Which TW expansion campaign was the best?

[econ21]

I wonder what Total War expansion people liked the best? Here I'm talking about the expansion campaign, not any patches or additions to the vanilla game that came with the expansion.

I always thought BI was clearly better but was called on this on the M2TW forum. Here's the - opinionated - case I made for it:

Well, your mileage may differ. But the scope of BI was far greater than either MI or VI. In MI, you had only two factions and a very simple (not to say hypothetical) strategic situation. In VI, you were stuck on a damp insignificant island with some squabbling primitive factions that lacked even decent cavalry. By contrast, with BI you got a full RTW sized map and a great choice of varied factions covering an earth shattering period of history. I personally think BI was almost a RTW2 rather than an expansion. Rome's fall has always captured my imagination more than the its republican period.

[spanakoryzo]

I'd have to agree with you. Don't get me wrong, MI and VI were just fine, for a few hours of gameplay anyway, but BI is something different. My current ERE campaign has taken already up an equal amount of time with the total of all my VI games! This expansion has a great in-depth concept that I find really appreciated. Plus, it brought up again the all important religion factor.

[Lord Armbandit]

Has to be BI because of its scope and the horde concept, make it a different game!

I can't quite get to grips with it personally yet, I've been far too busy with work to do so, but I'm looking forward to my quieter period coming up so I can really get stuck in!

[manbaps]

One thing VI did do though was apply all the new features into the old campaign map and actually add new content. BI has failed to do that to the original RTW campaign map.

[KukriKhan]

A public service announcement:

The Entrance Hall is happy to host "spill-over" threads and polls of this sort, that consist of comparisons between multiple games.

Same rules apply here as elsewhere: keep it civil, and bash-free, in explaining why you did or did not like one product over another.

Thank you. Kindly continue.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

I'd have to say VI. It added a lot to the old campaign and added the VI campaign which was a lot of fun on its own. Also you get to conquer England as the Irish which is always a plus in my book!

[Mount Suribachi]

One thing VI did do though was apply all the new features into the old campaign map and actually add new content. BI has failed to do that to the original RTW campaign map.

Very true, but I think Simon is talking about which has the best stand alone campaign.

VI - well the opportunity to play not just as the English, but as my "home-town" Mercians was fun, fighting the Vikings in my home county of Lindissi was a stand-out moment One thing I especially liked about VI was the varied difficulty level each faction presented. The Vikings, whilst fun for a while got a little boring as your uber units just trashed everyone else. The Saxons and the Mercians, thanks to their Huscarles could whip everyone in Britain, but still get pounded by the Vikings. The Picts, Scots, Irish, with average units and poor lands, not to mention Viking raids are a real challenge. I really liked that.