Hooah's line-by-line response is spot-on.

I want to add an amplifying comment about "Fire at Will" mode. It IS in the game for dedicated missile troops (archers, skirmisher javelin units, siege arty, etc), and works pretty much as it always has, as far as I can tell. The issue with Fire-at-Will, however, has to do with Rome's pilum-armed heavy melee infantry units, from hastati/principes up through the various legionary units. THESE guys don't have a Fire-at-Will mode. They do stop to chuck their pila during their own melee attacks, but when standing on defense, simply let the enemy close to melee range without giving them a pilum volley as they advance. Which sucks.

This capability was there in R1, kinda inexplicable that we don't have it in R2...especially as Rome is the centerpiece faction of the game and arguably received (or at least should have received) the most attention during development. Obvious though this omission is, it would also seem to be readily patch-able, and I'm confident will be corrected sooner rather than later.