Napoleonic Total War certainly wasn't balanced, but it sure was fun. I recall that the British, Russians and Prussians had a major advantage, and the French...well...The French were quite nasty, although they nerfed them a little in later versions.

The point, though, is that every faction was different. Most Russian infantry couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from inside the barn, but if you put them in melee they could outfight anybody. The British were deadly accurate, but their line infantry cost 100 points more than anybody elses. And so on.

You had to figure out a different way to play as each faction, because NONE of them were identical. If you tried to play a French army with Prussian forces, you'd get your butt kicked, because Prussian cavalry wasn't so hot next to the shiny French Horse Grenadiers. You would CERTAINLY lose if you tried a conventional, stand-up fight against an equivalent force as Spain, but I do enjoy telling people about the time I routed two armies with a single force of Spaniards though sheer, ballsy, cleverness. And grapeshot.

Anyway, not all factions should be equal. This is true. Some factions should be better than others at some things.

Rock, Paper, Scissors is the ultimate in strategy-game stupidity and should die a horrible, horrible, death.

Light infantry and grenadiers should also come in units equivalent in size to standard line. That annoyed me right from the start.

Get to work, CA!

Oh, wait, I'm not a screaming MP fanboy who's only other strategy game experience was Starcraft. Curses.