What Total War do you think is the best and why?

[Martok]

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.

Adding new features to a game is pointless unless the computer is able to use said features with a reasonable degree of competency/proficiency. Therefore, the campaign map in RTW/M2TW is actually worse than the STW/MTW map because the AI handles it poorly.

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?

"Slightly" easier?

Rome's AI doesn't use tactics in battle; it doesn't flank or attemp envelopment, it sends units into battle piecemeal instead of as a cohesive whole, and it doesn't know how to utilize most units effectively. On the campaign map, it constantly sends pitiful half-stacks of troops at your armies that are easily mowed down.

And to be quite blunt, diplomacy *is* a joke in RTW (although to be fair, it's been a weakness in all the Total War titles, STW & MTW included). Sure, Rome's diplomacy model is more sophisticated than the 2 earlier games; but again, this is another "feature" that the AI doesn't know how to use properly.

Obviously CA saw reason to make the AI less challenging.

I highly doubt that. It was painfully obvious from the beginning that with all the emphasis on Rome's new battle engine and its shiny graphics, the AI was a low priority.

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.

Setting aside that Caesar fought against Pompey's sons (not Sertorius) in the battle of Munda, it's still beside the point. Rome was famous for its infantry legions, and justly so -- it was they that did the bulk of the fighting. I'm not saying that cavalry didn't play its part, but it certainly didn't take center stage on the battlefield as a general rule.

So it is indeed ironic that cavalry in RTW is so powerful, when it's the infantry that should be supreme (especially with respect to the Romans themselves).