Thank you for the response. Win8 seems to have pretty decent “Troubleshoot Compatibility” workarounds for those interested. I was able to essentially just go through the troubleshooter (right click on the game and choose to troubleshoot compatibility) and answer some questions about what wasn’t working for me, and it adjusted it to run as if it were Win XP and then changed something about the resolution as well.
So I went from resolution problems fixed to problems where my mouse or finger didn’t click where it was actually pointing to seeing “through” the game into my desktop whenever I clicked to essentially running the game with no issues.
So with the correct compatibility, and currently with ForceDirectDrawEmulation ON (though later I will try with it off, as well), I’m now happy enough. If I use the mouse, there are no issues. If I use the touchscreen, I see “through” the game into my desktop (as if I am touching an opaque material and making it transparent for an instant) but only for an instant such that it doesn’t even both me, and I am enjoying performing some of the AA tasks by hand. The only graphics issue really is that combat screens very slooowly expand before I can start rolling dice, but it’s only a few seconds and manageable overall.
Thank you greatly for taking the time to dedicate to this game, answering questions, and providing support. I’ll report back if I find any other improvements or issues so that others don’t give up when at first things don’t look so great.