I'll also put in a "well done" on the graphics. The cities and castles are amazing and so are most of the landscapes. In just about every field battle or siege assault, I spend almost as much time gawking at the scenery and taking screenshots as I do conducting the battles.

I am not going to go into some to the other improvements that have been repeated several times, but I will mention siege engines and siege assaults.

Making siege engines mobile has added a whole new dynamic to the game.
In first Medieval game because they were immobile once placed, they were simply difficult to use effectively in a siege, and all but useless in field battles.

Occasionally in a static defense or a bridge battle in the first game they might score a few long distance hits, but otherwise one was probably better off using the slot for an extra missile unit.

Because of this difficulty and the fact that a good many castles were going to fall in 2 or less turns, after conducting one or two siege assaults in MTW, I rarely bothered with them any more, but simply waited out the enemy until their stronghold fell. If I got a message that it was going to take a long time I usually just auto-resolved.

Now in M2TW with fully mobile artillery, and the fact that the time that a settlement will fall is almost alway 6 to 8 turns there is simply more of a reason to conduct an assault. Auto-resolving is also less attractive since it can result in a lot of expensive property damage that one has to pony up to repair later.

Anyway, I really look forward to the assaults now, I actually get some of the most fun out of the game by planning exactly how I am going to take the fort down with the least casualties to my men and the most casualties to the enemy while doing the least damage to the structures.

I also enjoy pulling off heroic defenses of a settlement against seemingly overwhelming odds.

Of course I still prefer exciting well matched field battles, but now having the addition of intricate siege battles has just doubled my fun.

Finally, I am also glad that the event movies are back, and I like to think that I show my appreciation by continuing to watch them time after time.

Cheers