Well put Dionysus9!

I specifically want to comment on:

Quote Originally Posted by Dionysus9
Fifth, TW SP is maxed out. You can't really do much more with the strategy map in my opinion-- the future is the battles, and MP ones at that. The AI is limited (look, Kasparov can still beat Big Blue). If I wanted to play strategy map, I'd play CIV III or something. TW is different because of the battles--why is CA de-emphasising that? To "fit in" with the other big titles? Wake up--you can't take their market share, you have to create your own niche.
The RTW single player game is great *despite* the enemy AI. Even the stellar reviews for RTW comment on this directly or indirectly. Further enhancing the AI through compensation (numbers and strength) is transparent.

There is a great opportunity to truly do something new in TWs market space and create gameplay that addresses the AI limitations.

Polishing the Multiplayer is a step, but a bigger step (and more rewarding for both sides) would be to start plugging the multiplayer into the strategy/single player experience.

I've mentioned before the idea of having an additional option when going into battle mode from the single player game: 'Fight Online'. This would host your current battle online for other players to join. Pathing and AI issues solved and for perhaps less R&D dollars that would yield something close to a human opponent. You make the single player game stronger, you make the multiplayer community larger and you surely break some ground and create a bigger niche.

[note: I make no claims to this idea if it is used]

Just consider the attributes of this gameplay:

The player would have the option to password the game so a specific friend could join to take control of the enemy. Or just anyone from the online community could join and you could get a tough general or a weak one -- part of the fog of war.

Battles with reinforcements would mean more seats for players to join. The coordination of reinforcements could be thrilling compared to what the AI does. Think of having a human controlling one of your allied reinforcements.

I think this would be stellar!

A similar thing was done with the Close Combat series and I played both with passworded games and open. I would never have to wait long for someone to join the open games. In the event you got a smacktard you would be able to boot them and rehost.

Something like this idea is what I expect CA to be working on. I expected this type of effort for RTW frankly.