MP Captain

[Callum]

Lead your own detachment of troops into battle in this team-based PvP game mode. Control the battlefield to demoralize the enemy team or annihilate their forces to emerge victorious.

Players:​	6 vs 6
Avg. Playtime:​	20 minutes
Rounds:​	Best of 5
Round Time:​	5 minutes
Objectives: ​	Kill all enemies or deplete the enemy team's morale or have the most morale when the round time expires.
Troops: ​	Select your troops wisely according to your team's needs. Troops counts are determined by troop strength.

Please leave all feedback relating to the Captain game mode in this thread.

 

[Silen]

The fact we still can't choose which unit to target as in any basic strategy game prevents me from enjoying, and ever playing this gamemode. I made a thread about a long time ago which is now buried in the Beta section, not sure I should even bother to repost it though since I'm certain it won't be considered.

 

[Caps]

The fact we still can't choose which unit to target as in any basic strategy game prevents me from enjoying, and ever playing this gamemode. I made a thread about a long time ago which is now buried in the Beta section, not sure I should even bother to repost it though since I'm certain it won't be considered.

just charge in the last second?

 

[Silen]

just charge in the last second?

Unreliable for infantry, doesn't work for cavalry, and archers will still fire at the lesser threat for no reason.

 

[Chris Patrick]

Up u go gab,

Btw. I really like the game mode but it would be nice dunno if it will come or not or might just be on private servers but to choose a lager number of players like 12 vs 12 or increase the troop count and so with it comes to increase the map area.

Somehow I still dislike the flag capturing I mean I see that u try to get the moral thing in there but at the end its all about who's last standing.

Might be good as well to implement a voice chat for better teamwork.

 

[Nantafiria]

So, currently, I have played captain mode from just-about launch until right now. More than single player by a mile and a good couple dozen hours. I've compiled a whole bunch of thoughts on the matter, and I'm going to be listing them as well as can be made sense of.

Note that I enjoy captain a great deal, and that it's my favorite gamemode by far. It's a great addition - I really hope not to contribute to the salt some people opened with on this thread right away.

So!

- Infantry -

Commanding infantry probably works the best out of any troop type in captain mode. The formations you get make sense, and it is generally quite doable to hold chokepoints, tank arrow fire, and flank people if you have shock rather than shielded infantry. Even so, there's a number of issues that I've run into by now:

• Battanian Oathsworn and Sturgian Varyags don't get to pick maces or equivalent armor piercing weapons. I dread facing well-armored factions such as Vlandia or Empire with them because the units you'll be facing really can't be dealt with by heavy infantry that should, by all rights, do more than get some grazing hits off.
• Axes are a meme. A silly meme. I genuinely appreciate that shields don't break after they get hit by six arrows the way they did in Warband, but axes are currently just worse swords. I've seen maybe two shields break in all of my time playing Captain, and I've never once voluntarily picked an axe rather than any of the other options, since breaking shields just isn't a viable option to go for.
• The infantry AI is very bad at dealing with cavalry. You can use mechanics like circle formation to avoid being easily charged down, but your units are extremely passive about oncoming horsemen. I have seen spear-wielding legionnaires and oathsworn completely neglect to even try and stab cavalry charging right at their front, reading their weapons only after they had gotten stabbed at a bunch. The best way to deal with cavalry that I've seen is mostly to either rear their horses and let your unit murder them, or to hope to God your archer friends are competent and don't mind being protected while they take potshots at the horses.
• NO BUT REALLY DEALING WITH CAVALRY IS DUMB. This is something I don't really know to stress enough. Sixteen varyags are watching a cavalryman charge in. One player rears the horse. Does the cavalryman get swamped? Do they poke at him with spears and absolutely murder him? Does his horse just get turned into kebab? Nope, the cavalryman presses WW and rides off into the sunset like it's no big deal because stabbing a stationary guy off his horse or murdering the animal is hard, somehow. Cavalry has issues of his own, but I really don't think being reared by heavy infantry should be so hilariously easy to survive as it is now - infantry and archers are much more punishing if you **** up your position.
• There is no way to retreat your unit in order. It is very well doable to tank arrows from a direction, and holding the line while watching your enemy try to get kills is a great experience, standing shoulder to shoulder with your legionaries, varyags, oathsworn, what have you. What isn't doable is blocking arrows from a direction you're not walking towards. If the face direction command could be something that persisted during movement, we'd be able to walk backwards with our shields up and see our units hold the line similarly, rather than get themselves shot to pieces like absolute idiots.
• Similarly, it'd be really nice if Gab's point could be heeded, and we had a 'charge in X direction' type of command. Infantry in shield wall formation and the like is a little slow to actually attack nearby enemies, and the charge command is a crapshoot more than a boon. Something to make them storm places more easily really would be very nice.

