So much love for Empire in this thread. I can't say i agree. Like you I was SUPER excited for that game. I get it, and the AI is border line retarded. There was once a fight in which I was assaulting a fort, full army against full army. I decided (stupidly, they never surrender anyway) to siege the fort. Well, when the CPUs turn came they marched a second full army out of their city and attacked me. I couldn't retreat, so i just accepted that i was going to get destroyed.
The fight started and I was in the fort (Wait. What? Was I not the one attacking the fort to begin with?). I set my guys up along the walls and positioned everyone else. Well, the enemy runs up to the walls of my fort and here I am thinking it was almost over. Nope. They stood at the walls, I'd say maybe one set of ropes went up, and ONLY that one batallion came up. Even the reinforcements just stood there and died. So after my guys on the walls ran out of ammo i would just bring them (attempt) to get them off the wall. For some reason they think climbing down the rope and going through the front gate is better than going down the ramp DIRECTLY behind them, but who am I to judge. So now I have to deal with cavalry and American Indian troops running in through my front gate that should have never been open in the first place.
I won the battle, under no circumstances should I have though. Although this series is a great idea and I do enjoy playing it from time to time, such obvious flaws are what ruin a great game for me. I don't like buying games to beta test them for the developer so they can get to final release through patches.
Back on topic. My favorite series has to be Hitman. Splinter Cell was great til Double Agent, so that makes it fall off my #1 game. I just love those games where you are in and out without anyone even knowing you were there.