I'd sure like to see a thread listing all of the upgrades possible with the officers patent. Early in the game it's hard to know which units you can upgrade without buying a bunch and seeing if you have enough to make them into something different.
If there's not an upgrade thread yet, maybe we should start one?
Things I know:
Thorn Warriors --> Royal Thorns. You need 50 thorns for one royal thorn
Priests --> Inquisitors or Witch Hunters. I didn't write down the exchanges.
Swordsman --> Guardsman. I haven't done this in a while but I think it was 2 for 1.
As you can see, my memory isn't very good, hence the need for a good writeup.