I've always played on VH/M but me thinks i'm gonna be giving H/M a try in my next campaign. ( I'm probably the only person around here who hasn't started a 1.0 campaign yet. ) The AI is brutal, we all know that. It just seems so annoying though on VH setting. I realize diplomacy is not the strong suit of the Total War Series but it just seems very irritating on VH..as in there is none. I like to roleplay my campaigns and expand very slowly but that's very difficult to do on VH. Although it's been suggested that perhaps doing some deep raids and withdrawing back to your own borders is a good way to slow the AI down. I actually do this and it is effective at slowing down the AI somewhat but that doesn't exactly qualify as good diplomacy. It's the non-existant diplomacy that annoys me on VH. Not that it's much better on any other setting mind you, it's just seems to me, to be completely non-existent while playing on VH.

In a perfect world we'd have the Total War engine for battles and such, combined with the diplomacy of Europa Universalis. Ahhhh, now that would be a game.