This is the point I’m getting to. Now I can’t comment on the complete lack of animation nor any animation as I don’t have the demo and couldn’t play it anyway BUT…

…..taking that fancy “bloom” away and zooming out it appears to me from the screenshots everyone’s providing that the graphics are at least “no better” than Rome. The battlefields appear to be bigger though, the settlements have more detail etc but the “nuts-n-bolts” of what counts – i.e. Military units – doesn’t seem to be as large a leap as we’d all thought.

To be honest the Lack of horse animation sounds like a Beta-test issue that shouldn’t be in the finished game.