Hmm, in regards to the auto crusade talk, I should mention that I had participated in alpha 1, and the crusade system -barely existed- back then. As in, ALL fights were auto resolved by default, and it was basically a stat calculation that also appeared to have some amount of RNG baked into it at the time. General abilities (and generals at that) did not even exist at the time.
Alpha 2 added actual battles, but it also introduced a prototype of the banner system that was subsequently taken out during beta 1 and 2 testing. During alpha phase 2, you basically had weekly objectives that you had to meet, or else your morale/finances would plummet. Some objectives had cumulative progress meaning it was possible to get way ahead (such as winning fights that increased daily income and defeating specific armies as quest objectives), but others only counted for the specific week that you attempted to do them. One such objective in the latter category was to win at least 2 army fights per week. This forced people to 'ration' fights near immediately.
If the stuff from alpha 2 had made it into the full game, there would have been way more raging involved from everyone.
