Let me repeat: you have absolutely no idea what is in store for you in Medieval: Total War.

Medieval: Total War takes nearly everything that was great about Shogun: Total War and makes it better. Most of the little things that served as irritants in the prequel have been ironed out. Medieval is bigger, and yet more streamlined. Tougher in AI tactics, yet more civilized in its approach. I've been playing the game for a solid month now and still feel like it has more delights and secrets to offer every time I boot up the CD. In short, Medieval: Total War gets my vote as the campaign strategy title of the year. High praise indeed, and completely deserved...but first, a little background.

Medieval's backstory is set during the Middle Ages, a time period that is of particular interest to me. A large portion of the exciting stories of the Middle Ages are based during this time - the Crusades, the Hundred Years War, the ascension of the Turkish Empire - all between 1087 and 1453. What Medieval allows you to experience is the joy of commanding massive armies of troops in full 3D battles that can exceed 10,000 at a time.

The amount of options available is staggering. Out of the box you can immediately jump into a quick battle where both the battleground and combatants are chosen for you. There is a single player campaign as well, which includes custom battles, historical battles, historical campaigns which allow you to cover a leader's entire career, a map editor for the creation of your own battlefields, and a cool replay feature so you can watch your Braveheart-style brouhahas over and over again.

Activision has included tutorials for both campaigns and battles, so if you're new to the Total War series, it won't take long to get up to speed. Need to learn tactical commands and strategies for differing scenarios? The battle tutorial will lead you through basic training succintly and plainly.

Now, campaign games allow you to choose your starting date, either 1087, 1205 or 1321. There are also parameters for beating the game which you can set, either through Glorious Achievements, where your work is measured against the historical achievement of the group you've chosen, or my favourite choice, Domination. In order to win at Domination, you need to hold two-thirds of the provinces for victory. The realism of the game definitely makes it more challenging, but also more rewarding. Those of you who can't stomach too much realism will want to turn off such options as morale, limited ammunition and fatigue, but I suggest that you eventually turn these options back on to experience everything that Medieval has to offer.

The gameplay is gripping from the word go, and there is a lot to balance on your plate here. There are faction leaders who report to you, with their own ratings, who grow old, die, and leave heirs if they are married. Generals command your armies, with their own loyalty and competency ratings which you need to stay on top of. If you want to maintain the loyalty of your generals, give them titles to assuage their egos. It is important to keep an eye on the vices and virtues of your generals, however. Some of them have certain...idiosyncracies that can earn the ire of the populace, or just scare them out of their wits. If they're scared into docility, though, that's just fine. While you control provinces, the responsibility of taxes, income, resources and trade also come under your jurisdiction. Certain provinces create soldiers of certain abilities as well, and in some cases it makes sense to invade a province just to gain access to the type of soldier native to that region. Build castles to hold a garrison, and your men can hold out against invading forces. Trade by sea through ports, and tax incoming vessels as they enter your lands. There are even natural disasters which can affect you, SimCity-style. In order to maintain loyalty of provinces you control, factors like taxes, religious differences, previous loyalties, enemy spies, natural disasters and others all can make the difference in taking a province and actually holding it for any length of time. Depending on the religious persuasion, players now have the ability to call Jihad or Crusades against opponents, which is a great addition. Catholic, Muslim, Pagan, Heretic or Orthodox, there's a holy war with your name on it. Just make sure that you have the resources and money to maintain the amount of troops needed to enforce your will.

The computer's AI is pretty good - I've had some skin of the teeth battles, but never felt like the AI was cheating in order to win or maintain pace (with one exception noted below). The AI doesn't like charging much (unless you up the difficulty), and when defending, it has a "hold" mentality that can be a bit irritating. By and large, though, it does present a challenging opponent. If challenging human opponents is what you seek, Medieval has you covered on that front in multiplayer. Through GameSpy, up to 8 people can battle over the Internet, and there is LAN-based play included as well. Lag wasn't an issue on my cable hookup.

Medieval: Total War definitely has atmosphere in spades. The graphics of the soldiers themselves are good, but not great. There is more than enough detail to serve its purpose, however, and when you take into account the number of soldiers that this engine is supporting, it's actually quite impressive. There may be better looking RTS/Turn-Based games on the market, but none with this amount of men onscreen. Frankly, seeing the calvalry coming over the hillside in a cloud of dust is very sweet. The maps and scenery are lush and bring the thrill - and accompanying horror - of battle home. The scale has to be seen to be believed. Sound, too, is nicely done. Nothing too over the top on the tune front, just period music playing in the background. It's when units clash where the sound effects truly shine. Men scream and holler in pain, the clang of metal on metal rings through the air, and the music changes dynamically to reflect the tension of the battle. Some more voice samples would be nice, but to be honest I didn't pay as much attention once I was drawn into the fighting.

There are some problems with Medieval: Total War that drive its score down a bit. Loading times are just terrible, even taking into account the amount of information being swapped around. Diplomacy seems to be a red herring at this point - no matter what I tried to do, no matter the side I was using, the "softly-softly" approach was a waste of time. The graphics aren't the most detailed on the market. Sieges are rare, and when they do crop up, take forever and a day to complete. On that last point, while I concede that the whole point of a siege is for the besieged fighters to hold out as long as possible, it feels almost the AI is holding out artificially. However, others might find that the time spent is just right for them, and I respect the varying opinions on that front.

Still, these problems aren't enough to keep me from recommending Medieval: Total War as an absolute must-buy to any fan of turn-based strategy or real-time strategy. The mechanics are sound, the atmosphere is spot-on, and the scale of the battles is truly epic. The Creative Assembly and Activision have taken the challenge of improving on Shogun and come up with a trump card. When the votes are counted for TBS/RTS of 2002, Medieval: Total War has my vote locked up. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some pesky French territories to go deal with.