[Jubala]

Age of Wonders has a pretty good way of solving this. Ingame chat is a godssend during tactical combat in that game. If the other players are talkative of course. The most boring AoW games I ever played where ones in which the other players where mutes. Felt like playing the AI and that's not why I play multiplayer. It all comes down to finding the right crowd to play with which usually goes pretty quick in my experience.