If I could wish for a new expansion.....

[squidums]

I would definately wish for a "Medieval Total War: Sea Battles" expansion.

What about the rest of you?

[Marcellus]

It would be nice to be able to fight sea battles manually, but I'm not sure if CA would make an expansion whose only purpose was to allow sea battles to be fought manually. It sounds to me more like something that could be done in a mod.

[Mujalumbo]

Sea battles? Heck no! Just my opinion, though; for me, most of the fun is the focus on the land battles.

It would be fun to have more diplomatic options in MTW, a la RTW or Civ3 or something. There've been times when my ally starts getting the stuffing kicked outta them and I'm unable to help because I'm landlocked and moving my armies through someone else's land is a declaration of war. It's times like those that I wouldn't mind giving up a few florins for the right to pass through someone's lands. Or to simply demand tribute.

I'd like more "zone-of-recruitment" type units (like Avar Nobles in VI or the Swiss series of pikemen). That could really add flavour to the armies you construct. (Sent my Turkish emissary up to Sweden once, vanilla VI game, bribed that general, bribed the one in Norway, used the combined forces to put down revolt after revolt, got a nice mid-rank general, and eventually teched up to Viking Huscarles. Yes. Turkish Viking Huscarles.)

[Marcellus]

Land Battles would certainly be more fun than sea battles (as they have terrain and a greater range of unit types), but it would still be nice to be able to fight sea battles manually. Of course, there are other things that could be improved in the game as well

[squidums]

I think sea battles could offer a whole new set of problems...
Weather (wind strength and choppyness of sea) would make a great difference in the way a battle may go. Trying to trap an enemy against the wind ought to be a challenge in itself.
Depending on how different classes of ships would act, in different weather conditions it may be possible to stack the odds against an enemy fleet by using a more appropriate class of vessel.
On the coastal areas, sandbanks and underwater rocks could be used for trapping vessels with deeper hulls.
Also gun ships can often only fire from the side, so attacking a large ship with many more nibble ships could be a viable tactic.
Range of fire would be important. Getting along side a ship to snag it and board it would be fun.
Adding the option of manning ships with different types of crew; melee, missle or a combination could be another tactical choice.
When sending troops for coastal landings, limiting the size of the attacking force by the fleet size would add some reality.
etc etc

[BAD]

Anyone played any of the Patrician games? Or Port Royale for that matter. They had a nice in game Sea battle engine. And goddamn those games were addictive! Especially in multiplayer. Need to fire that up again sometime soon.