Weird. For YEARS at any AoW site I went to AoW:SM was universally declared the absolute best in the series. people generally said that AoW1 was an excellent game but that SM had improved upon everything in spades.

Now I come here and see the converse?

I started with the first game way back when(over ten years ago I am sure) but after playing SM I will not touch the first game again. The difference IMO is akin to the difference between Civilization and Civ II, for what that observation is worth.

As a fan from the beginning of AoW1, I actually have to say I think AoW:SM is the best game in the series. Where AoW defined the genre, SM made so much improvements it is hard to see why you still would want to play AoW1? Wizard Towers, improved battle, VERY different units and races, great Hero skill tree, map generator etc. Admittedly, the single player campaign of SM is hard and maybe not as gripping as the other campaigns from AoW 1 and 2, but if you are up for multiplayer, SM is your best shot at having a relatively fast paced, thrill packed TBS game.

Use your concealed units to hide in the forest just outside your enemy's income structures and start raiding them :) So much fun in multiplayer!

And right there you have the major difference between them.
AoW: SM is geared towards multiplayer and AoW is not.

I bet that if you get to the bottom of the difference between the players that endorse AoW or AoW: SM it will be that the AoW: SM lovers are mainly multiplayers and vice versa.

I think you'll lose that bet.
I'm a long time AOW player myself and except for a couple of PBEM games I only play single player..
In my opinion it is AOW 1 that is most suited to multi player since the AI in AOW 1 is so poor and thus AOW:SM provides a better SP challenge than AOW 1.

The only AOW 1 single player maps worth playing is adventure/quest mods like Paladin's Quest, while war maps like Athendore is no fun due to the poor AI.

The battles are generally smaller and quicker in SM too, with no positioning phase, which makes it more suitable for the SP than AOW 1, IMO.

Well it's a bet so of course I'm not perfectly sure.

Agreed the AI in AoW ain't the best. This is the main reason you would not want to play single player that I can think of right now.
But unbalanced maps make up for that. You can choose difficulty much by taking a less powerful race or starting in an disadvantageous map position.

That the battles are smaller and quicker in AoW: SM is usually a selling argument for the multiplayer crowd. ;)

I'm basing my opinion on how the games are designed. The races and maps are much more balanced in AoW: SM than in AoW.
AoW: SM is simply designed for multiplayer which isn't the case for the first.

Me I like AoW best. Just because it isn't balanced, I hate strategy games with balanced races/factions.
That I think the overall look of the game is much more charming helps too. :)

Yes, I forgot that "live" multiplayer plays out the battles.
In PBEM however, battles are resolved by auto combat.

Anyway, AOW:SM improved the AI (still too weak, though) and combat, the two things that made me get tired of AOW 1. I will probably replay the campaign and play some user made quest maps for AOW 1 some day, but I'll never player a AOW 1 war map again.

I'm happy with that as long as you like one of the games in the series. This wonderful series of games need more attention. :)

I am one who NEVER played a multi-player game of AoW and never had any interest in such. I just think SM is a much better Single Player game, design-wise.

SM looks fine on my screen. No distortions. Not pixellated. Looks great.

I assume you have a standard monitor, or are using a standard resolution? Because it absolutely does not scale properly on a widescreen monitor. However, AOW1 does.

Bollocks. You can use AoWSMSetup.exe to choose between 24 different screen resolutions, including Widescreen resolutions like 1440X900, and it looks absolutely fine. You can even change resolution in-game.

I protest your claim of bollocks. I know the resolutions are supported in game, but it's the UI that gets pretty stretched and distorted on my computer. The units in the UI are literally wider than the units on the map. Either the UI gets stretched or the game is supposed to look terrible, and I'm pretty sure it's the former.

Hmm...I can't see any stretching in the UI. If I compare units on the map with a units from the city production screen they look identical to me.
Here's a screenshot of how it looks on my system - http://i.imgur.com/HXx9P.jpg
Desktop resolution and game resolution is both 1440X900 on a 22 inch monitor.

I've got a widescreen laptop. 1920 by 1080 I think. But I keep my desktop resolution at 1280 x 800.

Wow, that looks way better than on my screen. I'm on a 1440x900 15 inch moniter. I'm going to have to start hunting down solutions... Maybe it's a graphics card thing? But I'm glad it turns out the game actually does look pretty good. Thanks for pointing it out!