Demo out on 22 February 2011

[Lord Adherbal]

I played the historical battle several times, my conclusions were:
-Run speed is very high
-Arrow volleys seem too powerful. I imagine if you had an archer duel opening a MP battle the side with just 1 less archer unit will be annihilated in no time. I doubt there is much time for light cavalry skirmishing during the archer duel either.
-I completely surrounded whole blobs of enemy units several times. The results were disappointing. The AI has higher quality units, but I feel that's exactly what surrounding should counter. It doesn't. The first 2 yari cavalry units took forever to destroy even when completely surrounded, and casualties on my side where very high. Other times the blob just broke through and routed by forces. I have the feeling since RTW surrounding no longer affects fighting performance, only morale. Meaning that if you can't actualy break them, a stronger unit will still cut you to pieces no problem.
-Yari ashigura units breaking before I even had time to get another unit around the flank of the attacker. Sure they're peasants and it will up against a higher level katana unit, but if they can't even be expected to hold half a minute the RPS gameplay seems a bit too extreme. Peasants or not, yaris are supposed to be a defensive unit, right?