Hi peeps. I'm thinking one of the major weaknesses of tactical combat that has been mentioned is how you are unable to setup your troops formation. Most tactical battles i've done my units are just bunched up together within one part of the screen with no apprent order. When I've had an army that gets big and face a decent sized enemy force sometimes my units even end up sitting next to the enemy on their side of the field. Supposingly the last part i mentioned is a bug, dunno tbh.

The point is, if stardock are going to revamp tactical battles then we will need to be able to setup our army's formation for battle as well. I suggest two methods for this; An army screen and in-battle formation change (at start of combat). The army screen should be similar to MOM's. it would combine everything to do with army setup; champion equipping, displaying unit stats in full and allow players to select a formation pre battle. An in-battle formation select would be similar to what you see in totalwar, only usable at turn 1 of the fight before anyone can more a unit. I personally think having both options present in the game would give excellent flexablity. We could create a standerd battle formation for most fights (Sparing players the pain of constantly arranging yets per fight) and yet on special occasion alter the formation at the start of a combat if the situation requires it.

For formations to work properly a tactical map must have clearly defined starting areas for both opposing forces and only within those areas can we freely place units. That pretty much sums up my suggestion. Thoughts anyone?