Underestimated? That has to be the most popular pick.
I'll bet alchemy is more underestimated. Most probably pick it for the magic weapons but that's just gravy. The massive production boost you can get from shunting magic over to gold early on is considerable. It's also handy for those emergency situations where you need mana before a big fight. I frequently combine it with warlord.
Underestimated race? I'd say lizardmen. Javalineers are fan-freaking-phenomenal and you can build them very quickly. Unlike other strong ranged attackers they're also quite potent at melee so you'll never have one of those "aw-crap-9-skeletons" moments like you do with with longbowmen and slingers. And no, you don't BUILD CITIES with lizardmen. You take other people's. They are a raider race designed for quick build-and-conquer. You can capture high men and build paladins 300 turns later. In the meantime you can take an 8-stack of javs and grab all the towns, nodes and dungeons at your leisure.
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