The patch this Friday is fixing some of the auto-resolve issues.
Now that I've played some more, I'll say that the game does have some significant issues for me, at least in terms of gameplay. It seems that I might be in the minority, but I haven't run into any bugs at all, at least in terms of graphical issues, slow downs, glitches, or the like. The game runs flawlessly for me at maximum settings.
But the gameplay does have some flaws. And I'm not sure that they are fixable, as it seems that they might be in part due to the game engine that they are using.
1. When units contact each other, they "blob" together and fail to simulate historical warfare. This makes it extremely difficult to keep a battle line. Even units in Phalanx formation struggle to do this.
2. They got rid of family trees, and people die too quickly. I liked the depth you had in other games where you managed your characters and tried to create a dynasty. If something bad happened to your general, like he ran away, he could develop bad traits as well. Or in Medevil I where you had to marry your daughters off to your generals to keep them loyal. That's all gone here. Now your generals are essentially faceless characters and all I care about is their stats. Plus they die so quickly you can't get attached anyway.
3. Battles are over far too quickly. This should be a quick fix, but as is the balance is terrible. You spend 5-10 minutes at most maneuvering, and then everything is over in 2 minutes. Not even enough time to get a good flank or rear charge tactic working. This is somewhat better later game as you get better units, but not totally good.
4. Campaign AI. For campaign, diplomatic AI isn't that great. It is very hard to get a trade agreement, even when it is beneficial to them as well, unless you pay out monies. Additionally, there are a lot of units getting stuck in loops. For instance, in my Sparta Campaign I wanted to attack Athens so I could take the Region. However, someone else was sieging the port, so I couldn't. Since they only sieged the port, Athens could get supplies so they could hold out forever. However, I wasn't allowed to attack it from land since it was under siege by another faction.
This lasted for 20 turns with no moves by either side. I eventually had to declare war on the faction besieging by sea, attack their fleet, drive it off, and then attack Athens.
I've noticed this behavior on 3-4 different cities that I can see. There is one port in Roman territory that has been under siege for at least 30 turns now.
5.There are also a lot of problems with the battle AI. It is too focused on objectives. Units will literally try to "run through" your units in order to cap the objective. This mostly results in you slaughtering their units, but on occasion when they have a ton trying to do the same thing they'll break apart your formation and your units will panic.
Also, the battle AI can't use the Phalanx formation at all. They never enter it, instead just charging like a regular spear unit.
I still have hopes for this game. Even with my complaints, it is still fun in a way and still has the "just one more turn" addiction. I am highly hopeful with some patches and, mostly, great mods we will have a real Gem here. My main concern is that the game engine won't ever be able to properly depict combat like it should.
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