What group is described more favorably by Homer in the Iliad?

Very tough to say. I think that he tends to show the Trojans and Hector in a better light than he shows the Greeks and Achilles. Pax-C

I'm gonna say that Homer favors the Greeks. Achilles is the central protagonist of the tale and he is the one who truly encompasses the "epic hero" title. After all, there is a huge portion of the story dedicated to telling how Hector, the Trojan hero, runs away from Achilles when called on to pay his dues. The poem opens up with something along the lines of "This is a story about the rage of Achilles..." (A paraphrased quote, I can't remember it exactly). So I wouldn't even say that Homer is sneaky about the side he favored, it seems very obvious textually as well as historically (Homer was a greek, and according to one legend about him, a soldier as a younger man) that he favors Greece.

The differences all depend on which work you compare them in. Virgil's Aeneid is told in favor of the Trojans who went on to found Rome. But in the Iliad some of the obvious differences are: 1) Trojans have the home field advantage but they aren't as prepared for a battle, 2) Trojans aren't expansionist, 3) From what we are allowed to see the Trojans are much more focused on family than country, etc.

It's been some time since I've read it, but Homer is not obvious in his sympathies. Both the Trojans and the Greeks have heroes that are too proud, which leads to their destructions, much like the heroes later portrayed in tragedies of Aeschylus. It would seem the Trojans would be the viallains and are completely to blame for abducting Helen, but blame falls on her.