How often do you use the Pause button?

[M.T.Cicero]

I'm a 100% Chess player, I pause for all sorts of reasons. Usualy to give simple orders to each and every unit on the field leaving them with minumum chances to screw things up in the fashion only AI is capable of. Sometimes for much less tactical reasons such as simply to admire the beautiful bloodshed and utter havoc on the field without hurrying around yelling with my cursor at the brainless morons doing all but the most logical thing. And I feel no guilt for that. And Toranaga, sry, nothing personal, I'll just quote you line by line since you made such a nice list of things I want to mension.

Pausing is a Cheesy tactic, to which the AI is not capable. End Story.

AI is capable of giving an infinite amount of commands in a milisecond.

A human player has such a HUGE inherent advantage versus the AI, the notion of pausing is simply a case of *piling-it-on*!What

I've always found amusing, in the pre-RTW days, were the players who might state or complain that the AI, the game, or whatever is too easy.... All the while they're just pausing away.... Seems sorta oxymoronic...

Similarly, for example, how could RTW's AI be so *unchallenging* IF you have to use the Pause button? It's OXYMORONIC!!! Though, given the present state of RTW's battle *speed* settings, one could be forgiven. (No one s/b required to smoke crack in order to keep up with an unbalanced and poorly designed (battle) game.)

It's not my fault that AI is totally moronic and can't put up a decent fight. It's CA's fault. It's enough that I give the AI hundreds of thousands denarii during the campaign so it actually raises something better than Easterner Infantry and Principes for me to fight. Now you're telling me that I should help it in the fights to. Maybe it would be best to just let my army stand still the whole battle so maybe once in a while the comp will win. Nobody HAS TO use pause to win, but if you can why not then when it helps?

There's nothing "Arcarde" about NOT pausing.

Arcade means that you take more interest in the action part than the tactical part so yeah I suppose you're right. The only kinda arcade element of no pausing is that things are faster and more dynamic but that is also in a way more realistic (aside the fact that gamespeed sux).

I've also found those so focused upon the *historical* to, also, play in a contrarian state. I mean what's *historical* about pausing?

I mean, really, did Ceasar, Alexander, Patton, Gregarian, hit the Pause Button when things got tough?.

No, they took a nice 5, 10, 15 miuntes or half an hour to think about the situation and then did the right thing. Without pause I have half a second to make the move, I mean what's *historical* about that? Of course. some decisions have to be made fast but pause won't save you from those anyway.

*OMG! I'm about to be flanked. PAUSE. Click; Click; Click; Click. UN-PAUSE. Crisis OVER. The AI is in deep dodo. I win.

In reality the "OMG! I'm about to be flanked." part goes through the brain of those men on the field who are about to be flanked and they do something about it on their own, they don't sit nice, still and tight waiting to be slaughtered, if they are not given a direct order from the head general himself.

One day Campaign Multiplay will, finally, be a reality, when it is, Pausing will be exposed for what it is. There will be no Pausing when playing a real human being!

Sure, in MP all of the above is nill, the 2 players are completely equal, both are limited by the speed of their fingers and their brains and they both have equaly stupid soldiers under command so there is really no need for pause.