The absolute most important feature that it needs to have is either "counterattacks", or separate move/attack such that  if you land on a tile adjacent to the enemy you can always attack even if you have 0 moves left, but you can't move again until the next turn afterwards.

Without something like this, a unit with 2 moves can forever kite a unit with 1 move.

The next most important feature is spacing, we need some room to maneuver and not start face to face with the opposing army right away.

But, it also needs a bunch of interface improvements outlined to make them easier to manage, as well.

this is possible but would make (in the actual setting) other problems

lets say combat speed and move are separate

so i have 2 move and 5 attack speed

i am able to attack FIVE times with no counterattack?

ok, without moving, cause i moved in the start but that would be SURELY gamebreaking

i mean i run in with   whatever high attack no def unit and throw 5 attacks all over the enemies without any drawback

could lead to a lot of problems, ofc your idea could work with some other settings like a fixed unique attack (no more attack speed) and few other settings

i still think counteratttack like in kings bounty is the easiest, from this beta to a good gameplay

I don't think AOW2 got it right at all.  So many exploits and abuseable tactics, that the MP comm had a pretty large banlist of tactics.

I do agree on the ganging up of units, but all units should be allowed to move 1 sq/turn, if an empty square is open at a minimum.  Also morale should be an issue for the ganging up units.   People should be scared to fight dragons or dire penguins.

OK am i missing something or can you not use magic in combat yet? i had burn unit,  fireball, lighting blast, hurl stone, and some other fire spell and i could'nt cast any spells at all in combat.

But if its automatic it has me cast burn unit every turn.  WTF

Add it to your favorites or attempt to cast it on the Strategic map first.  It won't work, but you'll find the spell available after that.  Must be a bug.

It's only a question of balance. Right now we have units with 40 attack 2 defense, which is beyond "WTF". But if damage numbers get more reasonable in relation to defense, it won't be that much of an issue - since damage rolls are based on rolling damage vs defense.

The current problem is kiting. How it's fixed, whether counter-attack or forbidding moving after attacking or whatever else is mostly a matter of preference and balance. There's no "one way" to fix it, there are several possibilities.

The only AoW house rules for TC I can remember was something about fliers, and not avoiding battle...? Maybe there were more, but the problem was with the unit abilities, not the TC mechanics.

I preferred the way Final Fantasy Tactics handled combat, which also had the advantage of limited stack size.  Not really seeing anything thusfar that could become the bane of the superstack.

That isn't as game breaking as you think, the higher level mods have pretty high defense and hp so you need to make multiple attacks to even dent them. If the current AI wasn't so stupid you lose units like that just as fast as if they had counters.

The real game breaker right now is archery. bows deal set damage and can hit anywhere on the map neither countering or inability to move after attacking would effect them.

archery is something that I think should work like AOW.  Ranged attacks in general worked well in that.

The AoW tac system is still without a doubt one of the best tac battle systems implemented so far. At the moment my big worry is that the current system is just too simple. Whilst I would like to have great animations and sexy looking battles, I would rather complexity and depth, even just depth. Right now, and even with added abilities, it's just too simple. Also, the fact that kiting is so easy is just ridiculous. 

Best Regards, 

Paradoxical

I think this is WAY TOO COMPLEX.

Ready attack is something that shouldn't be seen by the player, even though it may exist. If you're standing and attacked, you retaliate. If you didn't move on the previous turn, you may gain initiative, but you shouldn't have to decide of an action so you'll be able to strike first if attacked. Your units aren't that dumb that they need an order to attack people who run into them?

Charge should be automated.

Counter charge sounds like a pain as it disrupts the clear flow of control of which unit moves when.

I'd also like to point everyone to this thread started by Frogboy.

Ideas to make tactical battles much more interesting:

1) Divide each current tile into 3x3 tiles and multiply movement points of all units by 3. The current tiles are way too big and feel stupid when you only have one small unit per tile. Bigger units like slags should occupy more tiles than one. Even in the current system a slag doesn't fit into a single tile, it should be 2x2 in the current system.

2) Incorporate facing. Attacking from behind gives a defense penalty to the defender.

3) Units counter-attack unless struck from behind.

4) Add abilities such as first strike, which lets the unit counter-attack before the actual attack and assault, which gives a free attack if a unit tries to disengage (move away when adjacent to this unit).

5) No moving after attacking, ever. This prevents all sorts of abuses.

6) If a unit is surrounded by many enemies, it gets a morale penalty (unless has some ability preventing this).

Separating moment and attack would help allot. And make it so that once you attack, you can't move any more.

This way you could still have a high attack speed unit and it would kick ass, just like Sauron  . But after he is done desemating your enemies troops he still has to stand there for a turn. And 1 movment troops still get to attack.

Counter-attack should be an ability that you can teach your troops, or maybe just high enough training gives the tropps this ability. All Soverigns have it, and mobs where it makes sence.

If everyone and there dog gets to counter-attack then it have to be limited to the first attack or something.

Very simple, you can do 2 actions per unit

1/2 Move (if your unit's total move is <=1, moving counts as both actions)

Attack, Combat speed also factors into trumping counter-attack

Fortify; which also has chance for counter-attack on defending

I should like to mention, that if the tactical battles are supposed to be very similar to MOM there are a couple of elements to MOM that seem to have been left out that match up with some of the concerns:

1. In MOM all units DID counter attack. They counter attacked as many times as they were attacked in melee. Lest you think this was overpowered, the main advantage of attacking was the order in which attacks happened. Additionally, there were a few abilities in the game that allowed no counter attack.

2. The main importance in MOM tactical battles was the order in which attacks happened within one round of combat. when one unit attacked another, all special attacks and abilities happened first and did casualties, and then the regular combat happened, and then after taking casualties the defender got to hit back. The order was very specific so breath weapons first, then gaze attacks, then first strike, then thrown weapons etc. One of the main items of importance though was most special attacks only worked when you were the attacker.

The tactical combat in MOM had quite a bit of depth actually but the depth didn't come from the movement system as much as how abilities played out against each other. Zombies were horrible but cheap and completely immune to illusionary soldiers. Those illusionary soldiers cut right through regular units though because they ignored defense values etc. Movement types could be especially important since non-flying units could not initiate combat rounds with flying units unless they had a ranged or throwing weapons, phased units could walk through city walls etc.

If you can get your hands on a MOM manual or especially the strategy guide, there's a lot of good, in depth ideas in there, that are explained in extensive detail. One of my favorite parts of the tactical game was the huge range of abilities and how they played out against each other.