Battle Time Length?

[Durango]

For clarification: Yes, I am indeed talking about average battle length. Sure you can turn off battle time limit but that has no effect on how fast units move, die, etc.

I share your concerns overall, and additionally I hope to see more dynamic (and in a way, more punishing) gameplay in terms of move and kill ratios.

Meaning that for example, an 18 lb:er firing canister shot at a column of men a certain distance away have a fairly great range a possible effects, due to weather/training/fatigue/elevation and pure chance.

If the odds are stacked against you, there is no telling if the fire will be quite as effective as you expect.

This is of course a regular and constant feature of the Total War series, but I feel that for ETW, this should be even more pronounced due to the more rigid nature of gunpowder. Hit and miss should be calculated with numbers and statistics in the background, just like the older games (In M2TW, you had animations as a factor in fighting, which at times produced game-ruining effects).

We'll see what CA does. I just hope the campaign and battles don't move at the speed of light to get to the meat and potatoes of the battles. That's only a fraction of what playing this game is about.

The most enjoyable way to play a TW game, is IMHO as a political simulator, in a way. Not purely management, as Civilisation, but heavily centered around diplomacy, religion, family dynasties and such.

Going out and randomly conquering is much less gratifying than having roleplayed different reasons for fighting (just as real life, war starts for a specific reason, not just for the sake of it). My empires are almost always one of the smaller ones on the map, as I in a Machiavellian way try to unbalance factions that are too big for their boots, and rarely do I gather my full army and go on a slaughtering rampage.

For just the right challenge, I often only attack with an army about 1/3 the size of the enemy. That is in MTW, mind you. In RTW, you can send forth your factionleader's wife equipped with a butterknife and still, claim victory!