Quote Originally Posted by gardibolt
Real generals don't have a pause button so I don't see why I should.
I think that's a very false analogy, which a lot of people seem to fall for.

In a game like RTW, as often as not you have mere seconds to make a decision before the battle is over one way or another. Real ancient battles typically lasted many hours, sometimes all day. It's just wrong to imagine you are having a more authentic experience by avoiding the use of the pause button.

Also in a real battle there are many brains at work. Unit commanders generally know what to do and will do something sensible. In a game like RTW your brain is the only brain your army has, it's pretty silly for example if you end up losing a battle because you failed to switch a unit back into phalanx mode before it was charged or something.

Apart from that, there is the appalling unreliability of the interface in RTW, where grouped commands are hopelessly bugged, and where units frequently ignore orders completely or go places or do things you didn't order or intend them to do. For me, the pause button is mainly a tool to avoid the frustration of struggling with a clumsy interface when I want to concentrate solely on my tactics. I don't want to lose battles because I couldn't manage to click on the right unit in a bunch, or because I didn't double click quite fast enough to make the unit run, or because the camera scrolled too slowly from one flank to another.