Quote Originally Posted by Asai Nagamasa View Post
Suicide generals was still a problem in MTW IMHO - much less so but still there.
For me, the problem with suicide generals in STW was not so much at the tactical level - the generals charging off into spears, RTW style, although that was irritating. It was the consequences at the strategic level of such behaviour. Whole STW factions could easily go "rebel" due to a couple of their leaders dying in short succession. If I was not careful, it was not uncommon to find myself surrounded by a sea of rebel provinces, which was just boring. I have not encountered that in MTW or any subsequent TW game. Maybe the later games were more careful at finding alternate leaders to inherit.

Added to this, the STW battles tended to be smaller and tighter fights where it was hard to resist killing the enemy leader to get an edge. With later titles, you could afford to be more magnanimous in battle.

I agree that STW was the more challenging game and of the two titles, for that reason, it's the one that I'd be more inclined to go back to it. If I am after the kind of experience that MTW offers, I'd be more likely to turn to a RTW mod or M2TW. Last time I loaded up MTW it was to compare the battle AI with M2TWs - I quickly came to the conclusion that memory did not lie and it was better, but that sadly I had also become seduced by the more modern engine's graphics and could not go back. STWs atmosphere and charm also comes into play here, sweeting the pill (a battle in Shinano is as cinematic to me as most battles with the later titles).

PS: I forgot another bugbear I have with STW's campaign - bridge battles, I hate them. MTW and later titles seem to have less chokepoints and again, perhaps less reason to use them. Our M2TW PBM players still manage to use them to neutralise large AI armies though, sigh.