Should the second patch be applied over a clean install?

[Philippe]

Indeed. But my question is whether or not 1.2 will work better if you don't install 1.1 first.

[Lusted]

It shouldn't make a difference as 1.2 will include 1.1, if you already have 1.1 installed it shouldn't make a difference.

[todorp]

Installing higher version is OK, but if you want to install or repair an install from a lower version is a real pain with the Total War games series. The uninstall and reinstall requires almost a PhD to follow the instructions, which moderators posted.

That is why I always make two copies of each previous install one on a DVD and one on the disk if I want to play some mods, which are not ported to the higher version. E.G RTR Gold remained on RTW v1.2.