On round attack:
Costs only 5 points and is not that effective if you don't have high damage or lightning/cold strike, but is good for several reasons, namely:
1) Allows hitting all adjacent units EXCEPT the primary target once. Primary target gets hit twice.
2) No retaliation from enemy units.
3) Allows circumvention of first strike, which is a big bonus when coming up against titans, high level AI heroes or large numbers of pikemen/spearmen
I usually take round attack for my heroes at some point, but not right at the beginning, because it isn't very effective at lower levels unless combined with special strikes. I tend to use it mainly against hordes of level ones to weaken them so they only get to hit once before they die. Round attacking typically inflicts low damage even if the damage stat is high and the second strike against the primary target doesn't hit too often, but when it does, the results are rather devastating. I once saw an enemy orc warlord take 11 points of damage from a round attack strike from a hero of mine (dmg 6 or 7+holy champion). But all in all, having extra strike, charge and holy/unholy champion works far better as long as you have parry and decent defense. And when you go after superheroes, it's usually something far different than round attack that carries the day, such as boosted up nature elementals or the entangle spell or hordes of goblin darters as a preliminary or some such thing before the main hero goes in, so I wouldn't sweat too much about it. On the other hand, if there are flying rings on the map, it's a different stoy entirely...
As for parry, it and wall climbing are without exception the first skills I take for all heroes when they level up (when playing with Triumph Rules, Warlock's Rules have a different price for them). Parry allows an effective defense of 12, since it subtracts 2 from the attack value of the opponent (against the first blow) instead of boosting defense. Wallclimbing = no need to lug siege engines -> 'nuff said.
Edi