Crossbowmen get the slayer perk, so are good for taking down monsters, warmachines, and especially flyers, I like having one to take down the goblin zeppelins in one shot.
Pikemen(and by that I assume you mean halbardiers/royal guards) are superior defensive troops because they deny your opponents units the charge bonus when attacking them, foot knights are more vulnerable to orcish riders, madz, etc charges.
Incidentally, if you can manage to do it, getting peasants to level 5 before upgrading them makes them better light/heavy infantry. Such a leveled unit of light infantry has as good stats as heavy infantry, but is much faster... however it does lack the charge protection. Makes awesome pikemen too. You can customize very much to your liking too(choices like various terrain bonuses, universal +1 def, segmented movement, ford seekers(always!), etc), and the fifth perk, the whole reason for leveling them to 5, should be people's rage(which gives -1 def +5 melee, this is like pikement with mail armour, darenhalle blades and heavy halberds, all in one!).
And I like light cav... just make sure to make them trail seekers on lvl 3 and ford seekers on lvl 5. They have superior movement compared to scouts, making it easier to hit and run with them, and generally move around... they're weaker though, both offensively and defensively, and they aren't invis...
I also use both my freebee warmachines, as they end up quite powerful, sure they do need babysitting, but I find that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. I don't use them every mission(I skip them when the terrain is unsuitable), but often enough. In any case they're miles better than the orc warmachines due to superior movement, so I only use the one spear chukka... I don't use the alliance warmachine at all, as elvish archers are so much better(they get range 3 AND slayer).
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