...its okay really
There are several things that Pyro have done with this game to make it stand out, some work; some dont. Battles of course involve infantry, cavalry & cannon & theres no denying that battles are quite fun. However, since musket troop squads can fire through eachother as opposed to having to line up side by side, battles can be as easily won by just lining ur men one behind the other & watching the enemy get sucked into the firstline & mowed down by the rest. The non-Playable countries can be taken over either diplomaticly by reaching a 100% approval with them, or conquest. The latter works fine but the former to me at least is, while usefull, strange & simplistic. Reaching that 100% is not wholely difficult & it seems odd to me that these countries can say no to peacefull annexation. Sea battles too, have their pros & cons. There never seem to be any big ones in the campaigns, instead usually you just encounter one or two sloops floating around. The battles too can drag on for ages, & it is possible to loose even when ur winning by letting ur ships float off the map. Finally, only capital provinces can build troops, which is a novel idea to say the least, & one I like. Also you have to train captains, generals etc who can support certain numbers to troops under their command. This again is an interesting idea which works, though it can be a handicap at some points.
Imperial Glory has clearly tried to show that its not just a Total War clone. Unfortunately, in so doing it has added things that drag this game down as a great alternative it could have been. I havent listed everything new good or bad about this game, but i dont need to. The score speaks for itself.