Quote Originally Posted by chris12345
the diplomacy side is an absolute nightmare which makes the gameplay very restricted.
If you want the diplomacy to work you either (a) have to keep the difficulty level at medium; and/or (b) work on good relations and a good reputation. On higher campaign difficulties, relations with the AI are programmed to worsen over time. So if you want meaningful alliances, good neighbours etc, you have to do something to counter-attack that - typically gifting money. Your reputation will also slide if you do nasty stuff like sack cities or assassinate people; this will also cause your relations to deteriorate. In some of the Citadel threads, you can find examples of people have maintained excellent relations with many factions and a spotless reputation. But most of us casual players just focus on the combat and get total war as a result.

it reminds me of the old command and conquer - build a base and conquer the enemy. next level - build a base and conquer the enemy. ... a very poor showing that should have been released as an add-on at most for no more than £15. will be sticking to RTW and advise others to do the same.
Weird - its far more challenging than RTW in my opinion. Play on VH battles; never sack a city and don't rush the AI - then tell me it is very poor.

theres no ability to use tact or cunning with M2TW AT ALL.
The battles allow for tact and cunning just as much as the earlier titles. I've played three battles in a M2TW PBM and each one allowed me to use different cunning tactics to take a settlement:

The "he's behind you" tactic:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...46&postcount=3

The "ladder feints" tactic:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...4&postcount=12

The "how to take a settlement with no siege engines" tactic:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...9&postcount=21