Attack - Determines how much damage your units do. Depending on your attack and depending on the defense of whoever you're attacking, you can do more damage to a maximum of 300%

Defense - Determines the damage reduction that your units posses. Depending on your defense and the attack of whoever is attacking you, you can reduce it as far as only taking 1/3 of the loss.

Intellect - Determines the damage boost your spells get(about 10% for every 7 points of intellect). It also lengthens the effect of spells like curses or buffs by 1 turn for every 15 points of intellect.

Leadership - Possibly the single most important stat. Your army strength will depend entirely on leadership. Every unit takes up a certain amount of leadership and the more leadership you have the the more troops you can hold.

Tip - (The best thing you can do for leadership is that once you've leveled up enough that the game starts offering you over 600 or 700 leadership over 1 attack or defense or a bunch of mana, ALWAYS choose leadership at that point. It's just a waste to spend it on anything else. Before that point, don't bother wasting your level ups on leadership as the 1 attack or 1 defense would be way better compared to 100 or 300 leadership.)

Rage - Determines how much rage you can spend on rage spirit abilities. The higher your rage limit, the more you can store for tough situations or for abilities that spend a ton of rage.

Mana - Really straightforward, the more mana you've got, the more spells you can cast.

Initiative - A very important thing to look for. The initiative of a unit determines its place in who goes first or last in a turn. If you're wondering why you're always getting jumped on first, you probably have very low initiative units or you're unlucky and running only into opponents with high initiative units.

Speed & Action Points - Also something to watch out for. The speed of a unit determines how many action points it has, which are used for getting around on the field to actually do something. Every space a unit moves across eats up an action point, so make sure not to waste all your AP running up to an enemy only to find out you can't attack him because you've run out of points.

Gold - Shiny coins. Eventually you'll be carrying millions of these things in your endless pockets.

Magic Crystals - Used for learning and upgrading spells from scrolls. I'd advise not taking from every scroll you find as you'll quickly run out of crystals. Learn the scrolls you find the most useful and then upgrade them. A lot of spells in the game are quite frankly pointless.

Game Difficulty Modes

Important thing to know is that this game's difficulties actually mean what they say.

(If you're going to try Impossible on the first go, a four-leaf clover is mandatory)

Anyways, unless you're a masochist I'd suggest starting with normal and playing hard(or impossible) on a second playthrough. I personally tried to kick off my first playthrough with Hard and got rekt rather hard, but I am a masochist so I enjoyed it.

Class

The classes in this game are pretty straightforward; you have the Warrior, the Paladin and the Mage.

The Warrior - A master of making your army composition as boss as it can be and a master of maximizing your rage potential to allow the more frequent use of rage spirits(will go more in-depth on them in another section). It's also the class I used for my favorite playthrough.

The Paladin - A master of utility and a master of improving all skill trees rather evenly compared to the focus on might or magic of the other two. Tbh, he's not really a favorite of mine, his utility can be useful, but the mind tree is rather lackluster compared to the other two. Though considering you're able to get more might and magic runes via a unique skill of his in the higher tiers of the mind tree, he can become pretty powerful in the middle to end game.

The Mage - A master of magic... that's pretty much it. This guy has a unique skill in the magic tree that allows him to double cast in a single turn. Depending on how powerful your spells are, this will quickly become the most useful skill in the entire game. The downsides are that he's pretty meh compared to the other two on army strength, but really, the double cast more than makes up for it if you play it right. It's the class I'd say is OP(probably why he's used so commonly on impossible).

What you have to absolutely remember is that once a battle ends, any units you lost will be gone forever. You cannot resurrect them or sacrifice one unit for another outside of combat and the only way to replenish your losses is to buy more. Now this is where it gets tricky; the supply of every shop or barracks or what not is limited to a certain number and once you've bought out all the supply, all you're left with is an empty shop.

The key is to preserve your best units as much as possible, via using sacrifice to get rid of useless units to boost up useful units or resurrecting them(depending on which spell you invested in).

