Yes I agree, based on fighting, I should have gone humans. None of our (elven) units have secondary effects right now, not like the war dogs (which even have a great range). They might not have much defense (it's how I defeat them, bating them), but if you can start? I think they do a lot of damage.
Based on stats the elven units should get better than the human ones (like the Ents) but then indeed Mortars will destroy Ents and they are already destroying my Sword Dancers and Archers