After playing Empire Total War heavily I bought Napoleon on release date, a lot of things have been improved and the game runs quite well. The graphics are pretty top notch for a strategy game and even with the bumped up graphics the game still runs on tthe same specs neede to run Empire. I really enjoy the time period the game is set in and like the style of ranged combat as opposed to big melee fights. The units are detailed really well, even zoomed right in and mostly act in a believeable fashion. The new terrain effects are really cool, cannons and other artillery peices leave big gauges in the maps. The new ability to play all the campaigns with a mate over LAN and the net is really cool too, I have played a couple over the LAN and had a few dropouts and bugs but otherwise a really great experience, best shared with a mate of around the same experience.
My biggest gripe with this game and its prequel is the AI. The computer opponent seems quite good when your first finding your feet but once you get into the strategies and counters you'll quickly find the AI predictable and unable to really challenge you. It does stupid things and its armies never really work together to achieve its goals, on the battle map and the campaign map.
Even with these flaws I've still spent far to much time on this game so 4/5.