General Sun's Tent Editorial Next Issue "What I like to see in the Next Game"

[Tempiic]

I'd say you might be more happier playing EU / HOI than TW perhaps. Or rather having TW look more like these games.

Don't think thats possible though. Too different game engine / approach / setup in use in either game.

[Aracnid]

I have been playing a lot of HoI2 Doomsday recently and CA could learn a lot from them. The way you balance your production between Supplies (keep your armies in the field), Commercial Goods (Keep the people happy), Upgrades,Reinfocements, and finally Production (building tanks/planes/ships).
In RTW assuming you have a good enough barracks/stable/archery range you can buy anything even if you have recently purged the population. MTW2 seems to have moved forwards with its recruitment pools and the such like which is good.
However if you had a slider which you could call military spending, the more you spend the faster the recruitment pools grow (if you throw money at a problem it tends to get at least a bit better). In peacetime you can cut back because you only need a small steady trickle to keep your units up to strength. This would allow you to simulate wartime spending changes and also allow you to focus on building Cathedrals in peacetime and recruiting archers in wartime better. Also it can't be that difficult to implement as Victoria had a similar system and that came out about 10 years ago, though it was far from perfect and due to other unrelated flaws was unplayable.
The only downside is that it is a bit more complex and a bit different and thus might deter the average gamer. Despite that a change like this would be an enourmous improvment to the campaign element. I am going to buy MTW2 because I love the battles and I am going to play the campaign to build armies to fight cool battles.
But with things like EUIII coming along I am going to get my grand strategy fix elsewhere. On the other hand I am going to miss the ability fight cool battles in EUIII so I am going to be unhappy either way.

Edit: That's not to say that CA haven't got a lot right with the campaign map. I prefer the turn based system and the new characters look great (diplomats, assasins etc.). Also governors affecting the performance or cities is another great feature, and I think the Total War series pioneered generals with a command rating though I might be wrong. The whole vice and virtue syste is inspired and really adds character to the game. I don't mean to flame CA or the Total War series but nothings perfect and I think these changes would improve the game. Also the terrain in RTW and MTW2 is a lot more attractive and realisitc than in HoI2. CA has got more right than it has gotten wrong, but that doesn't mean its perfect.