Agree with ^

Also, there are a lot of Mods for M2TW that have vastly improved the AI and fixed these quirks. The one I'm using now is THERA: Total war, and the AI has been pummeling my armies to the ground...

I used to like Rome: Total War with the Realism Mod...

Always wanted to get the Napoleon: Total War one, but never did, and now I'm really not a video game person anymore, or I'll play a casual game of Super Mario or Dr. Mario or a baseball game...maybe some chess...obviously WebDip...

But nothing so involved as the Total War games, just don't have the time or mentality for that kind or level of gaming anymore.

They were fun, though.

Don´t know about Medieval, but about Rome: the original isn´t that good I think, but that´s because it´s too easy, I used to have enough fights I believe though... However I forgot to mention I bought Barbarian Invasion with it, which is a much bigger challenge as the situation is explosive and even when you´re doing good there might just be a horde of 5-10 stacks attacking you as soon as you press end turn...

Shogun seems boring to me but I haven´t actually played it so might be wrong...

About Empire: I think you need to play either multiplayer or with a mod (or both, or just don´t play), there are good ones out there...

And the extended realism mod for Rome is amazing, it has a lot of the stuff I hope to see in Rome II...

I enjoyed Rome Total War the best. It was too easy to play with Romans or Egypt, so I preferred to play with other nations like Greeks, Carthaginians, Gals, Seleucids, Numidia and such on highest difficulty with mod that make AI smarter. Great game in my opinion. After that I played Medieval for a short while, but I did not enjoyed it like I enjoyed Rome.

The Total War series is amazing - I've played all of them (and the expansions) except for Shogun 2. I agree with Halt and Octavious that Medieval 2 was the best - that was the one that I played for longest, certainly - I played it almost every day for two or three months at one point, eventually managing to conquer every settlement except Rome in the game, including the Americas :) I can't wait for Rome II to come out.

One of my favorite series as well. My favorite is Rome. Very much looking forward to Rome part 2

I've played all but Shogun 1.

I have to say Medieval 2 was the best, and every one since then was a bit worse than the previous. After the new Shogun I have to say I'm done. The new iterations of the game force constant warfare down your throat in a ridiculous way that is absolutely unforgiving and totally against any spirit of making and breaking of alliances. It always devolves down to a mudfest, and it does so at an increasingly rapid rate (I was OK with the somewhat more moderate ramp in AI aggression in Rome and Empire, but this new system is laughable).

I'm far more fond of games like Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings 2: bigger is not always better, you can actually be penalized in a somewhat realistic fashion for trying to grab too much, and if you're small you had better play SMART. That being said, small doesn't necessarily mean instantly gobbled up by a large neighbor. Far superior games in my opinion.

Medieval II is hands down the best Total War game in the Series. My only real complaints are that the AI never seems to be able to counter my Hannibal style double double-envelopment, Offensive sieges are a joke, auto battle is the only sane response, and it feels pretty unrealistic to conquer most of Europe.

I would agree with Yellowjacket about scale. In Medieval as Scotland I managed to win a long campaign by 1306. In Crusader Kings II playing Dunkeld, I managed to create the British Empire and control the modern day UK-Ireland plus most of Netherlands and parts of Austria at the end of the game in 1453. And that was after carefully managing the Scottish realm, putting down countless rebellions and nibbling new lands.
Grabbing new lands in CKII is a long and sometime painful process with fabricating claims, marriages, and costly in golf. What's worse the nobles you now gained hates you, the peasants could potentially hate you if you are the wrong religion/culture.

Choosing between Crusader Kings II and Medieval II, I have to say Crusader Kings II is personally the game I enjoy more. (Oh yeah, CKII Game of Thrones Mod, The King in the North!)

I'm eagerly awaiting Rome II Total War two and Mount and Blade II: Bannerlords. My ultimate game would be the battlefield fighting system of Mount and Blade, the battle system of Total War, and the Dynastic system of Crusader Kings II, that would literally ruin my life, I would never leave my PC ever again...

