The invalid error message didnt come up and i was able to apply ti but it still went straight to vanilla. I was looking at the EB play shortcut that wa sin my start menu after i installed it and here was the target and start location

target-------"C:\Users\Gavin\RTW\Rome - Total War\RomeTW.exe" -show_error

start in ------- "C:\Users\Gavin\RTW\Rome - Total War"

I installed rtw to program files the creative assembly but i made a new folder and copied those files and put them in my user area and thats where i installed EB too.

Does that help u at all?

also thanks for ur help so far