And without further ado, these are the units I would consider the best in the game.

Royal Snake - One of the BEST early to mid game units, these guys are seriously awesome. Their speed and initiative are the best in the early stages and their innate ability to never get counterattacked makes them very hard to get killed. They're also able to use a special ability that allows them to attack across one space extra every few turns.

Alchemist - A bit harder to come by than royal snakes, but they are so worth it for early to mid game. They have three concoctions that they can toss across the map, one doing aoe poison damage, one doing fire damage and the last one doing holy damage to undead(also reduces their attack). The alchemist's basic attack is pretty awesome too as it allows you to hit more than one unit as long as they're lined up in a row.

Inquisitor - It's hard not to love these guys. They do a good amount of ranged damage(especially to undead units), they can use their holy anger ability to give a troop constant max damage for a few turns AND extra rage for you to use. And of course, their signature ability that allows them to resurrect a certain amount of troops once a battle, freeing you up from spamming resurrection or sacrifice every time a good troop gets damaged. They're pretty much useful from early to endgame. The downside is that it's hard to get a hold of them early on unless you luck out on a huge supply.

Shaman - I used this unit from as soon as I was able to get it all the way to end game. The greatest boon provided is that shaman totems are perfect distraction tools. Most enemies will go out of their way just to brutally murder your totems, giving your ranged units time to do tons of damage. They also have an axe ability that attacks across the field and provides an excellent heal from the damage caused if you're using units with high hp. And frankly, they have a pretty damn good melee attack.

Necromancer - Rather OP aoe ranged attack, ability to completely lock an annoying enemy unit's abilities and an aoe plague ability that affects all units on the map(beneficial if your army is composed largely of undead). You can also raise both dead friendly and enemy units as undead units that can be great distractions and do quite a bit of damage if you raise a good stack.

Bears(in general) - Even the regular bears are pretty damn useful at start, as they have a fair bit of health and do more damage for being hit. Polar bears are the best ones possible and they're without a doubt one of the best mid-game units. They kind of become inferior in the endgame, but it's still viable to use them if you want great single-target damage and tanking ability.

Evil Beholder - One of the units I like most for early to mid game as they deal tons of magic damage which few have resistance to early in the game. Their signature ability is mind control and boy is it awesome. Takes care of annoying units at the same time as dealing damage to even more units by ordering them to attack a stronger stack of theirs. It also wastes their turn if they survive.

Griffin - Great all around units especially if you're able to find a good amount early as it gives you flight-capable units at a time where they're the most effective. You're able to split them when you're dealing with a bunch of small stacks as it saves you time. They also have endless counterattacks on whoever attacks em instead of the usual one per turn of every other unit.

Knights & Horsemen - Very very effective at mid game if you invest in Iron Fist as a Warrior. Hell, I'd even call em downright broken if used correctly since iron first allows you to stack silly amounts of em. If you're going for an all human army, these guys will be your bread and butter.

DRAGON - Really, it's a fantasy game, how can dragons not be awesome in fantasy games? All three types have their kinks and their weaknesses, but they are without a doubt the strongest end-game units if you have a nice amount of leadership.

Emerald Type - Unlike the other two dragons, they have a physical attack type, which is quite more of a boon than it seems. While most enemies are heavily resistant to fire in the endgame, they're not so much resistant to physical damage which makes the Emerald dragons great against other dragons and demons in general. They also have quite possibly the best ability in the game, an aoe magic blast that not only does a nice amount of damage, but also gives you a ton of mana(more for every enemy you hit with it). If you're able to hit 5 enemies with it, you can regain up to 80-90 points of mana, which is just downright awesome for Mages(you'll constantly be low on mana with doublecast). It's pretty awesome for non-mage characters too.

Red Type - What makes them unique is that they're able to breath fire in a straight line all across the map for pretty massive amounts of damage. If you aim it effectively, you've pretty much secured yourself that fight unless you mess up badly. Other than that, they're rather average.

