Hi, I've been trying the demo out and like the game so far, but I am on the fence about getting it. The strategic elements of the game and the variety of magic seem really fun, but the tactical battlefield part of the game is a mess when you want to do anything beyond it's basic capabilities.
Basically, my complaints revolve around around certain tactical options which are available in other games which reduce the complexity and need to micromanage things (and therefore allow you to have more fun
). The basic battle formation I've worked out in Dominions seems to be infantry in a line down the front, cavalry on the flanks attacking archers or the rear, and mages and archers in the back. While it's not too hard to manage this with an small homogenous army, as you get a larger, more diverse army with more mages and commanders, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep things organized. I could mention a lot of things I'd like to see improved, but I'll stick to two main points for now:
1. Is it possible to get your troops into a line formation short of breaking them up into small squads and lining them up in a row? The square formation might be okay (but not optimal) for certain units like archers, but it sucks for melee units when half of a large squad is simply sitting at the back waiting for the guys in front to get killed. (If you've ever seen any History Channel documentaries about ancient battles, you'll noticed that armies were usually organized in rectangles, not squares.) It would vastly improve gameplay if you could get your troops into a line formation without micromanaging them into small squads. Also, this would make it easier to use expensive and difficult to produce troops effectively.
2a. Is it possible to get your troops to advance in formation without extensive micromanagement? I've noticed that all units rush in at top speed, which is bad when you have some infantry that moves faster than others. What happens is that the faster infantry runs in and gets slaughtered by the enemy while your slower troops are struggling to get into position. Basically, I want my squad to operate more like a coherent squad. Part of the solution could even be something as simple as adding an option to put a "speed limit" on the faster units within a squad.
2b. I suppose it is possible to fix this through micromanagement and splitting off the faster infantry into smaller squads and putting them farther back, that would be another annoying exercise in micromanagement. What's more, it's unrealistic to rush in battle like this. Maybe you'd expect this from a barbarian horde, but not from a professional army. What are you paying your commanders for if they can't exert even the most basic discipline over your troops?
So to sum things up, I would really like to see options for putting your troops into line and rectangle formations and an option to tell them to advance in lockstep rather that each unit charging in at top speed. I have a few other thoughts on possible improvements, but I would also like to know if other people have encountered similiar problems with managing the battlefield. Also what improvements to the tactical engine do the developers have planned?
Any chance of improving tactical engine?
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