Rome is actually my least favorite (I haven't played M: TW II). There was a certain simplicity to Shogun and Medieval that made them very easy to play despite their complexity, and while Rome wasn't clumsy it never felt as slickly put together as it's predecessors.

Empire, which I've played the hell out of so far, seems to have got that back, with lots of extra goodies despite it. E:TW and Shogun battle for dominance in my mind.

Mind you, I've enjoyed all of the Total War games, including Rome. Empire also has the advantage of rippling musket barrages and thundering cannons and such too...I mean, that sure as hell beats some wussy ballista.:DL

None of them have managed to top the Ninja vids from Shogun, though...

My sentiment exactly :)

Forget the ninja, what about the Geisha!
I loved sending one to take out Jesuits, thought the shamizen garrotting was a pretty cool cut scene too!

Sometimes other daimyos would send back my envoy's head. I was always disappointed that I couldnt do that, especially to the Portuguese...