MTW's gameplay can be summed up in one line

[Koga No Goshi]

On a totally unrelated side note, I think one of the coolest voiceover clips for attacking in a strategy war game are the French cavalry units in AOE III. I didn't like the game overall, but there's a line they use... and I don't know a lick of French, so I'm sure I'll mangle it, but it's something like alles attack! It sounds really cool the way the voice actor says it.

I do miss the old guard--- I can't remember everyone as it's been so long, but Kurando, ShaiHulud, TosaInu and a few others come to mind. If there's a place where the old regs tend to congregate, do let me know. ;)

Oh yes and I forgot to answer. I have vanilla MTW and vanilla RTW. I fell out of the cutting edge; the only reason I had Mongol Invasion the day it came out was because I was regularly playing online at the time. I tend to buy the Total War games as soon as they hit the shelves and then go off and happily amuse myself with them for awhile and totally forget to come back and check forums and sites to see if expansions are out soon. Since I am back into Total War at the moment, if anyone could let me know if the MTW or RTW expansions are worthwhile that would be appreciated.