5 rounds feels long, thats true, but its necessary. If there is not enough rounds, the "losing team" doesnt have the luxury of making a tactical "save round" in order to come back stronger in full heavy infantry mode the next one. The more rounds there is, the more tactical it will be IMO. I'd even go out of my way and say that maybe clan battles could last even longer.
So far i am liking the Battle mode, havent played it a lot, but i have nothing negative to say about the mode itself. There is one particular map that i do not like and it is the cavalry one. There should be no map that forces us to all play cavalry. This aserai cavalry map is simply boring, if you do not comply and play cavalry, you cannot play the game at all. No map should force you into a role, especially in a mode that might become the main competitive one.
Sure i could retell the old stories about how the warband loot system is so much better and blah blah blah, but its pointless. In the current state of the game, the battle mode that i am looking, which was creating a lot of pessimism on this forums, turns out to be just fine imo.
Is there a reason why the skirmish maps cannot be adapted to the battle mode ? Especially the aserai one. Some of these other maps would only need 1 or 2 walls removed and would be just fine.