OK I have been playing SOW and its predecessor TC2M for a long time. As a matter of fact it's the exact opposite of a micromanagement click fest. Keep in mind, for instance, that the battles are all happening in real time. (there is the option to speed things up a little)
Say you are playing as a corps commander. You can simply order the division commanders certain objectives and they will move and arrange their forces and carry out their orders. You can even give them certain postures (Hold all out attack etc) and they will run their own affairs. IN fact you don't even have to point and click, you can simply call up the courier menu and send a courier message for general to go here or there with his troops.
Now keep in mind the commanders have their own personalities and may end up modifying orders on their own and even implementing their own orders which may or may not fit into your plans.
You do have the ability to take direct command of subordinate leaders and essentially they only do what you tell them so if you want you can do some micromanagement. Many play like this as well. But keep in mind even at the unit level all firing is done by the AI, the regiments select their targets, you don't. The important thing here is that the game provides the option to play however you want, though in multiplayer matches the server sets the options.
One of the main ways people play on line is with HITS mode (Headquarters in the Saddle). This is basically first person commander mode where you can only see what you see and have to match it up against a map that you carry. Almost all orders are given via courier so you cant roam around the map and see what you normally could see or even click on units and given them orders via GUI. It all goes through the courier. In this way teh game becomes a civil war command simulator.
As I said SOW gives you the option to do some micromanagement along a spectrum of using WASD to move your view around the battlefield select individual units move regiments/brigades around select their formations etc, all the way to you are stuck in the saddle giving all orders through couriers.
There are regular tremendous online battles and even campaigns being fought. Typically with these most guys are simply acting as brigade commanders and often using HITS. Intelligence has to be gotten the old fashion way by sending out patrols its one of the most excellent online experiences for a civil war or Napoleonic wargamer. Battle scan have any number of players each controlling a brigade or higher. I have been in battles with almost 20 players. The Kriegsspiel community has adopted SOW as its engine for conducting more realistic kreigsspiels. It's quite a thing. Take a look for yourself:
link
There is a strong mod community which have made excellent free addons , online campaign engines, uniforms, even whole new genres such as Napoleonic, SYW, Crimea, WSS etc. The company has also released a number of addons and at this point I think you can get them in one package for not very much.
It's a good deal! Hope this helps.
Los
bases them up.