Black Type - I've got mixed feelings on these guys. On one hand they're flat out awesome damage dealers, since their basic attack is able to also reach one unit behind the unit you're attacking and their special ability is like a zigzaggy version of the red dragon's breathe fire ability. The downside is black dragons are magic immune so healing em is beyond a pain, and unless you've got a decent supply to replenish your losses, they're a bit of a pain to use. On the other hand if you've invested heavily in the Reaper's time back skill, you can bypass that pesky magic immunity. Good thing bout magic immunity is that enemy magic does squat to them too, so there's that.

Honorary Mentions

Royal Thorn & Cyclops - They may seem like drastically different units, but they pretty much provide the same purpose. Both are very tanky ranged units, though cyclops is a bit tankier because of innate stone ability that boosts resistances. The downside is that they're ridiculously hard to find in all stages of the game unless you luck off on a shop with a ton of em. Personally the most I ever found was like 24 cyclops and 41 royal thorns, neither of em enough to really replenish losses.

Dryads, Lake Faeries & Sprites - The thing going for em is that they like Royal Snakes do not get counterattacked. You can make an army out of all 3 along with Royal Snakes if you really hate getting counterattacked. Major downside is that they're ridiculously weak against fire and become a tad ineffective in the end-game stages(especially against dragons that roast em).

Archmage - Some folks swear by them, they have a decent ranged magic attack(that can be boosted even further with an ability though it also lowers your defense) and an ability to buff the defense of a unit. They can also move units a space back or forward or wherever using telekinesis, though I wouldn't call it a very useful skill. They like beholders become less useful against magic resistant and immune enemies, but unlike beholders they don't have really nice mind control.

There are 4 rage spirits in all; Zerock, Sleem, Lina & Reaper.

Each of them have 4 different spells that each have a different variety of effects, rage costs and rest time required afterwards. The max level for all the spirits is 30, which means there simply won't be enough level-ups to upgrade each spirit's spells to the max. The best option is to pick your favorite spell or two from that rage spirit and focus on investing entirely in them.

Zerock

Smashing Sword - It's the pure single target damage spell of Zerock and it also does double damage to mage enemies. Other than that it's not really very useful, as the aoe damage spells like Underground Blades will serve way better in 99% of the situations.

Rockfall - The main downside of Rockfall is its extremely short aoe range until you upgrade it. The damage is also rather mediocre, so only expend levels into rockfall if you're going to invest in it.

Stone Wall - Flat out useless unless you're going for a very defensive army composition. I would only suggest investing in it if you have 4 or more ranged army units so you can delay the enemy units.

Underground Blades - Hands down the best Zerock can give you. AOE damage that affects every enemy unit across the battlefield regardless of where they're located(so you won't friendly fire yourself as you would with rockfall). When upgraded to the max it does an obscene amount of damage for as little as 40 rage required, so yeah, invest in it!

Sleem

Poisonous Spit - A bit like Smashing Sword in that it's purely single target, but different in that instead of double damage to mages it creates a DOT effect that does a fair amount of damage every turn.

Cloud of Poison - Possibly the best of Sleem can give you as it does obscene damage as long as you use it across a large amount of bunched up enemy units and as far away from yourself as possible. The cloud also moves so you can't always predict where it goes(could go straight into your own guys if you use it too close to them). The sweet sweet damage is worth the risk though.

Glot's Armor - Flat out useless to invest in... period. Even if you're going for a defensive build, there's no point to invest in it other than just getting one level of it. The upgrades just boost the damage it absorbs and not very highly at that. The most useful part of this spell is that it's able to mitigate one attack completely(even at level 1), regardless of how high the damage is.

Evil Shoal - A pretty decent ability in that the aoe shoots in a large cone area in front of where you're aiming. It can be almost impossible to aim if your units and your opponent's units are pretty much all interlocked with eachother, so the best use is at the start of the battles. The downside is that the damage it can do, even at max upgrade, is rather mediocre compared to the Cloud.

Lina

Chargers - Great stuff if you're planning to invest heavily in it, beyond mediocre if you're not. At max upgrade it creates 6 orbs that restore 10 mana or rage each, sweet if you're running low on both.

