Shogun had its charm:
- faster pace
- less unit types so I don't need to remember all the stats; everyone has same type, so no uber-faction
- clan system was nice.

But it has many bad multiplayer problems:
- lag was horrible; the famous "tttt" to sync up and prevent dropping which now carries over to MTW and RTW.
- unlimited upgrade: H9 Ashigaru
- am surprise when people talk about Shogun is more balanced: monk-rush, ashi-rush, musket corps, etc.
- matchmaking server removed after game started
- Ladder hogs: playing 4th kawa map 1000 times, playing 2 computers, refuse to play against other players simply because they had lower ranking. Ladder formula only remembers the last 30 games. Up to a point, you would loose ranking points even if you win against someone.
- Corner camping, edge camping, red-zoning and other exploits of the game mechanics.

Community was more cosy, everyone is new to the series. I played STW some 6 months before switching to Medieval.

It is Medieval which gives the best games for me.

There are still many problems, but this is second generation of the game engine, so many improvement and optimization to the engine was made. Online game is more reliable. Drops and lags are less. Computer hardware for everyone in general is better so in general, people can play 4x4 at normal (~1000 men per army) no problem.

- The introduction of more units may make the game richer in details, but it also introduces imbalanced factions.
- some units don't have effective counters

Many good clans, some from old Shogun, many new, solidify the community. I played MTW and VI for about 2 years.

Rome is the worse of the series.
- I like many men in an army. It seems Rome could only support 3x3, at 40 men/unit. This is lame. Armies look like a bunch of schoolchildren running around in the schoolyard.
- Imbalance is very evident with exploits of many units without effective counter-units.
- People refuse to play at correct money (around 8k-10k per army)
- Game room is just horribly laid out and clownish color scheme make playing a headache.
- no effective ignore
- unreliable multi-person chat: it is documented that even though you highlight a person, the convo may not reach that person.

I played Rome for only 4-5 months then I stopped playing for a year and a half.

Annie