OK, I hope it's safe to post an opinion without being accused of skewing the poll. I gave it a 9/10. Best TW game out of the box, IMO.

I'm on turn 70 of an English VH/VH campaign and it's really retaining my interest. I'm the most powerful faction but still have not yet reached the "tipping point" you get to so easily in some of the early TW games. The strategic maneouvring feels very like MTW. I have a full stack on a bridge outside Hamburg, but the Danes have parked two stacks next to their fortress. Neither of us wants to attack (I rashly attacked once before, in a similar situation, and it was mutual assured destruction).

All across my frontier, there is a nice tension between trying to push on and trying to protect what I have, all amplified by Papal missions to cease and desist. The economy is also tight - it's a rare turn I can keep each settlement building.

I was starting to feel the battles might be getting easy, then I lost Metz and my King a turn or two ago. With equal odds - and providing I can't just shoot it to death - the AI often inflicts heavy losses on me. Typically a couple of even fights and I'm looking for a second army.

I am especially pleased that the Pope now likes me, after I paid him 7000 florins. I really want to get a crusade off (although I am preparing Rhodes to be a staging post). I guess diplomacy may still work at VH, but you just have to work hard at it.

Ironically, the stuff I am not that keen on is the chrome - the music, the voice overs, the gluey "feel" of the combat (the unit cohesion bug thing), even the graphics don't grab me as much as some of RTWs mods. In this it reminds me again of MTW - forget the superficial stuff, appreciate the gameplay.