I have been thinking about what I think may be one of the major limitations of Warband; it is so obvious and seems innocuous, but it really has major implications-- I'm talking about the fact that the AI for both sides knows the ground truth location of enemy forces; there is no detection and identification based on terrain and actual line of sight and no uncertainty due to positions changing since last observed, or latencies to communicate information from observer to commander.
This takes away >75% of a real military commander's work, and the ability to achieve tactical brilliance.
a. You really have to balance risk-- commit resources away from main body to reduce uncertainty-- but no too much or forces will be too dispersed
Scouts-- discover enemy and maintain knowledge of location of forces
Skirmish/Pickets-- detect enemy forces and delay long enough to deploy main body
Screening force-- prevents contact between enemy and friendly forces with dedicated mission
Communications-- you have to communicate with forces that are not all lumped together, and this takes time and causes delays
b. Terrain masking, concealment, selection of avenues of approach are essential parts of military actions, but of little value
when the enemy knows your exact location all the time.
c. Deception, feints, and other tactics to create reactions/opportunities to exploit are not possible.
d. Tactical formations are not nearly as usefull as in real life, since it is so hard to flank / be flanked when you know at all times where
opposing force is located and formations are constantly shifting to face enemy.
e. Great commanders are those who are comfortable operating in an environment of uncertainty; you never experience this in warband.
Bottom Line-- Starting with forces farther apart, without knowledge of positions of each other unless actually observed (and with time out of observation, this information would lose value) would make the game so much more interesting, and could make this game absolutely incredible.