I don't mind 3 that much as long as you can somehow get a feeling of the date fairly easily.
I do not like being put in a situation, in a historical simulation (as this type of game is being labeled), that I can't figure out where I am.

This unfortunately conflicts with the character age. For they could give an aproximate period of the current 'year'. Now they seem to be oddly aged.
I mean if the people age about one year in 4 years how am I going to get a feeling of the time?
Apparently the 450 years have not only been compressed into 225 turns but abstracted so that the events and progress over those years will now happen in 112½ years. Nice... This is only a short step away from the AOE games, with their abstract timeperiods.

Agreed on 4, but it worked very well in both MTW and STW:MI. It was fun trying out other ages, and it gave a good spread of technology.

On a more positive note 1 does seem to indicate that the game can actually play for more than 225 turns, but then again so could RTW past AD 14.

The more they say the more I dislike it. This is no longer the TW games I grew to love. Well, that is the way with most revolutionay games...