Gizmo - Likely the best Lina can give you if you invest fully in it. At max it does great damage, decent healing, removes enemy buffs and removes curses on friendly units, reduces AP of enemies and increases AP of friendly units. It also lasts around 4 turns.

Ice Thorns - Meh, way too similar to stone wall. Can create decent chokepoints so there's that.

Ice Orb - A bit of a mixed bag. The longer it charges across the field in a straight line, the more damage it does. So if you're able to have it go across the entire field, it is quite likely the highest amount of single target damage in the game. It's also pretty nice for distraction purposes, like a more tanky shaman totem. It sadly has a ridiculous rage cost when upgraded too high though.

Reaper

Rage Draining - SO GOOD. There is no downside to this spell at all. It does a small amount of aoe damage, but the main boon is the rage you gain from it. At max upgrade it gives you about 35 rage for basically free. I always invest in it as you can't go wrong with more rage.

Soul Draining - It can be pretty damn awesome if you're willing to invest in it. At max it can eat up to 50% of a single unit's army strength. As you can imagine, it is best used on large stacks.

Time Back - If you're going to use Black Dragons or just don't like sacrifice & resurrection, this is the spell for you to invest in. If your unit takes a ton of damage in a turn, just smack him with a time back and he's good as new(or as good as he was in the previous turn).

Black Hole - It's a BLACK HOLE, so yeah, tons of damage.

(Kinda like this)

The most damaging aoe in the game other than that crazy Armageddon magic(though that thing damages you as well). It also spends a TON of rage, especially at max upgrade. If you're going to invest in having lots of rage, this is the ability for you to love. If you're not going to go for high rage much, it can still be pretty good as long as you don't upgrade it past 55 or maybe 70 rage cost.

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A helpful tip is to always use as much rage as possible so it doesn't go to waste(you lose rage as you run around not fighting). Leveling up the spirits is dependent on using their stuff, the more you use em the faster they level. Just go nuts.

Each class is attuned to one skill tree. Warrior for Might, Paladin for Mind and Mage for Magic.

Whichever tree your class is attuned to would always grant you more runes for that specific tree and 2 unique skills. The Might and Magic trees in my opinion are the most useful. Mind is mostly just utility, which while nice, doesn't provide many substantial benefits compared to the other two.

Might

Training - Rather useless unless you're going to use those abilities religiously.

Rage Control - Boosts your rage limit, should definitely get sooner or later.

Combat Readiness - The protection bonus only works during the first round sadly, so it's not really worth it unless other side has lots of ranged units or very fast units.

Master of Spirits - No brainer I'd say, your rage spirits become effective way faster.

Bowmen Commander - Nice if you're going to use archers all the time, but considering that the best ranged units aren't even archers, I've never invested points in it at all.

Frenzy - Get it. More attack never hurt anyone(well anyone you cared about).

Tactics - Both ranks of it costs quite a bit of runes, but it's rather worth it for the positioning. The first rank lets you move your units around on two lines of your end of the map, the second rank boosts your line space up by 1, allowing even better positioning before a fight.

Nighttime Operations - I always invest 3 ranks in it since night is half the timescale.

Onslaught - Useful if you've got the runes to spare.

Dark Commander - If you're going to use a largely undead army, get this ASAP.

Unique (Warrior)

Anger - It's just so GOOD. At third rank it boosts your rage generation by 100% and unless you're never going to use rage spirits at all for whatever reason, there is no reason not to max this out.

Iron Fist - As I mentioned in the Army Units section, this skill can make your knights and horsemen rather broken at mid game and strong endgame. Essential if you're going for an all human army, but still damn useful if you're just going to use one or two human units.

Mind

Scouting - I always get just 1 rank in this, though if you like what it does feel free to up it further.

Glory - Basic leadership boost, not really all that worth it unless you've got extra runes.

Learning - First rank increases xp gain by 10%, further ranks increase only by 5%. Not really worth it to rank more once considering you'll most likely reach max level soon enough anyway.

