I have attempted playing this with someone on Gameranger. Sometimes, I'm not given the choice to engage enemies through tactical combat. Is there a way a fix this?

You mean besides enabling it in the general menu for everything?

I thought someone would ask that. Yes, it was enabled.

I have never tried playing online, but let me ask a clarifying question:

Is the tactical combat that is occurring with the other human or the AI?
Is the tactical combat that is not occurring with the other human or the AI?

I would imagine that there might be things in place to prevent your human opponent from having to wait forever if you are having lots of tactical battles of grand scope. In the PBEM version, all human vs. human battles are non-tactical, but I don't know how that plays out in online, simultaneous actions.

This forum is not as populated as the one at aow.heavengames.com which is more likely to have an answer already posted if it isn't already detailed in a thread somewhere down below.

I do co-op, so all battles are only with the AI. It's not the PBEM version.