So the age-old "Risk-style vs. 3D" debate continues to this day, and Shogun 2's put some new life into it. I'm trying to look at it from a new angle, and try to make an educated guess at how CA will handle this in Shogun 2 (I doubt they aren't aware of the criticisms and open to ways to improve their current model).
With RTW, the 3D map was billed not just as a graphical overhaul, but as a way to more realistically model terrain's affect on warfare, and in theory it delivered. It became possible to lay ambushes, to raid deep into enemy territory, to evade enemy strongpoints within provinces- but for all practical purposes, the only thing of value in a province was still the city, so "freedom of movement" really just meant the ability to move straight to a siege without fighting the enemy in the field. Because there were no smaller objectives- villages, forts, supply depots, etc- that contributed to the defense of the city and the usefulness of the province, even if you were able to move anywhere you rarely had any reason to. Since the only things worth defending with troops were the troop-producing cities themselves, battles became sieges except for occasional accidental encounters and defenses at a handful of chokepoints.
I haven't played ETW or NTW, but my understanding is that the game's come a long way in these respects since Rome and Medieval 2. The fact that the STW2 announcement video seems to suggest there's only about 20 large provinces/regions between 9 factions seems like a good sign that they've diversified the map more, and hopefully the AI knows the value of this. I don't blame the lack of field battles in newer TW games on a fundamental flaw of the 3D approach, I blame it on the fact that the managerial aspects of the game (governors, trade routes, and the like) were improved while military aspects of the map were completely neglected. Why would the AI seek out field battles when only sieges provide strategic gain? Give the player and the AI things that must be defended, make sure the AI factors them into its decisions, and more field battles will naturally follow. I'm hoping this is the approach CA is taking with Shogun 2, and what info we've got so far gives me reason to be cautiously optimistic.
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