I'm not against that, but as soon as people start going "and if you press this button" I start thinking of Battle Realms.
For anyone who has not played it, it is a great game set in a chinese/japanese/fantasy/magic kind of thing. Its got a viriety of units, but a population limit of maximum 40-50 (I cant remember). It makes up for this by giving units more abilities. Eg: Archers naturally stand back in battle, shooting at the enemy, but can whack enemies up close with his bow. Also units that are "infantry" sometimes have ranged attack as well,Eg: the dragon warrior can shoot a magic blast at the enemy, but only if he has to, he prefers to fight with his sword. You can be more flexible with your arrangement, maybe you want to put your Dragon warriors behind, because your enemies army is weak to magic? Do you want to sneak your archers into their rice field on there own? It can mean that different units in your army can have many different roles, Fan Geisha behind can heal your units, but put them in front and you have got a stronger front line.
I like this flexibility, but I dont want aom to be too much like that. Archers behind, infantry in front, simplicity itself but no more boring in battle if you want distrction.
Another thing, all this "press this button" stuff is exactly what Battle Realms is about, Units can be given Battle Gear, which is a skill or weapon the unit can use when you want it to. A button apears under the unis picture, which you can press to activate it. These can range from a one hit glass sword that kills an opponent in one shot, but hurts the unit that uses it, a force field which protects the unit for a lengh of time but slowly drains stamina (running drains stamina too), or fire arrows that can set a building on fire. There are tons of them, all for different units. But it means that you spend your time switching them on or off all battle, "switch on fire arrows Now! to get those wolves, oh damn my dragon warriors sheild has run out...."
Great!, but Its not Aom style, If they want large epic battles then pressing units buttons is not the way to go, If you are constantly looking at unit stats, then you cant have any fun seeing your enemies die. Theve got it to work in Battle realms, sacrificing more units, But Aom is about big epic battles with Mus trashing the place with their human friends.Oh, and cool GP's to make the battle cooler.
There, I have had a ramble, feel free to ignore it. I could go on for longer, but Ive got to have breakfast.
SNIPPETS OF A CAFE CHAT:
Hey hi, damn, where is my... ...fridge, y'now, its been playing... ...with his nailclippers! I didnt know what to... ...weed, cos' i'm not a gardner, unlike Old... ...cushion, now it was... ...a bit soggy, with all his diarrhoea... ...experience with the theoretical side of... ...cats, oh they are doing... ...dancing with his best friend! now I would like to... ...grasp by the hilt you see? Anyway better be... ...going to lose his socks, silly... ...frog. Cya'...