I was first introduced to STW when a friend showed me what it was all about - I thought the battles (and the assassination videos) looked pretty cool, but the whole game seemed too complicated for me, I never bought it.

Later, I borrowed MTW, but could never get into it properly - the campaign map seemed too 'clumsly' for me, but I loved the battles.

When RTW came out, I decided to bite the bullet and buy it, having seen the TV program 'Time Commanders' and having good reports from all the people I know who owned it. For me it is clearly the best - the prologue was a perfect introduction, and I found I learned pretty quickly (and the learning was fun, not like MTW). The way the position of armies on the campaign map relates to the battle map is a real plus for me, and makes the game seem alot more realistic. The MTW campaign map of having an army just 'in' a region was too hard for me to get to grips with - perhaps I'm just a micro-manager or something...