Overall this board is quite enjoyable. I really like the extra touches of the castles, churches and spies bring. One thing I would like to see is some way to attack other people's horses, so they can't just drop units there 2-3 turns in a row with little you can do to stop it. I would suggest an artillery attack, either from your own horses, or maybe even better from the spies (either say that the horses are warring against one another or that the spy is managing to sow discontent among the troops.)

Edit: The map designer added a "Mercenary Battles" option specifically covering my comments above. I have bumped the rating from 8 to 9 for that. Note that I have not tried the new option as of yet - my rating might change again later after I have had the opportunity to do so.

Favorite board by far.