Excellent observations. I mostly feel the same way.

I find the bottom panel too big and looks like an RPG spell & incantation screen. Also, in M:TW, the units usually did what you told them too. I wish R:TW was just like M:TW except with the better graphics and change in eras.

And maybe it's just me (because I am easily confused ) but I HATE the campaign map. All this stuff about "oh, but it's soooo intuitive". It just looks like an RPG screen. I liked the Risk look of the M:TW campaign map.

But the battles in R:TW, aside from a few really annoying things, are great fun!