My sympathies to those who can't get the game running. I can, just about, and I've got a question about what to do after shattered pass.

I vaguely remember there being a couple of battles that you can fight right after shattered pass, one of which involved trolls. I can't seem to get them to show up. I'm also not getting a chance to reinforce after SP before having to head for Zhufbar or Loren. Was it ever thus? I've had very few casualties but still enough to be a real pain.

Also, screw that sodding shaman on a wyvern (you all know the mission I mean). Still reloading to get a playthrough where all the following conditions are met after the first 20 seconds or so:
* Rock lobber doesn't autokill a unit
* Winds of magic more than 1
* Allor gets hunting spear(s) off in great enough quantities to kill that freaking shaman

Sometimes the gods of the dice favour you, sometimes they favour the enemy.

The enemy artillery often has very long ranges, so take that into account for your plans. It can be worth sending a raiding party to take them out ASAP. The worst are those gliding goblins which have unlimited range. You either soak up the damage or you take them out first thing.

Winds of magic is pure luck but its amazing how often it feels personal. With good winds of magic and a good selection of the randomly awarded spell types Allor is one of the best units in the game. If you learn the quirks of the game it can help with the aiming and churning out of spells too, IIRC.

Nothing beats that impossible player bait mission with the endless trolls. You can get a fantastic magic item from it that can tip many a battle, but facing endless trolls and almost certain death is the price. As for reinforcements and events unfolding I do remember that it depends on paths taken beforehand to an extent. I'm going by memory from many previous playthroughs until GOG get this working properly. Certainly the units you have the chance to recruit and maps you fight on change depending on routes taken.

To reach the Troll Valley mission choose to go immediately to Loren with Ceridan, instead of going to Karak Hirn after Shattered Pass, there are three ways to proceed once you get to the Grey Mountains: The Troll Valley, an Orc encampment and the Vermin Burrows of the Skaven. There are magical banners and potions of strength in all of these three scenarios. I zoom in with Ceridan, Morgan and Allor and nick them then flee and fail the mission, it costs gold but you get some nice loot and a little XP.

When you've failed one or more of the three (made to be impossible) missions you will still have the chance to join with the Dwarves of Karak Hirn and go to Zhufbar.

If you really want more winds of magic then press the control key when left mouse clicking on Allor's magic button, a notification will pop up that you should left mouse click accept and spell points will increase one per second from top to bottom over and again. Makes Allor even more OP however.

The Orc Shaman will always come after the Grudgebringer Cavalry it seems, so positioning helps, if the GC run to the left the Shaman may go left around the trees while the rest of the Orcs go to the right as usual.

This section is brutal; not letting you replenish troops after Shattered Pass hurts badly, and the combination of units being splatted by the lobber and your troops fleeing from the wyvern combine to make this part incredibly frustrating to get through. I've tried the stage over and over but to no avail.
Edit: Finally won. That was the bloodiest battle in the game so far.

What finally worked; had everyone retreat out of Rock Lobber range except the Grudgebringer cav; send them to the west side of the map to try luring the orc units there. Then I hoped for two bits of luck; Allor would get 3 magic, and the Wyvern will rout when Curse of Anraheir is cast on him; if you cast it when he's close enough to the border he'll flee right off the map. It turned into a giant hand-to-hand fight at this point. Ragnar's wolves got badly chewed up charging a unit of six or so black orcs, who managed to kill half the unit. The Dwarf warriors did really well, taking out eleven orcs and only losing one. The Black Avengers took losses but fought bravely; the Grudgebringer Infantry did surprisingly well, and Allor was, as always, the star of the show by decimating units with Flock of Doom.

I really hope I get reinforcements after the next battle (which thankfully looks fairly easy) because my units have been badly chewed up.
Apparently not. I fear I'm not going to get any new troops until Nuln or something. The Carlsson path seems to be a death trap.

The Black Avengers remain one of my very favourites from SOTHR (and still fondly remembered them while playing Dark Omen).

Some players prefer the Carlsson path and suggest it as the optimum, others prefer to make a fast track to the Dwarves and ignore the rest. Different play styles and preferences with maps. Remember that it is really important to get experience up for units. The difference between a zero XP unit and a maxed out one is insane. They really do become elite troops by the end of the development chain. I managed to max out the Black Avengers and get their armour upgraded once. Awesome.

Ok have I missed something, can you select what spells alor starts with? I've never managed to get flock of doom by shattered pass, if i get him 2000xp by then they usually give me tangle thorn as his 4th spell :(

I thought which spell it gives you is linked to the map he levels up at, but I may be wrong!

I've always liked the Black Avengers, too. Poor armor but it gets fixed at Zhufbar, leaving you a big unit with the same combat stats as the Grudgebringer Infantry, and better Leadership. They're also really useful when you're fighting Skaven. It's possible to have Allor almost single-handedly win Orc Pursuit (it's probably possible for him to do it alone, too); this gives him tons of experience--enough to gain his first spell and as long as you feed him kills he'll easily have all of them by Shattered Pass. If you get a bit lucky with Orcs not routing easily and the Dwarfs not killing too many and got him some good Experience in the previous stage, it may be possible for him to get both spells in this stage.

Basically, have Ceridan and the Grudgebringers hide in the southeast corner and deploy Allor in the northwest. Have Allor snipe off the enemy units with Hunting Spears and use the charge button every once in a whlle to stay ahead of the orcs--make your way east at this point, because the Black Orcs on the east will march for your two units in the southeast. Have Ceridan move north to intercept them then get Allor nearby. Once the orcs defeat Ceridan they should lock onto Allor, since he's the closest unit. Try to bunch the orcs up and continue sniping them. In my case I had the cavalry ride out to kill the Arrer Boyz, but if Allor has the Shield of Pthlos it may not be necessary as arrows rarely seem to hurt him with it.

I imagine it's possible to get unlucky and never learn Flock of Doom. In my case he gained it after "Against the Grain", so if it is based off the level he gains the spell at try to get him to the 2,000 in that stage if you're taking the Carlsson path--in fact, he can probably win it alone, too. He can outrun and snipe the advancing units and if you got Tangling Thorns it can lock down one of the Arrer Boyz to stop them from shooting.