Harmony - Troop Symmetry

On the contrary, the Elves as a faction turned out to be cohesive and logical. Again, the discrepancies with the later version of Ashan are Ashan's (Ubisoft's) problems, not the game itself. :)

But I understand (although I don't agree) the desire to adhere to the canon; I simply don't care much about the plot and Ubisoft's further attempts to develop Ashan. Gameplay and its consistency are much more important to me. I base my decisions on these criteria.

In my mod, by the way, the Elves are implemented as a faction with an emphasis on initiative and defense (i.e., with weak damage). However, this is not justified by the land, and having a double set of tank infantry units at the top (Ents and Treants) would still not look very good. Therefore, I suggested that if dragons are to be included, they should only replace the Ents – this is logical, as two units, especially of adjacent tiers, should not occupy the same niche.

Yes, I completely agree, but the difference here is this:
Ents will be used more often as defenders – they will have the ability to protect allies (I confess – I borrowed the idea again from Heroes 7). This will be in the form of protection from arrows, among other things. Dragons, on the other hand, will only be needed for attack – they will not have the same level of initiative as in the original (14), but they will have immunity to slowing (justified by the connection of this caste with the element of earth, to which Emerald Dragons are immune) + acid/prismatic breath is still there. In addition, the unit will have regeneration and will be very strong in itself, so it can be sent into the thick of the battle without fear. Light Elves, on the other hand, lack such a unit – in the original game, almost all of them are very initiative-driven and have good abilities as attacking units, but they die easily. So, we have two tanks: one will protect a specific ally (e.g., archers) or protect all allies from a specific enemy (by ensnaring a dangerous enemy unit), and the second will be purely offensive.
The Phoenix will receive the rank of an initiative-weak unit (after all, it is a bird) – well, regarding the "weak" part, that's debatable – rebirth hasn't been canceled: D (I think 40 HP will be enough for it at level 5)