Agreed, I noticed the same things.

Maybe something like a poison spit attack for the snake in the crevice and a rock throw for the mountain crusher (haven't had the mountain crusher yet, so I don't know whether that's appropriate or not. Just a guess based on the name).

I just had a game where the jungle with the rain elemental dude separated me and my highest rated remaining opponent... General Carridus or something like that. The rain elemental himself was still too tough for me at the time, but I was trying to raise levels by clearing out a few of the armies and running away whenever the big guy caught wind of me (thank you 5 square sight radius). And right through the middle of things Carridus walks a few archer trios, altogether a medium rated army, and he walks right by the rain elemental without getting attacked.