How is Empire Total War at current patch?

I've been away from gaming for a while, and have been taking advantage of Norhern Michigan's good weather months.

I would like to get back into Empire Total War, but I'm curious how well this game play's out now compared to when it was released?

I read a forum that lists some of the patch updates.

The thing that immediately catches my eye is that the AI now will do Naval invasions. On one hand I am happy that the island territories are not given a guarantee of protection. On the other hand I am hoping that the AI won't cart over units in piecemeal order (such as Age of Empires). I'm also hoping that countries that didn't historically use a navy won't entirely flip their focus. Has anyone had any 1sthand knowledge of how well this works?

Another thing I read is that the diplomacy options and balance have improved. That also would be a welcome improvement.

I'm also hoping that the stability of the game has improved. I hated the campaign ending bugs. Of course I will be getting a computer upgrade soon so perhaps this will be more compatible anyways.

I'm not looking forward to the bad weather but I am looking forward to catching up with some of you again.

 

You aren't out of the loop very much. They just updated pretty recently. I haven't played yet, either.