Fortress units, continued

Serpent Fly/Dragon Fly
Attack: 6/6
Defense: 8/8
Hit Points: 20/20
Damage: 2-5/2-5
Speed: 9/13
Movement: Flight
Cost: 220/240
Special Abilities: Dispels enemy's beneficial spells/Dispels enemy's beneficial spells

The serpent fly is a typical fortress unit: weak. The serpent fly has low offensive abilities, but has enough hit points to last a few attacks. Unfortunately, surviving two blows instead of one doesn't do you any good if you can't mount an effective counterattack. Armies composed of the fortress town's level one to level three creatures are probably the game's weakest early game army. The serpent fly is useful because it gives you much needed speed. Otherwise, most of your units are too slow to attack first. You need the serpent fly's speed advantage to get off a useful first spell, usually haste on your basilisks.

You should upgrade to dragon flies early so you have an undisputed speed advantage, since the dragon fly is the fastest of all units until the sixth-level efreet sultan. Dragon and serpent flies do have one useful ability: their attack dispels any beneficial spells on the stricken enemy stack. Divide your serpent or dragon flies into two stacks. You can thus neutralize the magical enhancements on up to two creatures and also retain your speed advantage even if one stack is destroyed. You can also thus engage up to two enemy ranged units and run interference so your basilisks and gnolls have time to rush up to the enemy. Fortify your flies with defensive spells so they can last longer.

Basilisk/Greater Basilisk
Attack: 11/12
Defense: 11/12
Hit Points: 35/40
Damage: 6-10/6-10
Speed: 5/7
Movement: ground
Cost: 325/400
Special Abilities: Petrify opponents/Petrify opponents

The basilisk is a surprisingly effective fourth-level unit, good in speed, offense, defense, and hit points. It also has a petrification ability that proves useful, although it isn't nearly powerful enough to compensate for all the other weaknesses of this town type. Both the basilisk and greater basilisk have a 20 percent chance to petrify opponents with the same results as medusae (frozen for three rounds, suffer 50 percent from first attack, unfrozen after that strike). The basilisk to greater basilisk upgrade is pretty significant, with a slight increase in attack, defense, hit points, and speed. You should upgrade the basilisk at the first opportunity. This unit is also inexpensive. In any other town, this creature would be a worthwhile purchase. In the fortress town, it is a necessity. You also need to bolster its strength with spells like stone skin, bloodlust, and haste to make it truly powerful. All these spells should be available even at the fortress mage guild.