At the risk of being repetitive (I seem to say what I am about to say every other post), but have you tried Rome Total Realism, froggie? My BI has not been delivered yet, but I am having a blast with RTR 6.1. I also stopped playing RTW after 1.2 - I am not sure it was disgust, more like "yawn, this is too easy". I didn't even bother to try the BI demo. However, RTR definitely brought back that MTW feeling for me. The combat "feels" like MTW in terms of speed and balance of arms, the history feels more right and if you play it on VH campaign, it is no walk over. As Rome, I took 50 provinces and ended up fighting virtually every faction on the map - none of which I could deliver a knock out blow to. It was a blast.

BI sounds like fun, but it is with mods like RTR and EB that I think I will spend most of my TW time. I would say download RTR 6.1 (you can't argue with the price) and then decide if you have enough enthusiasm for BI.