I got it to work finally after trying Italian as the language instead of English.
Workaround for Direct2Drive English language users:
1. install MOW under italian (other languages may work also but I haven't tried)
2. install
international version of patch 1.11.3 (not direct2drive version) and choose italian as the language
3. install 1.16.4 using italian as the language
= done
To change the language to english:
1. move the MOW dir somewhere else
2. install MOW in english
3. copy the localization.pak, and everything under the resource dir from english mow to italian mow
4. delete english mow then move italian mow back to where it was installed
= done