Rome is clearly the best game in the series. The new features, strategic map gameplay, graphics, animations, scope, depth, etc. all help it rise head and shoulders above its predecessors. My marathon sessions of Medieval don't even come close to the ones I've devoted to playing Rome.

My primary reason for loving the TW series are the tactical battles, it's what gets my blood up, especially when the opportunity to fight a massive battle presents itself. Now that we have thousands of 3D animated soldiers to play with instead of 2D sprites the experience is made that much better and much more immersive. The randomly generated battle maps add to the experience, especially now that they better reflect the local terrain and climate. The fact that the strategic gameplay has been so drastically improved over previous TW games sweetens the overall experience but it still comes down to the battles.

Tragically the tactical AI in Rome is either insufficiently improved over the last patched version of Medieval or is in some ways worse and I have a hard time coming to terms with this. Unless corrected it will seriously affect my long term enjoyment of this game.

For right now the game has put me in a most pleasant state of mind...