So what are your thoughts on how 1.5 is performing?

[Slaists]

Screenshots or replays next time please. :)

Yeah, I know. Need to learn to use that fraps ap. that I'm running in the background.

On a different note:

1. Diplomacy is still crap.

2. The Black knight syndrome is still present. Playing as France, Wurtemberg declared war in turn 4 or 5, while being able to field just a couple militia units. Fine, I destroyed the milita and offered them piece while my full stack was standing right next to the city. My offer was discarded as a grave insult to a "glorious nation". Fine, I captured Wurtemberg and decided to build it up a bit before attempting to trade it to Westphalia in exchange for protectorate agreement. As soon as the turn was over, my friendly neighbor Bavaria declared war. In disgust I reloaded an autosave and gave Wurtemberg to my enemies: the Innuit...

3. Fort battles are still retarded.... The wall cannons cannot hit anything despite starting to shoot much earlier than pre-1.4. As to "improved pathfinding": the AI is still hell bent on capturing the "magic flag". So, as far as a player defending a fort is concerned, the best defense is organizing a mouse trap around the town square and shooting the flag-hunters to pieces same as it was since the release of the ETW.

4. Cavalry's charge does not seem to break in bushes and trees. This was a 'feature' introduced already in 1.4. Cavalry seems to be able to "send the troops flying" even when running through trees.

5. The chain shot rules the high seas. Chain shot still has 100 more range than the round shot. Tip for the players: do not build anything higher than 5th rates (and even those are a waste). 6th rates and sloops are fully capable of demasting and subsequently destroying fleets of 2nd rates.

6. Choppy battle map: scrolling of the battle map is back to what it was before 1.3 - choppy as hell... Selecting a fleet at times results in 2-3 minute long map freeze same as it was before 1.3. Note that in 1.3 neither of these problems were present (at least for me).

There are good things too, but, in balance, CA'ers have managed to break as many things as they fixed...