There is definitly no pre-shot-calculating in Rome, and I haven't seen it in MTW2.
In Rome its easier to see:
Your General attacks spear-throwers. He retreats. They throw spears. What do you do? Moving ahaed and get hid by the spears? No, you make a turn and with a bit of luck NO spear hits your general - they all fall down far ahead of him (or left or right...).
In the same way your auto-fire rangeunits can kill your general just because you altered his target after the shot and he got in the way.