The campaign map spans the globe, with the Americas and India thrown in. Are these continents just new regions to conquer or do they have a different relationship with the main European theatre?

These are fully fleshed out theatres of war. Their own unique factions inhabit them; they have their own terrain and weather systems along with their own inhabitants and nations vying for power. The people and the land have their own micro-social and economic issues meaning wandering in and imposing European will might not be as easy as you intend. Finally of course the peoples of these lands have their own military tactics and units, an all new challenge.

The This time out, province improvements will be on the map. How does this change strategy and tactics?

The primary design driver here was accessibility initially but it has some interesting side-effects. By putting the ports, agriculture and factories on the map, you can see at a glance the wealth and development of a region. This means you can see quickly which of your enemies regions are worth taking and how much damage each would do to them economically. It also means that a marauding army must be met on the field or it can move around the region with impunity destroying outlying developments. This means you can't sit and wait behind your cities walls for an enemy to come to you.

A common complaint about the Total War games is the micromanaging of all those agents: Diplomats, spies, assassins. Are you doing anything to streamline this in Empire?

Firstly we've reduced the number of actual agents this time around. The diplomat for example no longer exists, nations now knew of one another’s presence and had established lines of communication. This is handled through the new diplomacy menu, no more moving, clicking and talking etc.

We've combined the dark arts of assassination, spying and subterfuge within one unit, the Rake. These nasty, but polite chaps are able to do your dirty work on the campaign map.

Essentially lots have been done on the campaign side to minimise the amount of clicking and\micromanagement needed to run your Empire.

What can you say about the role of the Cabinet?

Depending on your governmental system your cabinet are either the elected representatives of the people or appointees of the royalty or head of state.

These individuals take up key posts, influencing bonuses and modifiers applied to your trade, armed forces, diplomacy and overall leadership. You're able to shuffle your ministers, call early elections, hire and fire individuals etc. This is something that those who want to squeeze the extra 5% from their game will take an interest in. For those not so keen, it can be auto-managed without you needing to tend to it.

Both Rome and Medieval 2 used Missions to structure the campaign and reward the player. Will these be back in Empire and who assigns these missions?

Missions are indeed available; in the case of Empire they take two forms. The episodic campaign, the Road to Independence, features a mission structure based on the story you're playing through: the foundation and eventual independence of America. The missions in the game’s chapters feature the goals for your embryonic nation and give the player a clear focus to their game.

The missions in the grand campaign work slightly differently. Here, as with Rome, you can choose to ignore missions issued by your parliament and people, but you do so to your detriment. These are much more reward inspired targets than narrative drivers.