I look back fondly on those few battles in MTW which I would call "epic" battles. Fighting against the first incursions of the Horde comes to mind.

Most of my battles for MTW lasted between 10-30/40 minutes. I thought this was perfect, especially since turns were abstracted to take place within a full year.

My RTW battles last about 2-3 minutes of getting units into position (on the fastest setting), then back on normal, engagement, which lasts, oh, maybe 3-5 minutes, before someone routes. Usually, the greatest difficulty is making sure I'm able to click on my units fast enough so that the battles is not decided before everyone has been issued an order. Very frustrating.

That was a long-winded way of saying "faster paced" battles in MTW2 would make me cry.

Things that have me worried:

1) I do not think that that CA post effectively eliminated my concerns (the reference to other TW titles could mean RTW, of course)

2) I do not think Game Informer/PC Gamer reviewers (or previewers) will bother to talk about the length of battles, just about graphics and probably the campaign map and factions. Sigh