I don't buy Total War games any more unless there's a mod I want to play. I didn't get Medieval 2 until I heard EB II was coming out, and I'm pretty sure I'll never buy Empire Total War. Unfortunately, there's no way for the companies to know this. It's one of those invisible statistics. Far simpler to just assume that people playing older mods when your new game comes out are not buying the new game - that's probably what I look like to them.

But the truth of the matter is I've never trusted CA's vanilla campaigns ever since war dogs were, apparently, the most powerful unit on the ancient era battlefield. Which is a shame, since I genuinely enjoyed the Shogun Total War single player (no sieges, yay!).

From everything I've read, I made the right decision. I mean, who wants to play an Empire-era game where the AI can't manage a naval invasion or send the Europeans after India? And really, Sun Tzu as an AI design guide? That's a steaming pile of bullcrap - elephant sized. Programming an AI is genuinely hard, but knowing the basics of what you want it to do isn't. Pure propaganda, especially in a game where espionage is so basic.