So how did you discover (and/or come to play) MTW?

[Martok]

I just realized that for as much as we talk about the game, I've rarely seen any discussion over how we initially discovered it and/or came to start playing it in the first place. (At least not since before I was a senior member -- if there *have* been extensive discussions about this particular topic, it's been so long ago that I myself must have been a relative newbie at the time!) Anyway, I'm curious as to how everyone here found out about MTW.

For myself, it was the simple fact that I'd already owned (and had been playing quite extensively) its predecessor Shogun. Until STW, I'd never really played another game like it, and I was utterly enthralled by it. And given that I've long had a fascination with the medieval period, you can imagine how excited I was when I heard that CA was working on a sequel that took place during the Crusades! I got Medieval as a Christmas gift (in 2002), and it's stayed on the hard drive of my computer ever since.