On the cusp...

[thejeff]

I agree about the maps. Even an SP game is likely to last many hours. Waiting a few minutes on start up is no big deal. If it's a concern about demonstrating it to new players, who might be turned off before getting hooked, start with an existing map.

I do think the animated map arrows are silly. Turning them off isn't an answer. You need to see where the troops are going, but there was no need to animate them.

More detail in battle reports would be nice. Being able to see at a glance which commanders died and whether you lost any good troops or just the arrow fodder.

And I do still touch taxes. Mostly because the minimum (50%) is too high. If a province has high unrest, say 50+, I want taxes to 0, to get it back up quickly.