+1 Yellowjacket, agreed with (almost) everything you said.

Medieval 2 and Rome total war with the right mods are among the best games out there, but its difficult to compete with Crusader Kings 2,which is by far my favourite game out there.

Our only disagreement was I really hated EUIII, it suffered to much from peace time boredom and war was too easy and unrealistic.

It seems there are quite a few CKII players around, perhaps we should play a multiplayer game someday :)

I would love to play a multiplayer CKII game, since I have no friends who own CKII, so haven't had the chance to.

The only multiplayer strategy game I have played was Civ IV, which speaking of which, Civ IV if your using the mods Rise of Mankind, A New Dawn and Cavemen2Cosmos is up there for one of the most realistic games of all time (I would probably put only CKII above it, since it has the human element). That said since I run it on eternity speed, the latest I have gotten into a game was 5400bce, lol.

"I'm eagerly awaiting Rome II Total War two and Mount and Blade II: Bannerlords. My ultimate game would be the battlefield fighting system of Mount and Blade, the battle system of Total War, and the Dynastic system of Crusader Kings II, that would literally ruin my life, I would never leave my PC ever again..."
I've never played Mount and Blade, is it any good?

Another of my favorites. Mount and blade stole most of my summer one time.

As a paradox game (A game actually created by their studios) I think it's very good. Mount and Blade Warband is really the only good one as the first one was outmoded by Warband and Fire and Sword has guns which sounds cool but how the mechanics work in the game if you get KOed your army instantly retreats the field. The combat system is simple yet sooo good. Momentum and physics is a key feature with cavalry being able to dish out damage charging into shield walls. To attack and defend is really simple click and "swing" the mouse but it manages to be fairly complex with each swing having different effects and areas of effect. The great thing is that you get the command the army into battle, be a part of a shield wall as the enemy crashes into the wall and fight in the chao of medieval warfare. The problem of KO equals defeat I mention above can be fixed with mods, in fact, playing with mods is the only way to play as the high end mods improves the game greatly. My two complains would be the aesthetics is ok but the graphics are really bad. The sandbox that holds the combat together, is overall ok but is pretty shallow in comparison to CUII. (but what wouldn't be?) Kings, nobles, and yourself leads the forces of the nations of the game but none you can die...EVER. That really hurts the political nature of the game. Nobles that are decisively defeated will live on and just make another army (usually of lower quality). Marriages are really simple and aren't flesh out at all. Since there is no deaths, no succession crisis of within the kingdoms in fact no civil wars ever unless the player themselves starts one, and finally the player can't become king of any fraction. (in the base game and many mods) Players can create their own kingdoms but since this usually involves carving territories within pre-existing kingdoms, prepare for non-stop fighting.

Webdip CK2 multiplayer game signup:
1) airborne
2) Fasces349
3) Tolstoy

Last start our own thread for that. Regarding Mount and Blade, right now, my credit card is almost maxed out, and so my next few pay checks will probably go to paying that down, but after that, I might buy mount and blade.

That said Heart of Darkness and The Old Gods will take priority.

I loved M&B combat. The strategic map got annoying at times. I've played many games, but always crapped out when it got too ridiculous. I agree a more diplomatic approach would have gone a long way. The logistics of keeping your realm in line were just too overwhelming to be really fun.

Still, it's one of my favorite games ever, and I sound like I'm giving it a hard time.

I'm a fan of the total war series too, I've played all from Rome 1 to Shogun 2. Medieval 2 was probably one of my favorites as well, though I go back and play each of them every once in a while. I would be up for a multiplayer campaign, though probably not until I am done with my finals in two weeks. Message me and I will add you on steam.

I played all of them up to MW2. Then I transitioned to a Mac. Of the series, only Rome(with BI) is available. My favourite of the bunch was MTW with Viking Invasion. That would be the game that would compel me to set up Parallel or Bootcamp on this machine.

RampantLion, sent you a PM about multiplayer campaign!