Is there a possible control interface for this?

I've always wanted to make a fairly simple real time 'battle' game for 2 players, on the same PC, using gamepads to control their armies, with the battle taking place in a single viewport/screen. Pre-gunpowder era, land combat.

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for how such a game could be played, in particular how both sides could 'control' their forces assuming they each have a dual stick game pad?

I'm not going for an accurate simulation, but rather more of an arcade feel.

You might like to check out a retro amiga game called "North & South", should give you plenty of inspiration :)

North & South was awesome :)
I loved poking the camera man up the arse and making him chuckle.

I'd not heard of "North & South" before - it's given me a few ideas.

assuming you don't mean the technical aspects. It would be nice to have more info on the game idea. Will the players control more than 1 warrior at a time? Will there be lots of modes?

I don't mean the technical aspects. Players (2) would control many warriors at once - say for instance approximately 100 warriors at once (2d game so no problem with number of warriors).

The game idea so far is pretty underdeveloped/unformed in my mind. I think I need to think on it a bit more.