I'm clearing the eastern/western Isles, and just completed the the Griffins Crown quest.

I know it's normal, but this has been a really fun and rewarding way to play-

I split my stack of SHAMANS into TWO different troop stacks (18 each right now) and used all the totem charges/there ranged AOE healing spell to distract enemies and weaken themm. Current troop configuration-

SHAMAN, ROYAL SNAKE, HUMAN ARCHER, WEREWOLF ELVES, SHAMAN


I am sure I could use a better set up, since I'm technically DOWN a stack, but-

As a paladin it's difficult for me to resurrect like I would like to, and access to Inquisitors has been BLEAK. So I keep a reserve of the SNAKES and ELVES to recharge, manually res/protect the ARCHERS, and obviously the SHAMANS totems/ranged/also decent melee. As well as being refilled locally (orc castle).

So what do yall think of splitting a stack into two so you can take advantage of it's powers? SHAMAN seems to work great for this, and I can routinely clear enemies that are match/strong/very strong with only like, 0-30% unit loss to my tanks depending. Good strategy?

Splitting a stack early to make use of their abilities can be a worthwhile tactic early on (when you have limited access to good types of troops), but as the game progresses it will handicap you quite a bit (due to the decreased firepower of basically only having 4 stacks instead of 5). Orc shamans also don't perform nearly as well as the game progresses, as their ranged magic attack can't take advantage of your increased attack/moral bonuses/critical chance that you'll be accumulating as you gain levels and artifacts, and as a melee troop they're pretty lackluster (at least compared to what else is out there).

So as an early tactic it's decent enough, but you'll definitely want to look to change things up as more options become available to you.

Also, you should generally avoid having your front-line units duke it out in a battle of attrition. Use magic and the spirits of rage to control the shape of the battlefield and ensure that you only enter melee on your terms. Also seek out and take advantage of troops with no retaliation (so you don't have to concern yourself with counterattacks), and if your troops have a higher initiative have them wait, then attack and retreat at the beginning of the next turn, basically kiting powerful stacks this way to slowly take them out while avoiding any casualties.