Has anyone here played Medieval Total War and Medieval II Total War?

I have Medieval II Total War and enjoy quite a bit but I find the campaign to be weak. Not in the sense that it is not challenging but that there is little intrigue. Diplomacy seems to matter very little. And yes mods help a little but don't get rid of the problem.

Is the original Medieval better in that aspect? Does it do anything better than the sequel?
And is there a digital copy for sale?

Heard of it. Know what it is, but never played it. Soz I can't help.

Dunno about the first, but diplomacy in the second is kind of hard, and you need to have good diplomats to convince factions to start a war. You can improve their skill by bribing armies and making trade agreements and alliances.

No reason to play the first game (similar to no reason to play Shogun 1). Especially for diplomacy. MTW II is where they started to make it a bit more useful and user friedly (earlier games you would get a lot less information about how and why someone rejected an offer).

I just read through this thread and it sound fairly convincing. Would love to hear some feedback on it too.

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/194-top-reasons-Med1-is-the-ubber-total-war-title

I actaully find Med2 TW's Expansion "Kingdoms" much better than the main campaign anyway

Finished Americas two hours ago. I have to disagree.

(haven't played the other three yet)

Will be starting that one next, though, don't know when. Got kind of bored after ~130+ hours of M2TW.