Thanks a lot. It seems I have not overlooked anything very important in the interface. So the basic problem is probably not the game, but the fact that I am a control freak.
And what you suggest is basically what I am doing: Using slow motion in the early stages of an SP game, refraining from having full control of more than a few units throughout, letting the rest of the guys get killed, hopefully taking a lot of enemies with them - and playing on for recon purposes, even after I have lost a game. The suggestion with return fire is also a good one, I didn't think of that, it may also be useful in SP, I'll have to experiment with this.
Conclusion: The name of this game is situational awareness.
Another thing: Does this game have a memory leak or something? In SP everything is smooth, but when I am the server in an MP game my computer seems to change to slideshow mode in the very big scenarios (most notable the one with the flares). If I quit and shut down the computer (all the way down to a cold restart) the stuttering goes away and the game plays (almost) as in SP. My computer was built to be well beyond the recommended specs for Empire Total War, so it is not because my hardware is obsolete or anything. Will it help to buy more RAM? Right now I have 4GB, should I put in another 4GB next time I can afford it?
To the designers of the game: A nice feature to implement in future games, if possible, would be either to allow players to organize the troops and give them orders while on pause, or making slow motion an option in MP. As it is now you have to unpause and repause all the time, this is ok in SP, but a pain in MP.
And yet another totally unrelated thing: I have read almost all I could find on the internet on this game, and one critique that seems to be consistent in almost all reviews, is people complaining over the voice acting. I must say that I disagree with this. The broken english in the game is imho very much to the point: The russian guy is speaking english with a very heavy russian accent, and that helps a lot with immersion. The best would be if he spoke his native language, but my russian is very rusty, so I think broken english is the best compromise. I would hate it if a russian company commander begins to speak with a yankee or a cockney or an Oxford accent.
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