Round table

I’ll share my non-authoritative opinion :)
I rarely play Castle, and not very well, but until recently I almost always managed to get cavalry in Castle with archers not upgraded in week 1, day 1 without a grade. However: the peak/mama are less developed, less territory is scouted, and as a rule, on day 2, week 1 there is little money to buy back troops. Plus the archers need to be upgraded, and they might be far away — it’s not always convenient to bring them back to the Castle.
So for myself I concluded — it’s better to have cavalry in Citadel with upgraded archers and a normal troop buyback on day 2, week 1. Though it all depends on the situation, of course. Sometimes there are cases where I still don’t upgrade.

And if there’s an insane amount of money, it makes sense to think about angels at least in the Fort

Just think about it, nothing more. I never had that insane amount of money in the first week. If I did — still, at most cavalry in the Castle with buying back all cavalry and archers on day 2, week 1. Angels in the first week, in my opinion, don’t justify themselves — someone already wrote that, and I agree.