I don't like the idea of a council of nobles giving you missions et al if you're supposed to be leader. I'd prefer you were the one dishing out orders to your minions and those orders they choose to perform whether or not it's in their interest and they like you. I always think you really have too much direct control over everything in TW games, which doesn't seem particularly realistic even if you make a 'realism' mod out of CA's efforts. A king isn't particularly powerful if he doesn't have his nobles on-side, and surely much of the standing armies of the era aren't directly under king's command anyway, so good relations with them should be a must. I'd rather you influence their armies and political stance through a series of requests/bribes/suggestions etc, but certainly not through doing silly assassination missions or whatever for them whenever they ask you to roll over like a dog for them. Tis embarassing for a sovereign of a state.

Still, hopefully it's all an improvement over RTW's pretty shallow gameplay.