Trophies - Entirely useless. You'll have more gold than you know what to do with sooner or later.

Reserve - I consider it the most useful skill in the mind tree. Allows you to keep 1 or 2 units in reserve(unlimited numbers of em). You can replenish your armies without running all the way back to a shop or just exchange units that'd be more effective in a specific fight.

Trade - Pretty much the same as trophies, though maybe even more useless.

Diplomacy - It can be nice in very specific situations, but considering those situations are few and far apart, it's not really worth investing runes in this unless you're lucky(or unlucky).

Keeper of the Light - It's basically a mix of trophies & learning, but only limited to when you defeat the undead or demons, so even more pointless.

Tolerance - If you're going to do a mix and match of undead/demon units and mortal units in your army, this one is pretty much necessary. Without it, your units will take morale hits because of the presence of demons or the undead in your army(and morale hits are really painful).

Inquisition - If you want to use inquisitors, you will want this without a doubt. Trying to find inquisitors in shops or castles to recruit is really quite a pain unless you luck out with a huge supply early. With this skill you can just upgrade your regular priests to inquisitors for a small fee each.

Unique (Paladin)

Holy Anger - At rank 3 it boosts your army's attack by 15 whenever you're fighting undead or demon units, which is a rather big boost tbh. No reason not to get it if you have the runes.

Runic Stone - This is what makes the Paladin truly stand out. Each rank gives you 10 might and magic runes for 10 mind runes(which you'll have a ridiculous surplus of soon enough anyway). So yeah, you basically get 60 free runes, what's not to like?

Magic

Wisdom - Simple and useful, boosts mana by 10 and scroll limit by 2 for every rank in it.

Meditation - Just boosts your passive mana regen when running around the map. The rune cost is rather cheap, but I never really bothered ranking it up much.

Order Magic, Distortion Magic & Chaos Magic - These skills determine what spells you can collect from your scrolls depending on the type of magic. By endgame I generally have all 3 of em ranked out(you need it maxed out to upgrade your spells to level 3) but it isn't really necessary if for example you don't like the Order or Distortion magics. The rune costs are rather pricy though, it's bit of a pain.

Concentration - If you're running out of mana a lot, you'll definitely be wanting this. At max rank, you'll regain 6 mana every turn while in combat, which means you'll never really run out completely.

Healer - If you're a fan of the healing magics(especially resurrection), then definitely max it out.

Archmage - Considering it reduces the leadership requirements of some of the best units in the game(shamans, inquisitors, necromancers, archmages), it's likely one of the more useful skills in the entire tree. Of course if you won't be using any of those units, it'll be a waste of runes.

Necromancy - While I wouldn't call it useless, generally the returns you get after battle will be negligent unless you completely invest in it(even then it's only about 30-40%)

Destroyer - Get it ASAP. It boosts the spellpower of all combat spells by 50% at max rank.

Unique (Mage)

Alchemy - If you like using lots of different spells and upgrading em, this skill is pretty much mandatory or you'll run out of crystals rather fast. At max it reduces crystal requirement by half.

Higher Magic - Last but not least, possibly the most game-breaking skill in the entire game. At max rank, you'll be able to double-cast 3 times over a single battle(and considering most battles end at turn 3-4, you'll be able to double-cast pretty much every turn). With high intellect and spellpower boosts from skills or items, you'll probably be able to wipe out half of the enemy army with two well placed consecutive spells, and that's just one turn. In short, you're flat out nuts if you don't get this.

And that's all the core stuff covered.

I planned on making a spells section, but considering the sheer amount of spells, it'd be an enormous pain. Besides, the spells are rather intuitive most of the time, so it shouldn't be all too diificult to see which suck, and which don't.

If you're looking for an extensive walkthrough of the game or maybe just help on an annoying quest(King's Bounty has a lot of em), I'd suggest taking a look at GameBanshee[www.gamebanshee.com]. It also has a nice database for items, spells, etc. if you're interested in looking something specific up.