Well, when you're facing powerful enemies and you're playing with a tank, things change. You will want that tank to survive long anough for your other units to deal with the rest of the enemy army. In that case, shield is paramount. Your tank will last twice as long with it, and with target, all other enemy units will attack it (as long as they are not lvl 5).
So far this tactic works wonders for me. I do lose units, but selectively (only the ones I can replenish in the same area), and because I'm not so keen on making 80 round battles to ress my entire army. Having emerald dragons as a tanks, 2 types of fairies, archmages and inquisitors drops down pretty much any enemy now on impossible, even if they are strong/very strong. I also have dryads and hunters in reserve. No ancient ents though... not a single one to recruit in my game so far.
I am tempted to try a multi-thorn strategy, drop the dragons and the archmagi and use thorns from the dryads and the royal thorns to act as a meat shield... It will be interesting. Now at day 6 in the death valley... things start getting rough.
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