This should work with any version of EBII.
The unit sprites - the 2D pictures of units that replace the 3D models when you zoom out - are drawn at a pretty short distance in EBII. To increase that distance, one has to edit numbers in lots and lots of lines in the modeldb file (I explain here how to do it manually), which is very tedious. So I wrote a quick Python 3 script to do that automatically instead, and thought I would share it in case anyone wants to use it!
Disclaimer: I made this for my own use and have only done a bit of testing. Use at your own risk! Always make backups! I do not take responsibility for anything that might go wrong.
How to use:
1) Install Python 3 if you don't have it (go here: https://www.python.org/downloads/ and pick the latest version of Python 3).
2) Download the attached file increase_sprite_distance.zip from this post (or copy the code below and paste it into a new file that you name with a .py extension), unzip it, and put the unzipped .py file in the folder .../Medieval II Total War/mods/ebii/data/unit_models
3) Run the file with Python3. You will be promted to enter a number to multiply the draw distance by, for example 3 or 4.5
4) A new file called battle_models_EDITED.modeldb will appear. move the original file; battle_models.modeldb, to some other location and remove "_EDITED" from the name of the new file.
5) Play!
To undo the changes, just paste the original battle_models.modeldb into .../Medieval II Total War/mods/ebii/data/unit_models and overwrite.
Mods: I hope it is okay to post scripts in this forum. It's trivial to open the file with a text editor to make sure it does what I claim it does. This is the code in the attached file:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Note: If you want to remove the drawing of sprites altogether, then you can simply open medieval2.preference.cfg in the Medieval II main folder and set unit_detail to highest rather than using this.
Note2: I don't know what maximum integer value they use. If it's low, setting too high a factor could cause weird behavior. But you remembered to save the original file, right?