Maybe you didn't play Rome I?
I also don't understand the death threats but I still remember playing Rome II on launch - after playing Rome I for years - and being absolutely baffled at how bad it was. Apart from the graphics nothing was better and a lot was worse.
And I actively avoided playing siege battles, for fans of those it was even worse as explained in the article.
I'm sure you're right. I think I started playing it a couple of years after it came out.
Also, I found the battle simulations tiresome, so I stayed on the strategic side and auto-resolved the battles.
The one big bug which puzzled me is that there is a probability indicator before you auto-resolve, yet, no battle that it predicts you will win EVER is lost. So the probabilities are meaningless. I liked that bug, though. I don't want randomness.
