Maybe I will install VI, sounds like the AI may be more agressive. I was a little skittish remembering how Shogun MI introduced changes which were, on the balance, worth it, but not all of which were necessarily positive.

As far as MTW, I started off with an expert Early campaign as the Polish, and quickly got bored with that, so I altered the campaign to start with only the province of Poland and only my Royal Knights and a unit of Horse Archers. I was prompted to post here when I had, in about 30 turns, expanded throughout Eastern Europe and conquered Hungary unchecked, and was the richest and most powerful kingdom. This seemed totally illogical. I had just completed a three-pronged attack on the Byzantines in which they allowed me to take their capital without even a siege.

My opinion changed a bit this morning, when I had to fight a couple of battles involving several units of royal Kataphractoi at a time, and the Novgorods honored their alliance and invaded. The Novgorods especially had a few wicked high-command high-honor generals that simply wouldn't die.

So while I'm not so bored any more, and I definitely note many improvements (mainly tactical) over Shogun, I can say that in Shogun I never would have been allowed to expand so easily leaving so my provinces unguarded as I did in the earlier stages of this campaign.

Other notes:

- I liked Shogun graphical interface better. Clear, practical, and artistic. Everything now is a greyish blur of dull colors.

- The tech tree seems over-complex. There seem to be a lot of distinctly-portrayed versions of essentially the same unit types. And a lot of buildings. I'm not arguing against historical accuracy, just saying there might be a way to clean the building/training options screen up a bit.

- On the tactical screen, it seems harder to click the units I want without giving up and just clicking on their icon in the control panel.

DA