Lets face it. The game, AS IS, once you get past the fantastic graphics and the *newness* of it all simply BLOWS. I haven't played in about 10 days because I'm already sick of it. I've tried the Realism MOD and that doesn't help one bit. I can only pray that the patch addresses the vast majority of the problems with the game. Let’s e be honest, the AI is horrendous, both on the strategic and tactical level (which is worse?) and diplomacy is a JOKE! If the basic mechanics of the game are not fixed, then the game –for me at least- will not be played. Before the game came out, and for about the two weeks that I played it heavily, I wondered who in the hell could go back to Medieval? Now I know. Me.

The most egregious *$&%-up, without a doubt, is the suicidal Generals. How -how I ask you- did that get past the testers? And someone above posted that the poor battle AI, i.e., your AI, general-led forces, are realistic because they often sought to backstab each other, is out of their mind. NO, it’s like that because the AI is abysmal. My god, I just realized, my 11-year-old nephew has played it and is WINNING his campaign, and he’s as dumb as a box of rocks! Pathetic.