I am trying to make a simple top down view battle game.The units are just simple counter type representations found in most board wargames.each tile will have an elevation /terrain/ and the possibility of units and/or fortifications.I can use just a classic tile format , but I am not sure if an isometric tile view would be better?i am new to this type of programming so maybe someone could give me some quick pros and cons.

You''re in luck! You have some options. (maybe that''s not luck...you''re a programmer) Square tiles are very easy to make, and very easy to implement in the rendering engine. For a strait top down game, this is the way to go. As for isometric tiles, they are slightly harder to do. for instance, figuring out coordinates, and creating artwork can be harder. The advantage is that it looks better for a not so top down game...like where the camera is at a 45 with the ground. There are plenty of papers and pages on implementing them, so don''t let that scare you away.