Quote Originally Posted by TinCow View Post
ETW breaks my heart. The engine is easily the best TW engine I've ever played. We all thought gunpowder combat wouldn't work very well with the TW system, but I actually find it even more enjoyable than melee. On top of that, the naval battle engine is absolutely superb and they are hugely fun to fight. ETW really has more potential than any other TW game IMO.

And then there's the AI. It's absolutely miserable. Well, the battle AI is finally tolerable (except for sieges, of course), but the campaign AI is as idiotic as ever. The game is rarely challenging, even at the highest difficult levels... and the few times it is challenging it is because of handicaps placed on the player, not because the AI plays well. This is a trend that has existed in every single TW game since RTW, and it's ruined all of them for me.

I bought ETW on faith that this time they had learned their lesson and would do it right. They didn't. I haven't played ETW in months now; it's not even installed on my computer. Unless a future patch significantly improves the campaign AI, I now consider myself done with TW games. If CA think that my complaints are excessive criticism, then they don't need to worry about hearing them again in the future. I certainly won't be complaining about a game I haven't bought.
Amen!

I disagree about the campaign AI being idiotic starting with RTW. It was just as stupid in MTW1. Did you ever try to give a well developed empire to the AI in MTW1 and then take it back after 20 turns? Oh man... The mess the AI could do...