[Tharivol_Street_Prince]

Essentially your troops have their orders given for any tactical engagement. Those orders, that you set and edit in the army setup menu, will stay unchanged from battle to battle unless you edit them. You set the orders before the battles actually happen, and you change them on your turn according to what you think you'll be going up against.

EDIT: Waitasec, are you asking about the new game? 'Cause my mind blanked and I was typing like I was on the dom2 forum explaining the basics to someone new to the old game.