Quietus, where would I be without you? I'll repay you in kind if ever I can. So I gather the game has completely different challenges from STW and MTW, like concentrating on the long term (building durable armies and strengthening your family faction) and all sorts of new battlefield phenomena (the Cavalry run-through effect, etcetera). As long as these are equally exciting as the old ones I guess it's no big loss, it's just become a whole different game. I still don't like what I hear about the AI, though I realise it's early days. And i do like what I hear about the strategic map and the battlefield maps being more or less integrated, that seems to be a really new feature and working well, too.

Oh well, the campaign is getting hectic. The Senate is giving me crazy missions and my reward was a mercenary unit or $1000 denari (for capturing a Carthagian town)
Yeah, I can tell you're up poo creek, and boy do you love it!