With lots of units on each side, and variety to boot, you'll be hard pressed to micro manage a battle. And that's as it should be. Units can be assigned various levels of aggression and can be set to patrol or defend a location. Left to themselves units set to roam will wander after opposition units. Or you can tell them to stay in one place or maneuver in a limited range during combat.
Battles tend to be short and sporadic, with units built up and then a short intense battle.
You'll then need to scrounge for more metal to build up your forces once more, hoping the opposition doesn't have a ready reserve to take you out while you're weak. If things get too hectic and you feel the need to slow things down there are 20 different speed settings. These range from insanely fast to nearly crawling. I found have way to the slowest more than comfortable in combat and the standard setting ideal in most other circumstances. Your mileage may vary with CPU speed, blah blah blah.