Your best bet for weather control is in empires where the weather altar stratagems give you precise control during battles. Once you've built an academy you can grab four different weather effects - flood thunderstorm hailstorm and gale, each triggering instantly when you hit right trigger in the strategem menu. The timing here is crucial, especially when coordinating with unit positions since weather affects visibility and movement patterns across the field.

The newer stuff works differently though - the dynamic system kicks in automatically based on time of day and story progression, usually aligning with key battle phases. Keep an eye on enemy detection ranges, particularly during night raids or stormy conditions since their vision cone shrinks significantly. Maybe interesting - rain makes stealth approaches more viable while clear weather tends to favor direct assault tactics.

If you're running photo mode you can technically adjust weather there, but that's purely for screenshots not actual combat. During real fights you'll need to work with whatever conditions the game throws at you, timing your advances around the natural weather shifts and planning formations accordingly. Weather effects hit both sides equally so positioning becomes extra critical when environmental hazards are in play.