[tgb]

I hate to say it, but after starting several games as the normal difficulty level, I'm shelving this puppy for a couple of reasons, both of which are game-breakers for me:

1) Wacky A.I.: In one game I DOW'ed my neighbor, and captured one of the small villages in her territory. The A.I. immediately sent the ENTIRE GARRISON FROM THE CAPITOL out to retake it, allowing me to CAPTURE THE CAPITOL WITH A SINGLE, UNSUPPORTED GENERAL. That's right, my lone General was able to capture the capitol with no resistance. In my next game, early on, my territory was invaded by an army of Crusaders. I thought this was getting interesting. After barely taking one of my villages, with it's army barely surviving, rather than let the army rest in the village and recover, the A.I. took what remained of the army and marched on my capitol city. Needless to say the army was routed, and I was able to once again retake the village with a single, unescorted general.

2) Diplomacy that makes the TW series look like, well, a great diplomat. Time after time the A.I. would come to me with a offer of alliance, but than refuse to accept it. Or, when I could finally get an alliance, that country would attack for no apparent reason. Every nation in the world is expanding all over the place, but as soon as you take your first neutral village they all hate you.

Too bad. This could have been a contender.