Become the world’s first superpower and command the most incredible and vast war machine of the Ancient world. Dominate the enemies of your glorious empire by military, economic and political means.
1) "Capture the flag" mode is just plain stupidity - whichever developer came up with that should be fired and bannned from ever developing a line of code again...he doesnt know what TW is...
2) battles are a horrific experience overall...all the "magic" of actually seeing the micro-engagements when 2 units colided are gone...if you try, you will probably miss the battle as it will be over that fast...i.e. 2 armies of +3,000 men each were over and done in about 6 minutes...this is NOT what Total War is about...any strategy or tactics are gone; phalanxes dont maintain formation, even against a unit of "mob"...there's no command to "guard" or "stand ground"...typically every battle ends up being a complete mosh pit, over in under 3 minutes...units move too fast (never had my "artillery" fire more than 2 rounds before the lines meet...
3) AI is a joke...i won a battle with zero casualties (YES, ZERO!) against 2,400 men...all killed/routed with ballistas and a line of 4 units of archers (playing as Macedon). I was outnumbered and they simply wouldnt charge...just stood there being killed until they routed.
4) Diplomacy sucks...you basically cannot have a decent treasury or the smallest faction will ask for at least 10% to even CONSIDER negotiating...
5) The star of the show (Rome) appears to be the AI's worst enemy...they get rolled over every time by whomever comes their way...never even seen them getting legionaires out - unless i played as Rome...you would expect them to be realistic when handled by AI and start expanding - talk about falling short on expectations...
6) The new settlement management piece is actually good...though squalor feels like it was decided with a coin flip! every building gives squalor!!! even when the populous are complaining about lack of food, if you expand your fishery or cattle ranching, you get squalor!! come on CA, you can do better than that...
7) Agents might as well not exist (AI rarely uses them)
Overall, BIG disappointment