Once the action begins, you may command your mercenaries in many ways. Of course you can move various groups as desired. The action takes place in real time and you do not have direct control over individual members of your mercenary groups. Groups can, however, be split or merged for a greater degree of control. Each character has a number of hitpoints which can be monitored.
Movement is tile-based and at a detail level on the order of a single combatant.
The action can be paused at any time to let you think about and change your commands and strategies. Commands can also be made while the game is unpaused. Commanding combatants is done in a similar way and the views and battlefield size are similar. Like Walls of Rome, Ambush includes a map and scenario editor in case you get tired of the ones provided. The editors are full-featured and make the scenarios completely customizable.