Quote Originally Posted by HoreTore
Can't really understand why people don't like the routing... That's what happened in real life. They didn't hack each other to the death, they charged at each other, hacked a little, and then the one getting the worst beating fled... It didn't take a long time, and certainly not enough time to order units about, as one complained about not being able to do...

Humans aren't really as brave as some like to think when it comes down to dying...
Morale and routing are important, sure. I'm even happy to accept that a raw, untrained army might not last for long against a much better one. But do you really think it happened in seconds, as it does in unmodded RTW? I've had battles where 5 seconds after melee started the first unit routed and 5 seconds after that a chain reaction 90% of army rout was in progress.

I refuse to believe it happened that quickly in real life. Take a battle like Cannae, where both armies were composed of troops either seasoned, trained or well equiped (as opposed to raw "javelin fodder"). There was enough time for maneuvering, clashes on both wings to be resolved and for the Carthaginian wings to return to attack the roman centre from behind.

Now, imagine the RTW engine producing a battle like that. I can't. The unmodded game at least; all hail those wonderful modders who have gone some way towards making the game playable.