MTW or RTW? Which is better?

[abrarey]

RTW has better gameplay and more options. But I will like to see a new MTW with the same engine game (or better) of RTW, i think the medieval age is more exciting to play. In RTW, Rome has many advantages over the other factions, but in medieval age the factions don´t have a superadvantage over others factions.
That will be a good idea a new MTW.

[Blacknek]

Gameplay wise - this is quite a retoric question I guess

although I think ROME is easy digestible fun; let's see what the add-on brings to gameplay.

It's not over yet; if the Battle-AI gets decent, this one is a sleep-killer all the way

[Spino]

Medieval is better than Rome.

Rome wins by a landslide in terms of graphics, sound and 'ambience'. No matter how you slice it Rome simply looks and feels 'epic'. The campaign map looks great and plays well and the tactical battles are positively divine to behold. Rome also allows you to do more within any given game, it possesses enormous scope or breadth. However, while Rome makes an incredible first impression once I discovered that it was all breadth and precious little depth it failed to hold my interest. Once the luster of doing all that there is to do wears off one is confronted with the realization that there is tragically little meat on Rome's bones. The abysmal AI is the main culprit, no matter how little or much it has to do it always does a terrible job of it.

Medieval gets points where it really counts. First of all it possesses more 'depth' than Rome. Civil wars, faction revivals, three separate eras, the cuddly Mongols and especially the Glorious Achievement campaign are HUGE bonuses in my book. More importantly, Medieval is simply far more challenging than Rome. In Medieval I would sweat out the decision making process on the strategic map because I knew there were only so many sensible moves I could make and sometimes there was nothing I could do to prevent the AI from taking advantage of a weak position. Massive enemy stacks amassing a few provinces away or worse, on my borders, never failed to put me in a tizzy and get my blood flowing. In Rome I can pretty much play in a semi-comatosed state because you can count on the AI self destructing on both the strategic map and the tactical battles. Rome's shockingly inept tactical AI has provided me with more lopsided victories than I care to count. I honestly can't remember the last time I sweated out a massive battle in Rome the way I did in Medieval. Medieval's tactical AI consistently offered a greater challenge, most of it had to do with it's greater penchance for attempting a massive flanking maneuver, especially when in conjunction with cavalry. I don't recall a single battle in Rome where the AI marched and countermarched its entire army in order to gain an advantage on my flank.

Even in terms of modding Medieval's mods have a much greater impact on gameplay simply because they are more successful in affecting the AI thus making the game more challenging. The ability for modders to actually change the AI's build priorities in MTW had an enormous impact on the challenges presented to the player, especially in tactical battles. In contrast while Rome's mods are far more impressive to behold they do absolutely nothing to make the AI more effective. Even those mods that try to introduce new 'features' still cannot circumvent the fact that the AI will not be able to stop the player from walking all over it.

[Blodrast]

wow, so many things have been pointed out about the differences, that I don't think I can bring much of anything new...or even if I did, it would not make much of a difference anyway.
To make things clear, it's MTW for me as well, no contest there. As the poll actually shows...

edit: I have actually read all the posts from the beginning of this thread up to here, and I find it interesting that _many_ of the older members on this board (older as in having been here for a long time) have not posted at all...
Food for thought (not too much thought, though...).
(hint: could that be an indicator of how many of the people who have experienced STW and MTW come to the RTW forum often enough ? )

[professorspatula]

Medieval is better than Rome.

Rome's shockingly inept tactical AI has provided me with more lopsided victories than I care to count. I honestly can't remember the last time I sweated out a massive battle in Rome the way I did in Medieval. Medieval's tactical AI consistently offered a greater challenge, most of it had to do with it's greater penchance for attempting a massive flanking maneuver, especially when in conjunction with cavalry. I don't recall a single battle in Rome where the AI marched and countermarched its entire army in order to gain an advantage on my flank.

Amen to that.

Tactical manoeuvring was a big part of MTW, and you could spend the opening five minutes of the battle moving your army to the best defensive position, only for the AI to try and go around your position and gain the terrain advantage for themselves, all whilst their missile cavalry attempt to flank and cause you more problems. You feel like you're in a battle even before the first arrow has been fired and the first blood is shed. I remember being led around the Scottish Highlands by rebel Clansmen who wouldn't engage until my army was exhausted; and battles where I was desperately defending hilltops from numerous directions, all whilst the AI tried to draw my men away from the main defensive position. In RTW the enemy tends to just march or sprint directly towards your army, with a few very slow and far too obvious flanking manoeuvres where the flanking unit sometimes doesn't even bother to get involved until it is exhausted and the rest of the army has routed. Heroic victories are far too common and numerous to mention, even when you fight on flat landscapes and with an identical army to the AI.

If CA can manage to salvage the disasterous AI and make it better than MTW's (which really is what you'd expect it would be before RTW was released) then with the extra features of the expansion pack, maybe it'll be more difficult to compare which game is better. But vanilla RTW by itself is certainly an inferior game.