The Zealots with Ossir are a special case, and as you know, every rule has exceptions. Everything depends on the circumstances; it's clear that the reds are not a good match against Ossir.
I just don't understand why the red cavalry is bad against Necromancers?
If the Necromancer doesn't position his troops correctly (or if the Knight is just lucky with the positioning), he can hit 2 key stacks (you shouldn't rely on the opponent being a noob, but still...). I think this is a perfectly good replacement for the Paladin's ability.
To be honest, I just didn't think about the Warlock case.
But I prefer magic golems only because of their ability to resurrect using magic. If they end up in the thick of the battle, and the hero plays as a Chaos Knight, you can not only kill enemies but also resurrect the golems.
If a demon finds a couple of artifacts for magic power (I once played with a friend, and he managed to dig up one of the artifacts of Sar-Iss, which increased magic power by 6, the battle was fierce). And the upgrades depend very simply:
Better to have imps, because mana goes to the hero, and not to the Cave Lords (although if the hero has enough mana, you can take devils).
Elders are better for attackers (especially when jumping and under the Blessing spell, with their scatter), but they are simply not suitable for a Chaos Knight, because after 1 jump, they will take a lot of damage in return.
Fire hounds are better for breaking through defenses, again for attackers (although they will also work for Chaos Knights, the difference is not that big).
Temptresses are generally excellent, they should be taken without hesitation if the enemy is not immune to magic and not a Necromancer.
Cave Lords, although they cannot deal much damage to low-level creatures, are very good against large creatures and provide very good fire support to the Chaos Knight (and summoners really hate them, the phoenixes cry).
The upgrade for devils is clearly better for Chaos Knights, because having another stack of cave creatures is a good thing, and for attackers, the alternative upgrade is better, because you can pull out any creature from any artifact and kill it with demons.
1. Only the mana regeneration itself is important. If they can pump mana for a couple of turns without consequences, then black imps. No? Then red imps.
2. Only jumping, retaliation, and someone will remove it anyway. Red imps have a weak ability.
I don't see any connection between the upgrades depending on Chaos. The survivability is approximately the same for all upgrades, and nothing else matters.
I agree, they are weak, but doesn't the fact that they hit everyone on the way compensate for this disadvantage?)
Although... if the enemies surround him and don't let him move, the riders will have big problems, and the regular one will also have a lot of problems in this case.