- Archers -

Archers are strong, very strong. They also rely on having teammates around to not get slaughtered more than others, but such is life in captain mode. Only a couple issues I have with these guys, really.

• Same as with infantry, archers are a bit hard to direct a certain way if you want them to fire at specific enemies. It's a bit easy for soft targets to hide behind shielded infantry, and it'd be nice if there were a way to target the directions or units you want your guys to fire on.
• It's a little difficult to have your guys, you know, run the **** away from the varyags charging you down. For some reason your archers prefer hobbling backwards rather than turning and running, and I've seen many of my guys die because they drew their weapons to stand and fight rather than getting the **** behind our friend
• This is where I was going to mention crossbows being a bit overtuned, but you literally nerfed those today so I've got nothing. Keep up the good work

- Skirmishers -

Not technically a unit type, but still something that warrants mentioning imo. My issue is too broad to really sum up into easy to list points, so here goes:

Nobody picks skirmishers basically ever. Battanian wildlings are the only exception, and then only because Oathsworn aren't themselves the greatest heavy infantry unit. Thrown weapons are quite strong, but ranged units are very unresponsive and it's hard to bring the full potential of your guys to bear. Skirmishers are THE unit who are supposed to, well, skirmish, to throw some weapons and run the **** away. It's the making them run away properly that's really hard, and shields tank thrown weapons as well as they do arrows. In the end, it's really not worth it to pick skirmishers when you can either give your infantrymen thrown stuff or just pick archers imo. A possible fix would be for thrown weapons to damage shields more and for arrows to stay useless against shields, but I did want to make clear just how difficult it really is to have your Aserai skirmishers or Sturgian brigands flank, skirmish, and be swift given the AI's propensity for indecision.

- Cavalry -

Cavalry is in a weird spot. They're much too strong in the other multiplayer gamemodes for sure, and I'd even argue they would be too strong in captain as well if not for some weirdness. I could go on about it as I did with skirmishers, but I'll just get listing instead.

• The cavalry AI is bad. Really, really, really ****ing bad. I have never ever ever ever ever seen the AI been able to get off a couched lance charge. Not once. I get that this isn't Warband, but how absolutely terrible horses are at drive by charges is a damn disgrace. I've seen archers outfight horsemen on numerous occasions, simply because the AI just... Chooses not to fight back somehow. I can't really express just how silly these things are so I do rather recommend you take a look at the AI's behavior because it is downright bizarre to the point that any proper description or anecdote is going to sound like hyperbole no matter what.
• The infantry AI is bad at dealing with cavalry. Really, really, really ****ing bad. None of them get that the guy charging them on a horse is someone they ought to rear up to attack. None of them ready spears or try to halt their charges. This is a problem because it ties in to my third point...
• ... It is entirely too damn easy to play cavalry for the PC. This is the crux of my argument: cavalry is too strong, but only for the PC - the rest of your unit is absolute ****ing trash. Playing cavalry has me rack up more kills by myself than my entire unit routinely, and I don't main cav by any sense of the word. Because infantry doesn't know to deal with you, there is legitimately nothing to keep you from doing drive by spear thrusts or the dreaded OP glaive swings beyond either a player doing well or archers shooting you to pieces.
• Cavalry archers work fine. Neat stuff, I guess.

It leaves my thoughts on cavalry very disjointed: as it is, cavalry feels too weak, because the AI is pants on head retarded and can't make it work. If it were any good, though, I don't think I'd play anything else - you can spend three years circling the enemy god damn spear-wielding legionaries or sergeants if you feel like it, because lord knows the infantry AI is terrible too. Buff the infantry AI, and cavalry becomes very bad. Buff the cavalry AI, and it becomes OP. I really think that both issues need to be simultaneously fixed, or at least attempted to, because doing it either way is going to make a certain unit type rather impossible to use.

I do welcome input! I'd like to think I'm decent at the least, but if I'm entirely wrong about some stuff I welcome constructive criticism on everything that I've lined out here.

