Probably the best strategy game made to date, by anyone! Beautifully rendered, well thought out, each faction is culturally unique, except the 3 Roman ones for obvious reasons. The combination of turn based strategy map and real time tactical combat is well tailored. The difficulty is in balancing the economy with the troops. The 'civilised countries' have strong economies but expensive units. The barbarians have cheap units and weak economies. The civilised units are very durable. Beware the horse archer they will run merry rings round you if you let them. When using cavaly hit and run; they can go down very quickly if left in melee with infantry. Fantastic balance and has the feel of how the history books read. The add-ons are not great but I have always found Total War add-ons to be a little disappointing (except those of medieval 2 which were OK) Do not play it on any of the hard levels if you are a novice, you will get your little backsides spanked every time. Look at the hours the top players have put into it... believe me I know they are having fun. I dread to think how many lost weekends have gone into this game. But I must have been enjoying myself. Download yesterday! If I could I would give it a bonus point!

Read all the reviews on the game