I, like most I imagine, ran through my first game using the default "phased" combat mode. I liked it. Though, on my subsequent game I decided to give continuous combat mode a shot and found that I enjoyed it quite a bit. There's a learning curve at first and some actions and opportunities will be missed from time to time, but I found that it pepped up the combat considerably.

Especially interesting when combined with the Wiz8fast tool. I ended up playing out the rest of the run and pretty much all off and on replays over the years in continuous.

One tip: I'd recommend giving your spellcasters the "defend" order. The reason being, this will prevent them from popping off a feeble melee strike or clumsy ranged attack and allow you to click on them at will during a combat round and dynamically adjust their queued spell cast and even re-target if needed. Once their spell cast is complete they default back to defend and are ready to receive new spell orders. You may also wish to turn off camera auto-rotation in the game menu for better command and control, at the cost of some situational awareness.

A quick link to helpful keyboard shortcuts (also in the manual): http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=19776&tab=controls

The Wiz8fast tool for speeding up combat if desired: http://wolfie.wiz8.de/Wiz8Fast.html

Anyways, give continuous a try once you have a handle on the basics of combat. You might even like it.

I often use continuous combat, but only for a few seconds at a time. If you toggle back and forth 2-3 times, you gain the (partial) ability to reselect targets or move your spell marker. This helps even the odds somewhat against the monsters, who will never waste an action if possible. Once the change has been made, switch back to phased.

I also agree on disabling camera auto-rotation for everyone. Not only does it save time, it can get kinda annoying after a while, especially if you're trying to scope the battlefield.

If you do want auto-rotation, switch it to "snap" mode. This cuts down the amount of time it otherwise wastes on making the camera slowly spin around every which way (which is doubly important if you have motion sickness issues with computer games).

Yeah fans of such games as Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder probably would like the continuous mode. Not me. I just don't see the sense in real time combat for an RPG and my thumbs do not need the button-mashing/mouse-clicking workout.