I would guess that the problem you are seeing is the mount animation problem.  Are these mounted archers by any chance?  This issue, which stopped me from using mounts altogether, is a completion animation after an attack with a mounted unit that takes quite a while.  Nothing works until the completion animation finishes.  I believe that this has already been fixed for 1.1.

The problem I think is not just with firing arrows, but any movement in combat at all. In most cases you are forced to auto-resolve. I've had this even without mounted troops.

I haven't noticed much of the other issues mentioned? Sometimes if i set a movement destination which is further than the unit can immediately travel, the battle screen will freeze, but that problem is easily avoided.

I get the delay period with or without mounted units but mounted units do have a slightly longer delay period.

What makes the issue so noticeable for archers is that often they do very little damage, so it can take allot of hits to kill an enemy, combine that with the delay thing and combat can become a monumentally painful experience.

oddly enough, i just upgraded my video card and i have noticed the games runs smoother and faster. But yeah, you have to wait for the animation cycle to finish otherwise you are just clicking on dead air and their is no notice that the cycle has ended. Also, when a unit uses all their action points it goes down to the next one on the list, even if you already have another person picked and ready to go. I've almost lost fights due to this when my archer suddenly run to the front lines when i wanted to move my swordsmen or giants....

glowing ember, I also have had that exact same issue happen to me also, it seems that the cause might be that the animations AND sounds are modal(have priority over) the keyboard and mouse inputs, when ALL other programs give priority to the keyboard AND mouse over sound and animation., and this is on both my older AND latest computers, so it is a program issue.

harpo

Mystik the way it seems to work is you have your list on the left hand side and it starts with the unit at the top of the list. If you use all of that persons action points it goes to the next one on the list. Now what has been happening is you pick someone lower on the list, say your rock giant or hero, and cast spells until you run out of action point. While the spell animation is taking place you select the unit that you want to use next. So you then queue in the movement you wan to take place with the intent it will kick in when the spell animation ends. HOWEVER, what actually happens is the 2nd unit on you list, perhaps it is your archers, gets autoselected and then follows whatever action you queued up - god forbid you tried to move something cause now your archers are running to that spot. If you tried to cast a spell then nothing happens - message pops up saying you have no mana to cast that spell - lucky you.

so yes. 

Sound and animation have priority without any message saying they have finished their cycle. Crossing fingers on 1.1, but with the intended change to the order of combat (ie not we go they go) it should fix the problem.

why have a unit die in a black box function when you don't have to in a game where every resource you scrounge per turn is very precious ?

(until the moment you start making 180+gold per turn i suppose...)

but then never with a hero...