Given that my opinion of Rome and Medieval 2 isn't exactly a secret, I don't think anyone'll be surprised that I'd absolutely vote for a better control scheme....particularly if the the "friendly" battle AI were capable of a certain degree of competence (something like what RLucid suggests). I agree with asj_india that the graphics are already more than good enough -- so give us the ability to command & control more troops! After all, Empire takes place in an era that saw quite a few battles in which the opposing armies numbered in the tens of thousands; it would be nice to see the game actually be able to reflect this.