I found this in the gameplay article, page 2:
I am a bit relieved. Wonder if Craig will read this and can add something more but whatever... sounds good so far.One example of this kind of refinement will be the ability to govern whole provinces made up of a number of individual regions. Rather than delving into the micromanagement of each individual territory, it sounds like it’ll be possible to set policies for an entire region – but when it comes to warfare, each one of those areas will need to be conquered separately. “We still have that strategic depth where a province is made of up several regions which you can conquer”, Russell says. “And what that means is that you can have the benefit of scale but you don’t have the management detail.”
Looks like your control regions and provinces, like in ETW but the smaller towns and villages within that region would be conquerable separately. This sounds good and obviously thats what I am looking forward to in previews. So hurry the hell up Craig and let us know.
Anyway, also looks like beach landings are a confirmed feature. Maybe we can have viking raids too. For instance, raiding a town.