 

[Caps]

So, currently, I have played captain mode from just-about launch until right now. More than single player by a mile and a good couple dozen hours. I've compiled a whole bunch of thoughts on the matter, and I'm going to be listing them as well as can be made sense of.

Note that I enjoy captain a great deal, and that it's my favorite gamemode by far. It's a great addition - I really hope not to contribute to the salt some people opened with on this thread right away.

So!

- Infantry -

Commanding infantry probably works the best out of any troop type in captain mode. The formations you get make sense, and it is generally quite doable to hold chokepoints, tank arrow fire, and flank people if you have shock rather than shielded infantry. Even so, there's a number of issues that I've run into by now:

• Battanian Oathsworn and Sturgian Varyags don't get to pick maces or equivalent armor piercing weapons. I dread facing well-armored factions such as Vlandia or Empire with them because the units you'll be facing really can't be dealt with by heavy infantry that should, by all rights, do more than get some grazing hits off.
• Axes are a meme. A silly meme. I genuinely appreciate that shields don't break after they get hit by six arrows the way they did in Warband, but axes are currently just worse swords. I've seen maybe two shields break in all of my time playing Captain, and I've never once voluntarily picked an axe rather than any of the other options, since breaking shields just isn't a viable option to go for.
• The infantry AI is very bad at dealing with cavalry. You can use mechanics like circle formation to avoid being easily charged down, but your units are extremely passive about oncoming horsemen. I have seen spear-wielding legionnaires and oathsworn completely neglect to even try and stab cavalry charging right at their front, reading their weapons only after they had gotten stabbed at a bunch. The best way to deal with cavalry that I've seen is mostly to either rear their horses and let your unit murder them, or to hope to God your archer friends are competent and don't mind being protected while they take potshots at the horses.
• NO BUT REALLY DEALING WITH CAVALRY IS DUMB. This is something I don't really know to stress enough. Sixteen varyags are watching a cavalryman charge in. One player rears the horse. Does the cavalryman get swamped? Do they poke at him with spears and absolutely murder him? Does his horse just get turned into kebab? Nope, the cavalryman presses WW and rides off into the sunset like it's no big deal because stabbing a stationary guy off his horse or murdering the animal is hard, somehow. Cavalry has issues of his own, but I really don't think being reared by heavy infantry should be so hilariously easy to survive as it is now - infantry and archers are much more punishing if you **** up your position.
• There is no way to retreat your unit in order. It is very well doable to tank arrows from a direction, and holding the line while watching your enemy try to get kills is a great experience, standing shoulder to shoulder with your legionaries, varyags, oathsworn, what have you. What isn't doable is blocking arrows from a direction you're not walking towards. If the face direction command could be something that persisted during movement, we'd be able to walk backwards with our shields up and see our units hold the line similarly, rather than get themselves shot to pieces like absolute idiots.
• Similarly, it'd be really nice if Gab's point could be heeded, and we had a 'charge in X direction' type of command. Infantry in shield wall formation and the like is a little slow to actually attack nearby enemies, and the charge command is a crapshoot more than a boon. Something to make them storm places more easily really would be very nice.

- Archers -

Archers are strong, very strong. They also rely on having teammates around to not get slaughtered more than others, but such is life in captain mode. Only a couple issues I have with these guys, really.

• Same as with infantry, archers are a bit hard to direct a certain way if you want them to fire at specific enemies. It's a bit easy for soft targets to hide behind shielded infantry, and it'd be nice if there were a way to target the directions or units you want your guys to fire on.
• It's a little difficult to have your guys, you know, run the **** away from the varyags charging you down. For some reason your archers prefer hobbling backwards rather than turning and running, and I've seen many of my guys die because they drew their weapons to stand and fight rather than getting the **** behind our friend
• This is where I was going to mention crossbows being a bit overtuned, but you literally nerfed those today so I've got nothing. Keep up the good work

- Skirmishers -

Not technically a unit type, but still something that warrants mentioning imo. My issue is too broad to really sum up into easy to list points, so here goes:

Nobody picks skirmishers basically ever. Battanian wildlings are the only exception, and then only because Oathsworn aren't themselves the greatest heavy infantry unit. Thrown weapons are quite strong, but ranged units are very unresponsive and it's hard to bring the full potential of your guys to bear. Skirmishers are THE unit who are supposed to, well, skirmish, to throw some weapons and run the **** away. It's the making them run away properly that's really hard, and shields tank thrown weapons as well as they do arrows. In the end, it's really not worth it to pick skirmishers when you can either give your infantrymen thrown stuff or just pick archers imo. A possible fix would be for thrown weapons to damage shields more and for arrows to stay useless against shields, but I did want to make clear just how difficult it really is to have your Aserai skirmishers or Sturgian brigands flank, skirmish, and be swift given the AI's propensity for indecision.

