Time limit in battles? Gives AI a chance?

[lugh]

I was just thinking about this, last night I had several small battles, a couple of hundred strong expedition forces against fairly devastated Russian holdings.
It took an inordinate amount of time to hunt each unit down since they were mostly small woodsmen hidden in woods all over the place.
So in the end boring for me and Russia was still dispossesed of her Balkan holdings.

What I'm wondering is does anyone use the time limit on battles? Does it make things more interesting? How do large battles work out with so little time? I've fought 3-4 hour battles against the Horde as the Turkish before, they were exhausting but still a lot of fun. Is the time limit determined by the size of the forces or anything?

edit: hah, I forgot my main point! Would the time limit affect AI battles? As in it might prevent the rise of superpoweres raging across the map, since a small unit hiding in a wood could foil a massive advance across the Bosphorus or into Georgia for example.