Discussion of level 1 monsters.

In my opinion, dwarves are practically useless, even at the beginning. Their slowness is very detrimental to the army as a whole, and to themselves as well. At most, they can withstand one hit from stronger monsters, and they are probably only suitable for protecting their own units from enemy casters. Since the criteria for evaluating monsters in this topic have expanded from "the most powerful" to "the most useful" (please note that the criterion of "power" is also included here), I would only highlight berserkers and fairies. The strength of a large group of these guys was clearly demonstrated to me in some online battles, and unlike probably all (except skeletons) other first-level units, they can last longer than one round, withstanding a couple of powerful attacks. And fairies, due to their speed and retaliatory attack, will definitely land at least one hit and not die after it, so you'll have to spend one turn destroying them. But in general, in my opinion, it's not worth taking first and sometimes even second-level units into the army for the final battles.