- Cavalry -

Cavalry is in a weird spot. They're much too strong in the other multiplayer gamemodes for sure, and I'd even argue they would be too strong in captain as well if not for some weirdness. I could go on about it as I did with skirmishers, but I'll just get listing instead.

• The cavalry AI is bad. Really, really, really ****ing bad. I have never ever ever ever ever seen the AI been able to get off a couched lance charge. Not once. I get that this isn't Warband, but how absolutely terrible horses are at drive by charges is a damn disgrace. I've seen archers outfight horsemen on numerous occasions, simply because the AI just... Chooses not to fight back somehow. I can't really express just how silly these things are so I do rather recommend you take a look at the AI's behavior because it is downright bizarre to the point that any proper description or anecdote is going to sound like hyperbole no matter what.
• The infantry AI is bad at dealing with cavalry. Really, really, really ****ing bad. None of them get that the guy charging them on a horse is someone they ought to rear up to attack. None of them ready spears or try to halt their charges. This is a problem because it ties in to my third point...
• ... It is entirely too damn easy to play cavalry for the PC. This is the crux of my argument: cavalry is too strong, but only for the PC - the rest of your unit is absolute ****ing trash. Playing cavalry has me rack up more kills by myself than my entire unit routinely, and I don't main cav by any sense of the word. Because infantry doesn't know to deal with you, there is legitimately nothing to keep you from doing drive by spear thrusts or the dreaded OP glaive swings beyond either a player doing well or archers shooting you to pieces.
• Cavalry archers work fine. Neat stuff, I guess.

It leaves my thoughts on cavalry very disjointed: as it is, cavalry feels too weak, because the AI is pants on head retarded and can't make it work. If it were any good, though, I don't think I'd play anything else - you can spend three years circling the enemy god damn spear-wielding legionaries or sergeants if you feel like it, because lord knows the infantry AI is terrible too. Buff the infantry AI, and cavalry becomes very bad. Buff the cavalry AI, and it becomes OP. I really think that both issues need to be simultaneously fixed, or at least attempted to, because doing it either way is going to make a certain unit type rather impossible to use.

I do welcome input! I'd like to think I'm decent at the least, but if I'm entirely wrong about some stuff I welcome constructive criticism on everything that I've lined out here.

Sturgias shock inf can go hammer, theres nothing better than this vs heavy inf
if shields just break this would make cav archers even more op vs inf nations like sturgia

 

[Nantafiria]

Yes, Sturgian zerkers can roll up with 2h maces, and then get absolutely dabbed on by the enemy infantry's javelins or just archer fire. Or we could recognise that it's not very fun for varyags and oathsworn not to have maces and thereby let them pick such weapons just fine.

Insofar shields are concerned, I think shields tanking arrows indefinitely is fine, they just last too long vs melee strikes.

 

[flavberg]

I'm just going to copy paste what I've suggested in the beta before:

To anyone who's ever played Captain's mode and has coordinated with their teammates with same troop types only to look back and realize they don't know which ones are their men, you know how annoying it can be. What I suggest is simple - that we go back to having the small, round banner icons on top of your soldiers be selected (green outer circle around them) when you spawn and remain selected throughout the game, not only when you want to give out orders (when pressing F1 and so on).

tl;dr:

pls let green banner stay after i deselect my troops

 

[Lord Bryggan]

I find that the allied collision boxes are too small. When in a choke point I'd like to hold the enemy until my allies can circle around. Right now a shield wall is useless, plus trying to time a flank movement or encirclement is impossible since melee between two regiments only lasts about 8 seconds.

This would slow the game down, but would put tactics to the forefront. Which is what Captain Mode should be all about.

 

[MCKOY]

I love this mode but I have a few suggestions.

