It seems as if the only thing that stops the hanging at game starts and the incessant dropping of other players pre-match is to restart the computer for me.  I've done everything, ports open, /serverproxyonly, logged out/logged after matches, logged off windoze/logged back after match...

Only restarting seems to work...

Also, why is there so little information given when tyring to connect to "Parthenon" matches, only a little dialog box telling you other players are wanting to play, but nothing else.  Then when you do connect, you can open up a dialog box that shows who you "plan" to play with, which 70% or the time doesn't work or one or two people drop out before match starts.

Could you at least make the game better so you can see other peoples connection status, your own status and connectivity before match making, the other people waiting in the lobby or even a dialog box simply stating what the heck the game is doing while you sit there for 10, 20 minutes at a time?  The information given is insufficient and I think some players ctrl-alt-del out because they are so used to the game hanging.

I just got this game for $40 bucks and I'm pretty pissed, I could of been playing Total War Empire right now for ten more bucks instead of posting to a tech help forum, which I haven't had to do in years...

Sad.