The Standing Orders battle system strikes a balance thats rare in general, but even more rare in such a complex genre: it feels streamlined and accessible without sacrificing any gameplay depth. Central to the players concerns are movement and each units context-sensitive passive and active abilities, all reliably tapped out on sparse radial menus. Many special attacks and abilities have to be carefully engineered; a cavalry unit can execute a deadly feint if its sitting next to an enemy and has open ground behind, while rank-and-file swordsmen can become a defensive wall if multiple units are linked together into a column. All enemy and player commands are interleaved in turn order during a Battle Phase, with attacks and counter-attacks happening automatically as units smack into one another. To ensure that a particular unit lands a blow, the player has to check turn order carefully and make sure his or her squads will move out and make contact before the target gets a chance to reposition.
You might go in expecting lots of swords-and-sorcery trappings elemental affiliations, area effect spells, etc. but Ravenmark dodges that fantasy trope by shifting much more weight onto the process of maneuver. The rarity of magic in Estellion makes for less eye candy, but this is a decidedly refreshing approach to the genre that I very much appreciate. The player has to take care that his or her units dont get flanked or even blocked by enemies in the next turn, and wheeling behemoth columns around becomes dicey on uneven terrain or if the battle becomes sloppy. Waiting a turn, or even moving a unit differently than during a previous attempt, has major repercussions on how the battle will progress the player can use this to his or her advantage if a particular set of enemies proves tough enough to demand a retry. If a hero unit goes down its automatically Game Over, but the player can manually restart the moment things begin to look sour.
One very important gameplay facet not mentioned in the preview is the fact that the player has a limited number of Command Points to distribute among units during any given Command Phase. This reflects the limited command resources a medieval general would realistically have; you cant talk to everyone at once! That might sound like a downer, but worry not this is actually where the Standing Orders system gets its name. The player can stretch his or her command resources by telling a unit to do something, and continue to do it in successive turns at no cost until instructed otherwise. For example, a unit or formation can be instructed to press onward, pursue a particular enemy unit, or remain at rest to recover a few hit points.