- During the pick phase, you need to be able to see what your teammates are picking
- Unit numbers should be cranked up a bit in general
- I'd like to see a way to have ranged units queue up a shot but not actually fire until commander to. As it is if you position a unit of skirmishers just right and give them the F4 to fire, they all sort of switch weapons slowly at different paces and overall it just takes too long for them to get throwing
- Cavalry is just awful right now. The AI doesn't know how to play it and even worse they don't know how to play against it. This is especially worse against the heavily armored cavalry types. Almost every game I see someone playing cataphracts just hit F3 and let them play on autopilot and they will charge straight into a mob of infantry, even spear infantry, and they will just walk away unscathed because the infantry can't hurt them
- On that note, the heavy cavalry horses are too tanky. Lots of times I've speared the horse perfectly during a head on full speed charge and they will walk this off
- Controlling the flags should make the stars(morale?) switch sides faster. They move so slowly they're basically meaningless in 9/10 matches. Everytime a round ends this way I see at least one player who literally did not know the flags did anything at all.
- A few more perk options or a rebalance for most troop types are needed. Most of the time its impossible to justify picking weak archers over the high tier archers because they have such strong armor. I think every troop type could do with a perk slot where you choose between additional armor or some extra troops in your unit
- More option for communication such as a way to ping things of interest or have a tactical map you can draw or place markers on. Or VOIP. As it is now theres just very little way to communicate with your team on the fly

 

[Finu]

How it can be that you can't select instatly troop after you dead.
When I'm killed there is 1-2 s pause when camera view skip to new unit but pressing F does nothing - if you are in middle of thight figth you just see your unit killed and you just watch it and press maddy F without any result. If you have bad luck unit you want to select also get killed - so pick skip to next one - with another 1-2s lock if you have bad luck you might change unit a few times when finaly you are able to select - well it's usually ony you and one or two units left - bye bye...

 

[Kiwibaum]

Yes, Sturgian zerkers can roll up with 2h maces, and then get absolutely dabbed on by the enemy infantry's javelins or just archer fire. Or we could recognise that it's not very fun for varyags and oathsworn not to have maces and thereby let them pick such weapons just fine.

Insofar shields are concerned, I think shields tanking arrows indefinitely is fine, they just last too long vs melee strikes.

The Zerkers can use the shields of the varyags as cover. Sturgian infantry already beats all other infantry basicly, mostly due to berserkers beeing extreemely strong but varyags are also very good backbone units. They have big shields to a point that they are basicly immune to arrows in a shieldwall from the front and have spears and thus counter cavalry. Making them even stronger is a bad idea imo.

- Controlling the flags should make the stars(morale?) switch sides faster. They move so slowly they're basically meaningless in 9/10 matches. Everytime a round ends this way I see at least one player who literally did not know the flags did anything at all.

I think the reason for the points is not to be a common win condition. They are supposed to prevent camping of both teams and force a fight. Keeping them slow is good due to it meaning the fight is what matters and not which team got lucky and stood on the right point.

 

[Nantafiria]

The Zerkers can use the shields of the varyags as cover. Sturgian infantry already beats all other infantry basicly, mostly due to berserkers beeing extreemely strong but varyags are also very good backbone units. They have big shields to a point that they are basicly immune to arrows in a shieldwall from the front and have spears and thus counter cavalry. Making them even stronger is a bad idea imo.

Varyags aren't better units than legionaries or sergeants. Legionaries have better armor and a mace option, sergeants have a mace option and can get throwing weapons the legionaries can't(pilas suck). Both factions also have shieldless infantry of their own in the form of voulgiers and menavliatoi, who have an additional edge against cavalry(OR WOULD HAVE, IF THE AI KNEW BOTHERED TO TRY AND FIGHT CAVALRYMEN AT ALL)

That's two out of five further factions whose infantry can at least go toe-to-toe with the Sturgians. It's true the Khuzaits, Aserai, and Battanians basically can't; Khuzaits and Aserai just aren't infantry factions, so that's fine. Battania is a bit undertuned in general and just needs to get some of its options buffed.

And really, if your team's archers can't figure out a way to commit crossfire tactics or fire from elevated points, they deserve to waste their dumb ammo against the shield wall they're up against.

 

[Kiwibaum]

Varyags aren't better units than legionaries or sergeants. Legionaries have better armor and a mace option, sergeants have a mace option and can get throwing weapons the legionaries can't(pilas suck). Both factions also have shieldless infantry of their own in the form of voulgiers and menavliatoi, who have an additional edge against cavalry(OR WOULD HAVE, IF THE AI KNEW BOTHERED TO TRY AND FIGHT CAVALRYMEN AT ALL)

That's two out of five further factions whose infantry can at least go toe-to-toe with the Sturgians. It's true the Khuzaits, Aserai, and Battanians basically can't; Khuzaits and Aserai just aren't infantry factions, so that's fine. Battania is a bit undertuned in general and just needs to get some of its options buffed.

