Hello friends,

I am starting this thread with the intent to scratch a particular itch I am having all those years I am playing EB, that is the, in my opinion, over-abundance of trees on many battlefields and over-exaggerated slopes.

I mean, what are EB battles supposed to represent? Mostly major battles with big armies of large empires clashing over control of vast swathes of land; not day-to-day skirmishes and low-level violence. What are the battle maps supposed to represent? Not the whole territory of an in-game tile, which would be some 50 times 50 kilometers big, but rather a particular spot within this larger area that the commanders have chosen to do battle on. Now, in real life, most of big military encounters were not done in the middle of a dense forest nor on a rugged mountainside with 60° steep slopes and deep gorges. Rather in order to exert at least some control over the army, the commanders tried hard to chose some level or slightly rolling terrain that could be conveniently over-viewed to maintain awareness of position and situation of both own and the enemy forces. Thence the word "battlefield".

So my concern and question is - how will the majority of prospective battlefields look like in EBII? Will those be "field-like" or "rugged wildernes-like" as we know them from current EB?

Sure, I am not arguing for all-out level grassy plain, that would be boring as hell. I would rather like to see mostly some rolling or slightly sloping clear terrain with additional features allowing for some tactical creativity, e.g. if the battle is done if "woody" game tile, the forest would mostly along the margins with big clearance in the middle and perhaps some small groves scattered here and there, a foothill might dominate the center to provide a focal spot the armies are trying to take, and so on, you have got the idea...

The Getai vs. Boii preview video, that is apparently happening in a Central Europe area appear to have precisely such terrain I am having in mind.

Now, will that be the general rule (of course, some exceptions are necessary where appropriate) or rather an exception that was chosen just to show-off the new beautiful units that are otherwise simply impossible to notice in regular battlewoods and battlegorges?