and Twinkling Boots - the Royal Griffins will soon prove that they are the best there is. These 2 items add a total of 25% physical resistance (if I recall correctly), and you can imagine what a Royal Griffin will do with that much physical resistance. Always retaliates, 25% phys resistance, 50% magic resistance, 220 HP...

Perfect!

I use the same army as you Meta, Inquisitors, Paladins, Royal Snakes, Shaman, and Royal Griffins. I too was also unimpressed by the Royal Griffins but after reading this thread I went out and got me a Slippery Cuirass and Portrait of the King of Griffins and man what a difference it makes, it's like I just recruited an entirely new unit.

I do have one problem now, however, I'm fresh outta Royal snakes; on my last 37 or so, what's a good replacement for those assuming I don't find any other places to get them in the near future?

There are craploads of places with royal snakes. The elven island and Verona surely have thousands of them in stock.

I've depleted the stock on Debris and Verona, I just got a map to get over to Elon so I'll see if I can sneak a few there, for now I decided to go with Horsemen to replace them, but the first stop on Elon I found my first ripe stock of Archmagi and my fingers are twitching to go back to my last save so I can satisfy my hunger for mages!

I just love royal griffins, it is a pity we didnt have them in the Legend, with so many fights against dragons (royals do double damage against dragons). In my first game in AP as a paladin I used them until the end of the game (yes, no dragons at all, I dont think their power pays the leadership cost).

I love Royal Griffins.

Phantomed Royal Griffins has got to be one of the best uses of Mana in the game because the Avenging Angels they summon stay after the duration of Phantom. Couple that with the Griffin buff items + Summoner Magic skill and they're just amazing tanks.

The main Royal Griffin stack shouldn't even do much fighting, such that their stack count is always high in case you want another Phantom of them.

My paladin spent the entire game casting phantom on his Royal Griffins, then both summon guards and even if I lost a couple - no big deal they were rezzed after combat :) Great unit!

The top paladin skill negates the Royal Griffin penalty (gives +2 morale to animals) so for the Grem-pain-in-the-ass fight I used both Royal Griffins and Black Dragons

I found the Griffin portrait in Reha so everybody except my orc shamans had at least +2 morale!