And really, if your team's archers can't figure out a way to commit crossfire tactics or fire from elevated points, they deserve to waste their dumb ammo against the shield wall they're up against.

The shock troop is far more important in an infantry engagement than the backbone infantry. Berserkers are a lot better than voulgiers. Peasants used to be as good as berserkers but got nerfed. Menlavions are ok but not as good as berserkers.

 

[ShadyGoose]

Deserting Team Members
Hi, I love this game. But I'm finding a pretty consistent cycle in the captain mode. If a player leaves the game their team is screwed. the odds aren't in your favor, especially in a close game. It really takes the fun out of it, and generally results in a everyone leaving really makes the game much less enjoyable

I would like to see the remaining teams troop numbers bolstered in the following round to make up for them losing an entire party.
I'm not even asking for a completely even playing field again. I know that there is some advantage to having more troops in less parties.
But a few extra troops to even the playing field would stop loyal and determined players from completely giving up once one party member leaves.

I would also love to see an in game voice chat system since it is such a strategy heavy game mode.
if this exists could someone please let me know about it.

Anyway, I would love yo know what you think.

Regards
Aengus

 

[Finu]

Berserkers just wreck everthing - when I see strugia in opposite team as kurzait I usually leave at start - no point.
Even on open space - you gotta have ultra gr8 team bo beat crapp team of strugia now.

 

[Infokrieger]

Berserkers just wreck everthing - when I see strugia in opposite team as kurzait I usually leave at start - no point.
Even on open space - you gotta have ultra gr8 team bo beat crapp team of strugia now.

This has nothing to do with Strugia but with the two hands weapon.
I had the honor to test the beta and now i had my first round with Strugia after the Beta ... embarrassed 1 - 3 lost vs Khuzaid ...maybe is it the KI ... now is the KI good next round bad next the best .... but thats a tactik Mode but we dont can use communication ....

 

[Infokrieger]

Deserting Team Members
Hi, I love this game. But I'm finding a pretty consistent cycle in the captain mode. If a player leaves the game their team is screwed. the odds aren't in your favor, especially in a close game. It really takes the fun out of it, and generally results in a everyone leaving really makes the game much less enjoyable

I would like to see the remaining teams troop numbers bolstered in the following round to make up for them losing an entire party.
I'm not even asking for a completely even playing field again. I know that there is some advantage to having more troops in less parties.
But a few extra troops to even the playing field would stop loyal and determined players from completely giving up once one party member leaves.

I would also love to see an in game voice chat system since it is such a strategy heavy game mode.
if this exists could someone please let me know about it.

Anyway, I would love yo know what you think.

Regards
Aengus

I agree with you to 90%.
5% not because: -
we get more fighters as soon as a team has fewer captains. However, the matchmaking ensures that the next captain often comes immediately, but who can not play directly.

& the other 5% because of the VoiceChat
VoiceChat is uncontrollable, because muting also ends communication.
We need a function for communication. Even if it only unlocked the various calls of the troops 1,2,3, (4) for all captains.

What do you think ?

 

[bblzd]

How it can be that you can't select instatly troop after you dead.
When I'm killed there is 1-2 s pause when camera view skip to new unit but pressing F does nothing - if you are in middle of thight figth you just see your unit killed and you just watch it and press maddy F without any result. If you have bad luck unit you want to select also get killed - so pick skip to next one - with another 1-2s lock if you have bad luck you might change unit a few times when finaly you are able to select - well it's usually ony you and one or two units left - bye bye...

I find the delay they added can be a problem as well. In beta you could spam F and respawn quickly but they added a forced delay to stop that from happening. Half the time I spawn on my unit and they either eat a hit and die right as I take control or just as bad, they're in the middle of attacking an ally and it counts as me team attacking lol.

Captains mode is a lot of fun though it still seems as if the majority of players are coming to terms with the combat system with things like archer, cav and anti-cav balance being mostly skewed by that. For example lots of people still sit their spears in formation and let cav charge them and don't understand why their troops aren't being aggressive. It's logical to assume "let the cav charge my spears and they will die" but that's generally not how it works in this game and causing frustration in the cav balance currently.

Suggestion: use the same class selection screen as Skirmish in Captains Mode. The one that shows your 6 team members standing together, and you can see which class and equipment they chose rather than try and decipher the small icons.