[Demosthenes]

I certainly would enjoy more control over combat, and particularly over my mages.

I think what this comes down to unfourtunately is a conceptual decision on the part of the designers. The amount of control, that is limited control, that you have over the mages is fairly consistent with the amount of control you have over the combat as a whole. I might even say that that is pushing it, and that the mages actually are more flexible than any other part of the combat engine as it stands.

Comparing to MoM, HoMM, or AoW in all of which every unit gets round by round control by the user, Dom2's mages are already getting very special treatment compared to its Inf, Cav and Archers.

I'm not saying that I don't think expanding the spellcasting interface and level of user control is not a FANTASTIC idea. I'm just saying that as it stands, I find the current level of mage control consistent with the rest of the package.