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[Alexander the Pretty Good]

The morale issue isn't necessarily so cool. It sounds like they could just be minimizing morale's effects. The speed of the battles I think was first and foremost movemenet and killing, not routing. Chivalry TW (since the old release, at least) had very delicate morale but units moved slower and killed slower. It was certainly better than RTW.

Morale isn't the only way to slow battles; only changing that specific factor I think would backfire - arcade mode, anyone?

EDIT

Thankfully a feature has already been added to allow you to see what kind of reaction other leaders are likely to give to your offers before they're proposed.

Wow. A feature I didn't know of before AND actually wanted! A miracle!

I am excited about E3 for MTW2, though. Maybe some tasty brain-washing video.