Is the game in its current state worth installing?

[The Stranger]

tbh im not even sure what the drawback is of being insane... you lose some authority but gain zeal. and i have no clue what these traits are for in the first place. all i got from the cyclopedia is that its somehow related to agents trying to murder your dudes...

[Sp4]

Authority = moral for units on the battlefield, Zeal = melee attack for units on the battlefield (not sure if archers too), Cunning = Melee defence.

[Papewaio]

3 generals, 1 admiral.

My pious general believes he is a teapot. -6 authority, +2 Zeal (maybe +3).

I'm not sure if his rank or his zeal has unlocked a special ability of intimidate.

I play him to form. His army has the halo like standard and the general is in a lot of hand to hand combat. If I lose him big deal, until then he can froth at the mouth at the front lines and scare friend and foe alike.

[AntiDamascus]

I realized I didn't actually answer the question (not that anyone has asked me to) :D

Yes, I quite enjoy the game. The loading times between turns is sometimes a flow breaker but nothing has really made me turn off or uninstall the game. I've only logged a few hours so maybe it gets worse later.

[quadalpha]

I think being on the fence is for those who haven't bought it yet. Just install the thing and find out for yourself!

Re: authority, zeal, cunning. If you select your army on the campaign map, your general's face should show in the bottom left. Mouse over the attributes there and it'll explain exactly what each one is doing.

[Quillan]

With regards to question 5, units can only go from land onto transports at certain points on the coastline. Usually it requires a port or a specific section of beach. They cannot magically sail across a river. Early in my Rome campaign, I took the two northern cities from the Etruscan league and found that two small remnant armies sneaked past one of mine running south through Italy. I pursued them, only to have them run way down towards the tip of the boot before they found a port on the coast that wasn't part of a city, where they went sailing back to Corsica to get away.

[Akka]

For now, the game is just not good enough to bother. I've barely played it and was bored nearly immediately.
The repulsive interface and questionable (read : retarded) design decisions like the "magic ships" completely gutted my desire to play.
And the cramped zoom just make it annoying to look at the map.