Seconded, Morale is very important in tactical combat. Without morale it is pretty much i got a bigger army so i win, which is unrealistic. I play alot of WHFB, with my new chaos army : P, and it is soo fun to have a much smaller army and smash the opponent to peices and see him run from one awesome charge.
I personally thing the way WHFB does moral is supperiour to say the way Total War does. But that is my opinion. Becaused, if your soilders kill say 10 of their and they kill 1 of yours per round, and then they flank you with a second unit why should my soilder instant break instead of fighting a few rounds till my soilders are the ones taking greater casulties. After all what good is Evil super soilders if they runaway why outnumbered by peasents who they can kill in their thousands?
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Boring rule explaination to why i think WHFB morale checks is superiour to TW games
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For those who don't know WHFB rules morale works by each unit having a Leadership stat (ld). Every round of combat points are allocated for things like, how many wounds taken(casulties or in the case of really scary monster how close they are to death), whether the unit has a standard bearer, how many ranks they have, whether they outnumber. And typically its one point per wound, one point for flanking, 1 for a standard bearer(most units have a standard bearer in the front rank as part of the 'command group' of the unit) and one for each (complete) rank and so on(there is acutally quite along list of them). Scores are totaled and the loser has to take a 'panic test' where they role 2 dices and attempt to get equal to or under their LD minus how much they lost.
So lets say i've got: 12 armoured knights fighting in two ranks of 6
and i'm facing 2 groups of swordmen (20 each in 4 ranks of 5), one of which is flanking the knights.
So combat would work out something like this.
Armoured knights being in every way superiour to swordsmen, 2 of my knights have died in exchange for 6 from one group and 3 from the other.
My points would be: Their points would be:
1 for standard bearer 2 for their standard bearers
9 for wounds caused 2 for wounds
1 for flanking
First unit has 14 only so only 1 rank (the front rank is not counted)
The second unit has 2 complete ranks. 3 Total points from ranks
1 point from outnumbering
total: 10 Total:9
In this case the swordmen lose combat and must role 2 d6s and get lower than their leadership,most men have Ld7. So would have below a 6. Of course when they break they begin fleeing and my knights have to option to persue in which case if they reach them they all die, no saving them. However if they escape the onslaught next turn they can attempt to rally in which case they would have to roll 2 6d and get under 7. In which case the unit reforms and fights on. Units within range (6 inches) of fleeing or destroyed units have to take a panic test as well.
In additon there are some other specialist rules like Terror, which dragons, and giants, and their ilk cause. Where any unit within 6 has to take a panic test. A tactic know as terror bombing is where you take a flying terror causing unit like a Dragon, or Deamon, or those type of things and jump around the back of the enemy. So they take their panic test, you are safe because you are behind them, and then you pumle them with spells and breath weapons from said unit, so they take another panic test. Then next turn you hop behind the next unit.
As well as Specialised rules for losing combat agianst such unit. Instant break, unless you roll snake eyes on the panic test. As well as a really nice rule about Heroes and Lords(the respective leaders and genrals which you pay through your teeth for), where any unit in range of them can use their leadership instead of their own. So a peasent could be inspired by say your king and thus have its leadership risen from 7 to 10.
However in the TW games this is a mess. Though i do own the most recent TW game (medival 2) i haven't played it much simply because i like kicking the Romans butts. That said the morale system in R:TW is artosus(like my spelling) in one battle, i with 2 Gaul warbands and a Genral (noble) cavelry unit killied over 2 thousand spaniards who were besieging my city. I waited at the top of the hill, the centre of a barbairan city, and they filed in they charged my warbands and i flanked them with the cavelry and within 20 seconds the entire army was in flight and i persued and killied them all. This really irriated me as I was playing on hard. And the overveiw of the battle was something like- 140 of my men deployed, 14 died, 1800 dead enemies. Anyhow 
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As for the problem with killing their units you could have it so that only units above half strenght return to the owners control. Which would mean you'd have a use for 'fast calavry' (unarmoured knights) whose job would be simply to harrass missle units and hunt down fleeing units. As after all if a unit ran after taking 2 causlties it should catch itself and say "hey wait we did better than we thoug" and turn arround and try and hit the oppnent in the flank. And if above 1/2 and escaping the feild why would it not try and regroup and make a last stand?, after all its not like you beat it throughly.
As for water, I would have though that A. furtile tiles would be near rivers. After all for them to be furtile their has to be green stuff, which needs water, which will drain to somewhere. Hopefully the random map generator can take that into account or you'll have some stange stuff, like huge rivers running through deserts (civ 4) 
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And B thus most cities woulf be situated along a river (which lets face it is realistic), and the actuall control of said water becomes less imporant because you are all on a river. That said posioning rivers would be cool, but as long as the posion doesn't drift upstream to me. Oh and reshaping landscapes so they affect another wizard, diveriting rivers or raising mountains in his feilds should be a act of war. I just hope the AI is clever enough to notices it.
But more importantly I really hope they do Naval warfare. That said thou i know NOTHING of how ancient naval warfare happend, well naval warfare before the cannon. But i would assume it would involve a lot of boarding and ramming. If their arn't seas or naval combat, then you can bet your bottom dollar that they'be in an expanison.
Anywho, thats my 2 pence.
