Quote Originally Posted by Foz
This leads me to a question. When you play the campaign, do you ignore the victory conditions? Do you actually ignore them and only do exactly what your empire would do in real life? I doubt anyone here can make that claim, and if they can, then they surely have never won a campaign in this game, and never will. Achieving victory in this game necessitates doing things that you simply would not do in the real world. Why then should the AI play the game under some false pretense at real world emulation, when the player himself does not do so? I would much rather have the AI play the game with the same understanding that I do: that it must do everything possible to win, realistic or not. Restricting the AI to some concept of "realistic" play only allows the player to exploit it even more than its strategic and tactical shortcomings already allow, and would surely not be in the best interest of having an exciting and challenging game.
That's not very fair to those of us who do enjoy roleplay. Go check the PBeM section of these forums to see some examples of roleplay in action. I at least can make the claim that I have won 20 grand campaigns in M2TW by 'roleplay'.

There are plenty of games that emphasize a more aggressive play style. A major strength of Total War has been the freedom to choose differently and to perhaps roleplay a little and take in the eye candy. Hence the enduring popularity of glorious achievement campaigns, the demand for 'fluff' like titles, elaborate roleplay efforts by players on the forums, and a variety of mods that promise better immersion and more realism. Computer opponents that 'roleplay' (and thus behave in a 'realistic' fashion) diplomatically thus add to the immersion and would please a sizeable percentage of players who value this style of play.

In any case, I fail to see what the fuss is all about. The computer does NOT, to my knowledge, play specifically 'to win'. It is programmed to expand, of course, and conquer the player if he gets in the way. But it appears to me that the current fragility of alliances post-v1.2 is the result of the computer faction's 'untrustworthiness' being taken into account. I have not found any trigger in the AI file that says 'if the player is about to win, stop him'.