I have to disagree with Portuguese Rebel. The AI can control all its units simulatenously (though usually not very well &#33, but humans can't do this. This can (sometimes) give the AI a big advantage, especially if it's a big, spread-out battle with units all over the place. True, a medieval general could not issue orders instantly to units half a mile or more away. But if you don't, the AI will flank you.... and your units, dumb as planks the poor things, will get slaughtered and/or run off. So even though it's not realistic to command all your units at once like this, I think it's a pretty sensible and fair way to beat the computer. Some kind of intelligent (or rather, non-stupid) unit leaders feature would be nice, but there we are. Even with pausing though, it's still possible to forget you have 300 troops hidden in a forest over the other side of the field

On the other hand, there's no need for this in small battles as it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference.