In RTW campaigns the overall number of battles would be much higher than in the previous games with the 2D map - so from a design point of view it made sense that they were brief affairs. If they were long then the game would drag endlessly for the casual gamer and CA designs for the casual gamer too. However this meant all the appalling results in tactical battle pace.

In ETW - the overall number of battles would be from starters high since there are also the naval battles now and also the map and number of factions are substantially larger.

They are left with two options - one to make battles numerous and brief like in RTW and the second to make the battles less frequent but longer. This in turn affects the pace of the battles - melee resolution time between units, unit speeds, reload times, unit type speeds etc. Its a complex issue and the root of all evil usually in these cases is the fact that CA designs for all sorts of fan types - they try to catch as many fish in the net as possible. The result typically is an average that is far from being golden.

Noir