I'd say it's one of the 5 best strategies and definitely inside the best 10 games ever made.

Unlike Xiph0, I enjoyed chess-like campaigns and political manouvering more than RTS battles themselves. But since I generally don't like RTS, I guess that's understandable.

Still, the world map mode was for me much more interesting, especially when you're planning an offensive on a nearby state - send in agents and priests, then assasinate generals, bribe off an army or two, divide them from the inside and THEN conquer by bringing in your own army and stepping over them like worms they are... Ahhh, nothing beats that. I'm telling you, battle mode, while nice for a RTS, is maybe 30% of what this game has to offer.

My marks:

Graphic - 6 - uses sprites for units in the battle mode. World map is OK, but nothing special.

Sound - 7 - can get irritating on the world map. Battle sounds are ok, but still, nothing special. Usualy play my own MP3's in the background, so it doesn't matter anyway.

Gameplay - strategic mode (world map) - 10 - Simply brilliant.

Gameplay - tactical mode (RTS battles) - 9 - Good for RTS, I even played most of the battles myself. Can get a bit overwhelming with 2-3 huge armies facing each other.

Overall - 9 - one of the best, definitely better than Rome: Total War.

 

I liked this game alot, there is the Viking Invasion expansion which is not great as an expansion but it adds a few extrasto the main game ehich make it better

 

I enjoyed this as well, unfortunately campaign is no longer working for me. It was quite fun to build up armies, engage in espionage and work your way to conquest. The diplomacy model wasn't that great and sea battles were not very clear.

Biggest problem is not being able to play a campaign with other human players. Granted it would be hard to make it work and remain interesting for all involved, but still something I missed.