Thinking if only they would have epic battles like this in TES it would make quests like the civil war way more exciting and enjoyable. I would've liked 1 big epic battle to decide the fate of skyrim happen on the plains of whiterun with the dovahkin and alduin (or some other powerful dragon) being the deciding factors in the war.

IMO many quests feel hollow because they lack that feeling of depth or epic battle

This is why we have Mount and Blade

The only way to make this work is to have "enemies" appear in the distance as 2D sprites and spawn real enemies closer as each wave hits, as each enemy is defeated their corpse would fade away since this would still slow even the beefiest computer to a halt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2DshotexMU

Yep.

I think total war games are better...the only thing better about mount and blade is that you can control a character and lead your men into battle.

As for the the problems having huge battles, obviously you can't have thousands of people fighting in this engine but you could find creative ways to make it feel that way as in what you've said...maybe it's just wishful thinking