Hi UglyandHasty: I can't comment about the MP side of the game, but I have some sympathy with your "so close" conclusion on the SP game.

You may be a bit harsh on some specifics - for example, you can rush, but you don't have to, at least on normal with the longer victory conditions. And I don't think the map or research tree are too small - I would say they are both just right for the setting. I had to make some real decisions on tech and could not learn everything. I think the chokepoints on the MP are deliberate and help give a challenging strategic AI without resorting to an abstract Risk type map.

However, much as I admire the game objectively, I don't find myself drawn back to it. I guess I just prefer the scale of some of the earlier titles, even if they are less polished.

With a new computer, you might try Empire Total War. When it came out, I found it almost unplayable due to my computer and some teething troubles, now I find it is the TW game I play the most. I suspect the naval battles and near global strategic map need a good computer to shine. I'm also giving NTW another run around - as you might expect from the chronology, it's kind of an intermediate between ETW and STW2; it has some of the scale of the former and some of the polish of the latter. But I have no idea what they are like MP.

I guess I will go back to STW2 in due course - it's one of the best titles for the AI, is very well done overall and has some innovations (e.g. levelling general's and making agents fun) that bode well for the series.