I'm getting it despite the price. RTW is within striking range of greatness — which makes the flaws that much harder to take, as I've argued before. I'm hoping BI fixes many of the problems.

(My pre-order will be in Sept. 28, or so I was told. They told me the price was $30, but I'm confused over whether that includes my $5 deposit or not.)

Top 10 reasons I'm getting the game, and risking getting laughed at by the rest of you:

10. "Barbarian Invasion" should be much more balanced. Killing Gauls is repetitive and boring.

9. The diplomacy game should be better — because there's more options. Whether the flaws in the diplomacy system are fixed or not, there's some point to playing the factions off against each other now rather than just wiping out the ones you can reach and sharing trade rights and map information with everybody else.

8. There are limited historical strategy gaming options. Sure, there's Paradox Games' recent entries into both the medieval era and WWII, plus at least one other high-quality medieval strategy game released, but I still don't see anything that has the strategy/tactics mix of the Total War series, nor a game design with such potential.

7. None of the unit previews look too blazingly stupid. OK, the Christian priests look like they just walked out of a Dracula movie, but there's no chariots, apparently. The Saxon Axeman, who looks like a MTW Viking, looks promising, even.

6. CA has to have figured out by now that we are not an easy-to-please fan base. They can't draw more mainstream customers — which is obviously what they want — if all the forums talk about is how bad R:TW is compared to M:TW. The displeasure of the fan base even made the press. Look at the latest Q & A with Gamespot. CA knows it should do something to placate us.

5. There are still serious flaws in R:TW. BI may fix them. If BI doesn't fix them, somebody's got to gripe.

4. The latest Nvida drivers won't work with M:TW. I can't go back unless I use my daughter's computer.

3. "Barbarian Invasion" is more of a game than an expansion. "Viking Invasion" was a minigame compared to M:TW, with simplistic units few real options. BI looks much more like a full-blown game, with a strategic situation very much different than R:TW.

2. Somebody's got to try this thing and tell everybody else if it's any good.

1. How can anybody who loves cavalry archers as much as I do NOT buy a game with the Huns?