Quote Originally Posted by Caravel
My main issue so far is the blatent stupidity of the AI on the campaign map. It's either cat and mouse chases, or pathetically weak attacks that are doomed to failure.
I recall that, then I started playing at Very Hard campaign difficulty and it never bothered me again. The AI gets loads of money and so comes at you with full stacks until it is really crippled.

With regard to battles I still feel that cavalry are overpowered, even light cavalry. Morale is pathetic, 90% of the time either one side or the other routs if their hit by any kind of flank attack.
Absolutely. That's why you need to play a realism mod - both RTR and EB fix this (RTR may even overdo it).

When it comes to battles, Rome's battles have got absolutely nothing on either Medieval or Shogun.
Generally true, although with RTR or EB on VH campaigns, you can get some very large battles. They still go much faster than STW or MTW, and are more repetitive, so they feel less epic.

Also one of my pet hates is the lack of the "engage at will" and "hold formation" functions, instead I seem to have units that seem to be always on "engage at will"...
They do have that - the shield button is for hold formation; the default is engage at will.

I am warming to it though...
Try RTR Platinum edition.