Bots to your measure
At the home, under Play, choose your rivals: easy, fair or hard. Easy bots think slowly, notice an attack late and sometimes blunder; hard ones react at once and waste nothing. All of them strike back when an army bites their land: they hit its lord where it fights.
Three coups
A third part of the bar, keys 7 to 9. The troublemaker walks to another lord's land and raises it: it turns free, held by rebels. Archers loose a volley near your border and thin the enemy army under it. Greek fire burns the works where it falls, and no one may build there for a minute. Each coup costs twice as much with each use.
Armies at their own pace, battles you can see
Villages levy the armies, one at a time each. The raid goes a quarter faster than the host, the levy a quarter slower. Soldiers march in columns, form ranks facing the enemy and fall in battle. And when a village is lost, the peasants it can no longer feed fall sick.
A trade network
Each market reaches 40 tiles and is joined to its neighbours by a paved road. Caravans go from market to market toward a destination drawn by lot, far ones and allies' more often. An enemy who cuts the road takes the caravan and the gold it carries.
A map that grows richer up close
From afar, the washes and the works' silhouettes; closer, hatched hills, woods, fields and rivers; up close, single trees, chimney smoke and peasants at work. Borders with your allies are green, bitten ones red and ravaged, and the HUD is larger and clearer.