Preview at IGN

[pevergreen]

Shows some interesting things.

Recruit Units on General
Mughals are in
Instead of religion its political freedom

Here's the link, there is a second page.

[NagatsukaShumi]

Sounds fairly interesting to me and its nice to know of all the range of factions present.

[Mailman653]

Interesting indeed.

[sapi]

Recruiting big armies in Medieval II or in Rome require you to issue individual production orders in a number of different provinces. Empire will allow you to build large armies simply by recruiting units at your general. He'll then translate that request into production orders in nearby provinces.

Hmm...has the potential to be good, or to fail utterly. Be interesting to see which

Similarly, players of previous Total War games have had to balance each of their provinces individually to maximize tax output and minimize unrest. Now, the game makes use of a more comprehensive tool to manage things across your entire empire.

Now this I do like the sound of, if done properly....

[Trax]

From the Gamestar preview thread ar TWC

Apparantly we will get three kind of governments: Absolute Monarch, Constitutional monarch or Republic.

The diplomacy AI will be improved Alot according to them. And other monarch factions will dislike the fact if your empire/kingdom becomes a republic.

The taxes will be paid in a new way.
From nobility, citizens and peasants. They will pay their taxes separately.

Also, it seems like we will get north africa, south and north america, and the indies.