I was not going to reply but them question marks were just staring at me. I understand that you are not going to reply so I will try not be controversial.

Quote Originally Posted by caravel
You're blatently trying to worm your way out of the absurd statement that you have made that "better graphics = better gameplay". I am going to make this response my last, as we're clearly getting nowhere here.

Of course, but not only do they improve graphically, they must improve in terms of gameplay. No one goes out and buys a game again simply because it's had a facelift.

RTW promised epic battles of thousands of men, superior AI and a better campaign map and diplomacy, this is why TW players went out and bought it. It failed to deliver on this. AI and Diplomacy are indeed a joke.

And that's pretty much where the similarity ends. To quote Mouzafphaerre, M2TW is MTW "in name only", it is not MTW and doesn't have the tactical battles of MTW. RTW battles are simple bumrushes of a confused mass of units all jumbled together. Generally cavalry charges rout almost everything, Roman units are superior and phalanxes turn chariots into soup. Whenever I play a stint of RTW battles I go back to MTW a worse player. Basically I get my arse handed to me on a plate by the AI.

Why not? The sprites in RTW should have improved, the gameplay should have improved, battles should have improved. In fact the only thing that improved were the 3D models for the units and buildings. How does improving these to the detriment of all else make for "better gameplay"?
The later TW titles have been described as having a fluid campaign map where characters can move exactly where they want to. I class this as better gameplay as it is an improved version of the chess board style. To do this they had to improve the graphics of the TW series and completely revolutionise the game data. This fluid campaign map is better than the chess board campaign map.

I do not agree with your satement of 'AI and diplomacy are a joke' this is untrue, yes they have their flaws but they are not so bad as to be labeled a joke, yes they need a higher dificulty to impove but how exactly is making a game slightly easier a bad thing? Obviously CA saw reason to make the AI less challenging.

Yes Roman Units are superior but they happened to forge a rather large empire. Yes horses do not like to stick on the end of spears, look at your points there again and just think how stupid they were. Oh and take for example the battle between Caesar and Sertorius in Spain where legions on legions were in a stalemate before Caesar ordered his cavalry to charge the flank of Sertorius' troops, as soon as they they hit Sertorius' tired army broke and ran. This is what a cavalry charge can do to Roman Legions, think what they can do to Gauls.