I've posted on Tier-2 unit balance before, and wanted to expand this to all units that I feel need some change after I have completed the unitpedia (again). Please excuse any negativity, since I'm mostly mentioning the weaker units (some stronger ones might come later). The game won't be any less awesome because of them. So I hope everyone gets to enjoy post 1, featuring:
The Hiker - I've considered this unit weak before, but ever since changed my opinion. It only gets +4 permanent stats per round, but the temporary +2+2 item and the great scaling of its Tier1 ancestor make this a great early game unit that doesn't require any buffing.
Verdict: balanced
The Hoarder - In theory this can grant a ton of stats, in practice you can't afford that many items. It scales better in the lategame with upgraded shopkeepers, but is trash up until you've almost won anyway. On top of that, having 2 doesn't scale any better than having only 1.
Verdict: easily fixable by duplicating any item you place on any unit on itself. That way having 2 of them is better than having 1, and you can target the items on the units that need them.
Big Backpack - By my calculations, this one should get +8 permanent stats per round on itself. Horrible compared to other Tier3 buff units that grant up to +18 stats on better targets, and also weaker than his brother.
Verdict: needs a rework, always just a strictly better or worse alternative than the TImetraveller
Overprepped - This unit is actually a downgrade of the Hiker. The duplicate item is better on other units, that use the stats better through multi-attack or similar scalings.
Verdict: should receive the item 4 times
Shop Keep - This unit is bad. You'd have to buy 3 items every single round, to justify not having any other buffing unit instead. Again, having two of these doesn't scale either.
Verdict: needs buff, maybe reduce the price of the first two items bought by 2. That way you'd have more of an incentive to buy items, and with two of these you'd either get 4 items off, or the 2 items are free.
Bargain Seeker - This unit has its priorities completely backwards. First a discount on items (when you need units) and later a discount on units (when you want items). Plus you need to buy 3 units every round to beat the Banker, a Tier2 unit.
Verdict: at the very least, this should discount BOTH shops. Or grant a bigger discount for the first few units bought. Potentially grant you a number of free rerolls every round.
Dragon - Gains +1 stats per gold spent. That's 10 stats per round. On itself, the worst possible target. This shares the spot for the worst Tier3 buffing unit in the game with the Big Backpack & the Overgeared.
Verdict: make it more unique. This could hoard (save) gold between turns. Gain massive attack buffs from unspent gold. Give it 5 range (makes sense for a mighty Dragon, no?) Or simply just increase the buff to 2x or 3x per gold spent. Go all-out, this can have 3x the stats of a Shadow or Piercer without being (more) broken.
Longbowman - Generally range is amazing, but 5 range just isn't better than 3 range. In the first place, before getting a 5 range unit I'd get a 2 and 3 range unit. At that point, you're already pretty saturated with damage and the Longbowman is likely just overkilling the enemy frontline. It also isn't safer than a 3 range unit, because of Assassins and some of its range is taken away by the downside.
Verdict: at least remove the downside. It still wouldn't be my preferred choice, but it could be useful if its upgrades are good. Alternatively give it some bonus damage so it doesn't require buffing to do anything.1
Long Crossbowman - This one suffers from the same range issue as the longbowman. Usually Akimbo just beats it. Also after upgrading it, the 3-range slot is now open, giving the range almost not benefit at all.
Verdict: it's still a decent niche option, but it might be better to rework. Maybe make it a piercing attack that hits the first 3 units for 10 damage or something similar.
Longer Bowman - Still the range issue. It's a decent niche upgrade though, since it hits the backline - something not many units do. The double damage is a nice extra, but not particularly good. At the point where you get this, you should have some massive damage buffs already (or you're overextending items by buffing multiple units that all need attack)
Verdict: usually a waste of gold, but maybe it could find a place in some teams that don't utilize buffing units. Potentially change the double damage to a flat damage bonus.
Sniper - Again, the range issue. This unit's niche however is definitely no-buff comps. In general that seems to be where the Longbowmen are heading. Unfortunately, I do not think that it is that viable compared to Poisoners or Volcano Mages, simply due to the base unit having almost no attack.
Verdict: Longbowmen need a flat attack bonus to make this viable.
Any units from the Adventurer, Money Bags & Archer lines that I haven't mentioned are likely in a good place (at least based on my thoughts), or will be if their predecessors get a buff.