I don't think the numbers will change much. Yes they could do something along the lines of saying your ship carries more but in the end, as the other person said, only so much current graphics can do. Total War is kept to a decent graphics level so lots of people can play it.

While I don't think people would want to be slaughtered the same is true. I heard countless people complain when MTW 2 came out about how unfair the mongols were, how they had so many soliders, how their archers were so much better yada yada. Some people like historical barely surviving odds, some don't. Still more and more they want to attract the general RTS crowd which is a crowd that dosn't want alot of thinking, just a little thinking now and then. Look at how well C&C 3 sold compared to MTW 2. Don't kid yourself CA wants sales, they'll keep it historic, but if they can shift things from historic to fun they'll pick fun everytime.