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!