exacly, my alchemists sucks in melee and their bombs are not so fantastic (they're hard tough but it's not enough) so I prefer Beholders or Evil Beholders than Alchemists.
Royal snakes are BOMB if used properly. Check this tactic by sector24 in his topic:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthr...t=royal+snakes
//type scorch earth in search of your browser
I use them this way and some variatons of mine and they're lethal as hell this way