I just posted a lets play of warhammer shadow of the horned rat and it was often times quite frustrating, still I enjoyed it & I would recommend it if you REALLY liked warhammer dark omen (SOTHR's sequel). Dark Omen is way more polished than this game.

A few noob tips / brief starter guide / stuff I wish I knew
• you waste a ton of money on units that you pick but that aren't even used if you don't encounter enemies so load game if you picked a bunch of units but didn't fight anyone. Or if you paid for too many units. TRUST ME you need that money. It took me a little while to figure this out. This is overly harsh and unforgiving as you already pay a retainer if units are unused, but if you pick them & they are STILL unused then why not get a refund & just pay retainer?
• you REALLY need to grind to level up your mages to get new spells. Once you've mostly won slow the enemies down with curse and bait them then pound them with spells.
• save your game when its between a choice of Loren, or dwarfs (Zhufbar I think) then all the elf missions are impossible but there is at least 1 magic item (see guides). It's very important to save though because you may not have enough money to sustain later if you attempt these missions.

if you don't wanna play & would prefer to watch then checkout my new let's play / long play ;) ...(youtube GodzScrtAgnt or AbundantLifeCorp

Although I managed to beat the SoTHR (heavily basing my strategies on great guide by stratifier, which I've found on GameFAQ's) I must say that these are very important tips.

Saving money by choosing smallest possible number of units is very useful. I'd probably run out of gold halfway through my campaign due to losses if I didn't do it. Just save before a patrol or other mission, and if it turns out to be an ambush, just load and change the unit selection.

I can't stress enough how important leveling up the wizard is. When Allor has Thorns and Flock of Doom, he can devastate half the army on his own. I only wish the hunting spear was nearly as effective as in PS1 version. It's pathfinding on console is immeasurably better, and it doesn't get stuck and/or hit your own troops as easily as on PC.
Just look on the video below. This guy makes the orc shaman on wyvern look like a joke, while on PC most of the time you couldn't even target him with the spell and he would just slaughter player's units as they try run away from him!

youtu.be/Pagrp-Aj4iQ?t=294

Most of my experience is from the PS1 version too. Im pretty sure they used Dark Omen's game engine for it, and it almost seems like Warhammer 1.5

Yeah, that pathfinding of the spear is terrible onPC. Whenever the spear connects with your own troops (and this happens often) it decimate them (so it is time for restart), but when it hits the enemy it does OKish damage only. And don't remind me about that goddam shaman. Took me so many attempts to beat that mission. It was basically matter of luck and little that a player could actually control.

The game is brutally difficult in the first part before going to dwarfs. But then it gets substantially easier. You have more troops, which get also more powerful, and more gold.

MY TIP: There is no shame in replaying the mission if you took "too much" casualties. And note that "too much" can be a small number given that there will be times when you don't get reinforced for a couple of mission straight...

- Play defensively! Its better to kill enemy regiments with archers, artillery, or magic, then let them melee you. A lot of times, enemy regiments will break under concentrated fire, before they reach your formations, making it so that your hand to hand regiments are not overwhelmed or forced to take heavy losses.

- If you have nothing else to fire on, have your archers fire on retreating enemy regiments. The last thing you want is for them to retreat behind you or to your flanks, and then decide to rejoin battle.

- stay out of range of enemy artillery and when possible, archers, until their hand to hand regiments are dealt with. Utilize the sides of the map and any cover in order to approach enemy artillery with minimum casualties.

How long am I required to minimize losses and save money? What's the point the game gets easier and I'm allowed to make mistakes? Because reloading missions over and over again just to save a couple guys gets old quick.

One of the missions in Zhufbar is the last time you'll have really wanted to have not lost a regiment. Before that, Ceridan can die in every mission he'll take the field since he always comes back. He's not really good for much besides delaying an enemy regiment briefly.

You can sacrifice the Carlson guard regiments since they''ll leave after shattered pass if they're still alive.

At Zhufbar you'll get a dwarf regiment that's pretty good that you get to keep the rest of the game and at Nuln you have the option of picking up 2 infantry and a cavalry regiment that can replace lost regiments.

Your archers and artillery should never face heavy casualties. Playing defensively and breaking or severely weakening enemy regiments before they engage in hand to hand combat is the only way to win in the missions where you're severely outnumbered without unsustainable losses.