they could work on the AI for the pre-battle parts of the game, where the battles are really won. If you have the rigth army, you can defeat anyone, so if the cpu had a good army building strategy, it could prove challenging. The batle parts could be better if the cpu were feed with real batle information plus past battles of the game, so the more you played, the more difficult would get.
But we can only hope, as the game is pratically made already.

if i can play medieval 2 on it can i also play empire?

The Total War series is awesome, I can remember playing the first Medieval Total War at LAN parties with friends, so much fun, 2 was awesome also.

don't worry bud. ill be getting it too. i might even play some of you online.

EDIT:

BTW, who do you think entered it on the database, uploaded the boxart, entered the game description and even uploaded a few screenshots

Very few RTS games get as much love from me as the Total War series. My favorite was Rome Total War and i'll definitly be picking up Empire: Total War for sure. You are not alone my friend!

i too want this!! whats cool it comes out feburary 3rd or something and my birthday is feburary 7th which rocks :]

Actually you can play the campaign through lan or online with the expansion to Medieval total war 2

it rocks

getting this first day

Big fan of the Total War series ever since I borrowed Shogun: Total War from my friend. Don't know if I'll pick up Empires though. My computer is going down the crapper real fast and I don't know if I'll upgrade any time soon. But if/when I do, I'll be all over it.

i only just got Medieval II Total War so i may give this a miss untill ive finished with that.
Rome Lasted me 200 hours

Love your reasoning there. Did you ever think the reason we had a great navy was because we are an Island? I mean come on, just look at the 2008 Olympics . 942 years without being sucessfully invaded and counting...

I am soooo looking forward to this game, hopefully a 8600 GT is enough, but may have to upgrade

Started playing when I played MTW:II on a mates PC, got it, then went and bought Rome.

That said, I am pretty crap at it Easy difficulty FTW!

Actually I am soooooo looking forward to playing out my country's history 1700-1800 ;)