Swords are awesome, I use them all the time, as they stay alive when the cheaper units get massacred. What I can't figure out is how to use cavalry without getting them slaughtered. I'm really not a fan of the suicide-style "zerg rush" technique, I prefer to keep my soldiers alive and not spend gobs of resources rebuilding them after every battle. Yes, the cheap units work, but you need thousands of them. :-p