I’ve got mixed feelings about the new game. I know i’ll buy it and enjoy it, as I have all their games (since that tantalising demo of Shogun and the agonising 3 month wait for the release), but i’m worried there hasn’t been enough progress. I strongly believe that this series is best suited to a real-time strategic map in the EU style. I don’t hate TB gaming but in the TW context I find it extremely limiting and frustrating. It has so many flaws and consequances that inhibit realism and gameplay which are only exacerbated by CA’s decision to reduce the number of turns to 2 a year.
The other announcement that sucked the wind right out of my anticipation sails was that they’re sticking to the rigid 20 unit limit per army. This just reduces the game to a series of fun but indecisive skirmishes. With this limit there’s unlikely to be significant battles that change the shape of the world. Battles where you can look back at as the defining point in your campaign. No Austerlitz, Assye nor Waterloo. It also takes away a massive advantage from the AI as you can almost guarantee to never be outnumbered.
That’s one of the reasons the endgames lack the excitement of the early game. After a certain point there’s almost no point playing. Once your nation is establised and you’ve rolled out your first 20 unit uber stack the end result is inevitable. Hopefully the AI will either match pace with the player (the way the original Medieval’s did) or the improved diplomacy will see proper alliances aganst any would be Napoleons.

LOLOL

But yes, it does look excellent, now at least.

I agree with the comments about how Total War games just get too strenuous after a time. I’ve been playing Medieval II recently for two centuries (and it feels like it, too), and when the Danes declared war on me for no reason (another complaint I have) I just thought: that’s it, I can’t fight a billion wars at once and expand my empire and appease the Pope and lift the dozen sieges on my cities. A faster pace, perhaps? (Though I shudder to consider the effort of managing the entire world.)

I’ve also been musing about a modern Total War series. Obviously expanding your empire by force wouldn’t be as much a viable option (unless you’re Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia, say), but exerting cultural and hegemonic power over other states (e.g. how Canada and the United Kingdom are arguably under the thrall of the US) might be a intriguing gameplay concept.

EDIT: Actually maybe not, not northern enough.

Looks pretty great.

Looks almost identical, they even use the same perspective in some of the shots. One to keep an eye on.