My overview of the game..if that's the right word lol....

[Axe-Battler]

I'll name the good things last...
Starting with my dislikes about the game...

A) I thought that technology advances seemed kind of messy, I love the new city / castle feature, but to me the units you can build seem, always in the same "era" as in technological era. Outside of the gunpowder (which i thought was done very well, it couldve been made available later on in the campaign, but it was done pretty good none the less).

B) The Mongols and Timurids weren't done good, no going around this, several reasons for this, the Mongols historically were the most efficient military machine that ever existed (relative to the medieval weaponry system), and when they arrive in the campaign, they have a very overpowering 5 stacks with totally godlike generals, this is good, that they have an almost unbreakable army ( outside of a good human player with a descent army evening the odds, the ai being other factions can not beat them)...but they dont conquer, they just continuously march around the map aimlessly, I've seen them go up through the steppes, and i've seen them go through the middle east.
This is not CAs fault that they could not make the mongols right. In my view, it simply will never be done in a game like this.

C) this is just a personal dislike i have, i simply think it wouldve been cool if there was a "grand campaign", and three provincial campaigns displaying seperate periods, early high and late. This wouldve been good for factions like the mongols, that came later and wouldnt have to have the hording feature used. But this is a very slight dislike i have.

Now for the good things...

A) this is INFINITELY BETTER than mtw1, rtw, and shogun combined...INFINITELY!!! there is no question about it, this is the ultimate total war...

B) see letter A ...

[Mad_Cat]

B) The Mongols and Timurids weren't done good, no going around this, several reasons for this, the Mongols historically were the most efficient military machine that ever existed (relative to the medieval weaponry system), and when they arrive in the campaign, they have a very overpowering 5 stacks with totally godlike generals, this is good, that they have an almost unbreakable army ( outside of a good human player with a descent army evening the odds, the ai being other factions can not beat them)...but they dont conquer, they just continuously march around the map aimlessly, I've seen them go up through the steppes, and i've seen them go through the middle east.
This is not CAs fault that they could not make the mongols right. In my view, it simply will never be done in a game like this.

I'm going to have to disagree, the first time the mongols came to the middle east and north towards the steppes avobe the black sea, it was just a scouting mission for Genghis, and they did just that and sacked evry city they came across. Furthermore the whole settling issue, was looked down upon very badly by the mongols who prefered to sack an area then move on, leaving the sacked provinces as tributary kingdoms or vassals. By the time they had settled down, it was well after genghisis death and the whole settling issue made and broke many khans. So in my opinion CA got it spot on

[Gladiator777]

I'm going to have to disagree, the first time the mongols came to the middle east and north towards the steppes avobe the black sea, it was just a scouting mission for Genghis, and they did just that and sacked evry city they came across. Furthermore the whole settling issue, was looked down upon very badly by the mongols who prefered to sack an area then move on, leaving the sacked provinces as tributary kingdoms or vassals. By the time they had settled down, it was well after genghisis death and the whole settling issue made and broke many khans. So in my opinion CA got it spot on

I've read two books on the mongols, and I'll agree with you that they did just sack and then move on when scouting, but they did not have an insane amount of numerical superiority as they do when arriving with five stacks.

They were usually outnumbered, they just had far superior tactics and were far better warriors who did that their whole life, similiar to the huns. Easy to beat a newly recruited levy with good suit of armor. Their superiorty lied in shooting the hell out of their enemy and then slaughtering them. Doesn't hurt when you have the best army of horse archers in the world, who can then move in and melee. Also, their intelligence gathering was notorious, they always knew a lot more about the enemy than the enemy did about them.
They knew how the enemy fought and planned ahead. That double combo right there is what made them so lethal.

hopefully one day a mod team will get together using this new engine and make a genghis khan tw, where he starts out in the steps uniting the mongols, and then moves to the campaign map to start havoc.

[UnderdawgIV]

It seems you only played the campaign once or twice. In all 3 of my first and current campaigns, they usually occupy the entire middle east, or at least a good portion of it.