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.
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