If you look at RTW vanilla, it's actually quite a good achievement. They made units which were all unique and useful on the battlefield. Every unit had its own unique purpose, it's own niche. In EB, though the research is unsurpassed, the art jaw-dropping, and the level of detail godly, a lot of the units are the same functionally. There are 50 types of javelin-throwing spearmen which all function pretty much the same. That's what made RTW such a good strategy game. Even though you had stupid units like berserkers and flaming pigs, they allowed for more unique armies in battle.

It also provided some of us *ahem* with enough insight on a historical topic to want to research it further. I can't say I ever heard of silver shields or Pontos before RTW, but it gave me some names that I could then read about further in books.