The last Creative Arts game before the "change."

It takes you through a lot of different time periods with the DLC, and the it has some very good siege mechanics. In fact this is pretty much the last game where the AI will even attack a settlement with a garrison, and you don't have to just auto-resolve the dozens of same/same minor settlement battles.

Basically what I am saying is if you haven't played this game play it, if you played the newer stuff and saw past the graphics and needed more substance than this and Napolean are basically the end of the series.

the last of good total war games

Better than modern Total war games, Shame the company is slowly destroying the multiplayer scene. But the modding community is lovely!