I’m been looking at things to get my strategy fix on. How are Empire and Napoleon? Good? I hear… well, weird things about them. And the strange DLC crap they have is just weird.
I like their main campaign modes a lot, but the battle mode AI isn’t very smart. Battles are still pretty, though; my enjoyment is more from watching thousands of little toy soldiers kill each other rather than any tactical challenge. I find Empire’s grand campaign particularly engaging, because one has to take many factors into account when deciding where to fight and where to invest.
The Warpath DLC for Empire isn’t any good. I haven’t played the Iberian Campaign for Napoleon yet (I don’t even know if it’s been released yet).
Other posters will be along shortly with less charitable assessments, no doubt. The only thing I’ll say in anticipation of them is that any stability issues Empire had were fixed long ago, and I don’t remember Napoleon ever having any.
Stick with MTW2. The mods for MTW2 are now light years ahead of whatever shiny crap CA is producing these days. I’m still playing through a Stainless Steel ( http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=314 ) campaign.
I don’t know why exactly, but I couldn’t get into ETW but am enjoying NTW immensely.