As the team will be moving on to EB2, I thought: let us, fans, review Medieval II Total War from an future EB2 player's perspective. I know it's a bit early, but given that the team appreciates suggestions, and that the sooner it knows what may be desired the better - as they can take everything into account from the start.

That means, if you have noticed something of which you think it offers a (great) possibility for EB2 (regardless of hardcoded limits, as those haven't yet been figured out), then post it! If you have any suggestions for EB2 that can't be included in RTW, and hope they're possible with M2TW, then post them!

For a start: in M2TW there is a whole religions based part of the game. If religion could be converted into 'sympathy', you could have rhetors instead of priests. That means you could actually portray a populations sympathy/hatred for their conquerors, far off protectors, allies and such. Heresy could be replaced with independency, and Paganism could be replaced with 'Doesn't give a crap'. That means part of the population feels committed to your cause, part of it doesn't feel committed to any cause, part of it favours other factions, part of it would rather be independent.

In this system Government buildings could make the people feel either more or less attracted to your rule: type 4 increases the whish for independency, while type 1 and 2 enlarge the amount of people that favours your rule. Your rhetors could then 'preach' your rule to the population of both your own and foreign settlements, just like with religion. As a bonus you can now alter the outcome of wars by actively preaching in foreign lands to ensure public unrest there, and commitment to your cause as well. On a side note, heretics, or in this case 'rebellious' people could now enter your lands an start spreading the desire for independency. Your 'rhetors' could try to get rid of him, but should they fail they may face serious punishment. (if your agent tried to sue the suspect and failed, then the other party might sue your agent - as a result your agent may have to disappear/ or can even get killed) This to reflect the way M2TW deals with denouncing heretics and witches in an EB way.

This system renders the rhetor hanger on useless, and as a result he should be edited out of the current EB retinues system.