Any tips for getting better at micro?

I played a couple of games vs. a pretty good opponent. Well, I divided my army up into two, one major and one smaller, groups. I get rocked each time, because my smaller group kept getting flattened. Over and over. I just can't micro. I know what I'm going to do, but when the mess gets going, I can't keep up.

So, any tips for microing? It's killing me! Or rather, I suck at it (it's my fault, not the micros)! When I only have a small group of soldiers left, and I'm totally focused on one front, I can play quite well (i'll try not to hurt myself patting my back). But when it's broken up into one or two groups (or God forbid, three! Or if the units are all over the place), I get squashed.

my micro used to be ridiculously poor (still is only average), but a friend just said "practice", and so i did.and i think thats the best way to do it.

try not to use the grouping thingy (sorry for the untechnical jargon lol) and just use drag and right click. keep practicing it as yasin says. it will come and u will improve..

I use grouping heavily.
Selecting by groups means you cannot accidentally select units you don't want to, and I use it to keep track of what my units are up to so I don't forget any:
Since I have all units in groups, I can just go through all of them by pressing the number keys in order and verify that each of the units that gets highlighted have something to do.
You can see this in action in my first-person video; you mostly can't see me selecting units because I use the group hotkeys.

Most people seem to play differently though, so find out what suits you best yourself.

Originally Posted by Ashu-Siralis

I played a couple of games vs. a pretty good opponent. Well, I divided my army up into two, one major and one smaller, groups. I get rocked each time, because my smaller group kept getting flattened. Over and over. I just can't micro. I know what I'm going to do, but when the mess gets going, I can't keep up.

So, any tips for microing? It's killing me! Or rather, I suck at it (it's my fault, not the micros)! When I only have a small group of soldiers left, and I'm totally focused on one front, I can play quite well (i'll try not to hurt myself patting my back). But when it's broken up into one or two groups (or God forbid, three! Or if the units are all over the place), I get squashed.

I start with all my infantry grouped into their formation (one big group) and then make another for the cavalry. I then move both groups with drag and click. When the action starts I then subdivide groups if needed. I found this to be a good approach because often the simplest approach is the best; A good plan executed poorly will usually beat a bad plan executed well.

Just keep playing, practice with friends and you will improve your micro. But Micro is not the be -all and end all.

practise really is the only way. try not to get too caught up in one part of the battle field.

also i tend to tilt my camera so im not looking down so much as looking strait off into the distance helps keep the whole line in view.

I find that if you want to mass turn ,move forward or backward entire groups you can assign turn left/right/move forward/backward keys. That way when you select a group and click somewhere you can use these keys to tailor the exact position and facing you want from your group. Very usuable for retreating too especially when you try to kite enemy units or prevent yourself from being flanked. There is also another trick if you ungroup some units and then regroup them the game will remember their exact positions, very usefull for creating flanking groups. Now if you drag and select units and press the direction keys without grouping them then each unit move individiually, very useful to turn each unit around itself and them group them. Just imagine making a diagonial line, ungrouping the units and then turn them to create some sort of progressive stair like formation:
Formation before individual turning
(Your group)
\
. \ .........--------------------- (enemy formation)
.. \
... \
Formation after individual turning
(Your group)
|
. |
.. |. ........--------------------- (enemy formation)
... |

When I practice, I don't form any groups. I simply take a random army (narmally consisting of one of each unit type) Then spread them around the map, and attack with them all at the same time surrounding your enemy. You will soon get the hang of microing each unit and will gain speed and skills in no time.

I group my line, lights,cav and elite all seperately. then as the battle goes on i take units out of there groups for flanking or defensive moves. When out of there groups i drag and drop them around the field i find it the most acurrate way to line the men where you want them, you can also change there formation very quickly like this