i've been a long time fan of DW games, DW6 was a let down cos of the cut down on characters and story mode, but DW6:E empire mode make up for it with the edit characters and the choice of ruler and officer mode.
i've finish with both ruler n officer mode, when u start a new game, theres a bonus list, u earn points when u finish the game (800 points each time) one thing to point out, u have to load the finished game to load the points, if not, u wont have any points. and thats the only way to keep ur weapons and horses from previous games. you can choose to get extra money or gems from the bonus list too.
u might want to take over 1/2 or 2/3 of china then start collecting money n gems to upgrade ur weapons and other characters weapons.
also, some of the functions are not shown on screen, like in the older version using up, down, left, right to give army orders.
but over all, i would say the replayable value is much more than DW6 (personally)