Seiges

[B-Wing]

I think Duke John and Divinus Arma have some great ideas. The "siege view" sounds simple and engaging enough to be worth implimenting while still providing the degree of realism needed to make sieges last longer than 1.5 turns. I think it'd be really awesome and satisfying to zoom into "siege view" to admire the damage you've done to a city with each passing turn.

To expand just a little, the sieges could also choose to target buildings, to worsen the condition of the defenders in situations where the sieging army is attempting to starve out the enemy rather than storm the city.

And I also agree with econ21 that the inability to knock down ladders is very strange.

[Trax]

The most important improvement would be AI that knows (from both tactical and strategic point of view) when to assault and when to starve out the defenders. This would improve the performance of strategic AI a lot.