Empire total war on release, the battle AI was absolute garbage to the point where you can just start as the Netherlands, walk over to Paris and take their country.

Before everyone researches fire by rank you could just spread out the infantry and have 2x firepower. Cavalry charges straight into you, pathfinding was so bad that you’d have a single column of men moving through a wide area. Fucking loved it though, it was a grand strategy spectacle and naval battles felt intense.

I had fun unlocking the pirates via config file edit and spamming out general units from a single buccaneer sword infantry and took over all of the Americas.