The point of conquest.

[sapi]

I think the castle assaults with full stack vs 1 enemy unit should be possible to auto-calculate without too heavy casualties or if there would be a possibility for the defenders to surrender, so there'd be less such battles. In RTW 80 percent of the battles were assaults vs a city with 1 unit or so in it. Fewer and larger battles is a must - the AI should retreat more and regroup to be able to send full armies against you more often! And it should be careful to choose to put many archer units etc. for garrisoning in border cities to make the assaults more difficult and hence more satisfying when achieved. Plus glorious achievements would further add a feeling of achievement for the conquests. Finally I hope they balance so that some provinces are of greater importance than others so you don't just poinlessly expand one province at the time but sometimes use a navy to transport you to a city further away, or just bypass a city at the border to besiege the enemy capital - much more exciting that way.

Losing the capital needs to incur a very large penalty...

[Weebeast]

I recently have been playing in Conquest Mode because I can always come up with my own GA's such as untimed Krak des Chevaliers goal for example (anyone managed to do that btw?). Hospitallers didn't really have a deadline anyway.

I'm not really against more GA's but really, playing Conquest Mode doesn't suggest you to conquer all provinces only. Send bunch of imams to Mongol lands and convert the population or redirect your crusade to Constatinople. Who cares if the "You Lose" BIF comes up? Fulfil all crazy goals to your liking.

Again, I'd welcome new GA's!

[King Yngvar]

This would make it alot harder than Rome where it was easy to biuld elite troops and steam roller everone in you're path.

The only reason you can do that is because the computer rarely train elite troops, if they trained some elite troops more often, the battles may get harder.

[TB666]

The only reason you can do that is because the computer rarely train elite troops, if they trained some elite troops more often, the battles may get harder.

But we can make the AI build these troops.
In mods such as Darthmod the AI always builds the best troops it has.

[phred]

The only reason you can do that is because the computer rarely train elite troops, if they trained some elite troops more often, the battles may get harder.

I've seen a difference in RTW 1.5 where the Gauls kept sending better and better armies against me (Carthage) until their armies mostly consisted of chosen swordsmen, swordsmen, forrester warbands and some calvalry.
I think the patch must give the AI some monetary/upkeep bonuses.

Back on topic:

Definitely bring back the GA goals!
Going for the Krak is one of my favorites.