Like many of the posters here, I, too, am not overly enamoured with gunpowder.

I have made the small mod to M2TW, changing the turns to be 1 turn = 6 months. This makes my generals age at the same rate as the game and also gives me the benefit of playing and winning a grand campaign long before gun powder units even become available. This is my preference.

I must admit I am intrigued by the addition of the naval battles. I trust it will be very cool.

The bottom line is, for me, that now I only play the TW games. For some reason the perfect mix of turn-based strategy on the campaign map, combined with the RTS element of real-time battle, is exactly what I have always been looking for in a computer game where I am going to spend (waste) countless hours of my time! I just can't seem to get into any other games right now. It has been this way for me since late 2005, when I first acquired Rome: Total War.

So, I voted "not sure". I will definitely buy it, there is no doubt about that. I am just not convinced that I will like the time period. I, too, like the "hack & slash" of melee combat with swordsmen, billmen, spearmen, etc.