Scourge of War Boards

I have found that often times while playing in sandbox mode, my superior officer, or the enemy officers, will issue no orders at the start of an engagement and everyone will just sit there- even until the end of the engagement if you let it. It appears to be random, but happens in at least 1/3 of my engagements. I thought this may be related to the "stance modifier" in unit attributes- which seems to be related to aggression. Does anyone happen to have any more info on this?

Also, I am curious if any of the unitattributes can be used to increase the range before a courier is required, or if the distance is hardcoded. I ask because it would be nice to use couriers for all levels of battle, but sometimes the range is quite short.