One thing I've noticed, is that when I mouse over "test display mode" in the options, "stratagey map resolution" blinks...
so I changed it from 800x600 to 1024x768 (these are the only 2 options it gives me....) and niether of them work, could that be the problem? also I was wondering what is "software mode" and why doesn't MTW have it, where as every other total war game does have it?