After playing for several weeks now this is what i have figured out for my well advanced armies....

For my main commander army i like first row all swordsmen, second row balista and at least two pegasi, third row catapault, fourth row elephant and catapault.

Warrior army - pretty much same as above.

Archer hero - first row swordsmen, second row pegasi and guardsmen, third row catapault, 4th row elephant

Wizard - such a dooshbag, never been able to get much of an army here, i just use the best melee units i can get and hope for the best!

For tougher battles i usually swap out for 'green' units, take my losses then reinstall my valuable experienced units. but i never take green catapaults into tough battles unless i have plenty of money to spare!

Some enemy armies are just too hard to put down with ranged units, either because of sheer toughness or because of their excessive ability to take out my ranged units. so i might arrange a 'muscle' army

If i am really desperate, i will even throw away an entire hero army to soften an impossible opponent before hitting them again with a second more powerful army.

Wow it seems I am so in the minority with almost never bothering with Commanders.

Wizzies for life. Starting with summoning or necro though is an auto reload for me as those 2 suck and force you evil.

At first i did not think much of commanders either, but then i learnt what they can do with the right equipment and spells .... specializing in 'party' effects, they rock!

IME They work best on the big shards (as 2nd hero) because you have the time to play a long term game.

I would have to agree, but only because they make flags much harder to find than other melee or ranged weapons. Making good flags readily available from the start would fix that problem.