after an additional 750 hours of gameplay, the following review still stands albeit I must call attention to other factors that may guide your gameplay experience:

-Large unit mass was nerfed a long time ago because people online complained about how a 50 ft stone statue couldn't be stopped by a buncha peasants with sticks, so now large units do not behave like they would in a "realistic" setting. So if you like physics, mod the mass back into the game.
-Growth requirements for settlements also received a nonsensical nerf some time ago, causing already slow growers like norsca and the Tomb kings, to become even slower at development compared to already speedy growers like the skaven.
-some factions have received more love than others, resulting in a lot of "old world" lords being completely irellevant in terms of skill trees and army buffs. Therefore making many lords utterly undesirable in lieu of others
-Beware DLC that adds factions. ikit claw? good, Malus Darkblade? good. Deathmaster Snikch, amazing. Tomb kings and vampire coast are absolutely the definition of "slow starters" and they really don't benefit from anything other than doomstacks.
-A lot of your time is going to be spent combating the predatory nature of the AI, once you learn to manipulate it the game gets easier, on higher difficulties you can't really play at all without manipulating it.

all in all review still stands. but now you have a better picture of what you'll be faced with.
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Someone felt it necessary to create mods to do away with AI buffs (cheats). Let that marinate, a modder. felt the need to not only examine enemy AI, inventory their insane cheat engine-like buffs, and get rid of them. After the mods, the game starts actually being a strategy game, wins, losses, enemies that refuse to vassalize no matter how long you box them in, normal 4X stuff.

easily one of the most fun battle systems I've seen of any 4X game.

after an additional 750 hours of gameplay, the following review still stands albeit I must call attention to other factors that may guide your gameplay experience: -Large unit mass was nerfed a long time ago because people online complained about how a 50 ft stone statue couldn't be stopped by a buncha peasants with sticks, so now large units do not behave like they would in a "realistic" setting. So if you like physics, mod the mass back into the game. -Growth requirements for settlements also received a nonsensical nerf some time ago, causing already slow growers like norsca and the Tomb kings, to become even slower at development compared to already speedy growers like the skaven. -some factions have received more love than others, resulting in a lot of "old world" lords being completely irellevant in terms of skill trees and army buffs. Therefore making many lords utterly undesirable in lieu of others -Beware DLC that adds factions. ikit claw? good, Malus Darkblade? good. Deathmaster Snikch, amazing. Tomb kings and vampire coast are absolutely the definition of "slow starters" and they really don't benefit from anything other than doomstacks. -A lot of your time is going to be spent combating the predatory nature of the AI, once you learn to manipulate it the game gets easier, on higher difficulties you can't really play at all without manipulating it. all in all review still stands. but now you have a better picture of what you'll be faced with. ----------------------------------------------------- Someone felt it necessary to create mods to do away with AI buffs (cheats). Let that marinate, a modder. felt the need to not only examine enemy AI, inventory their insane cheat engine-like buffs, and get rid of them. After the mods, the game starts actually being a strategy game, wins, losses, enemies that refuse to vassalize no matter how long you box them in, normal 4X stuff. easily one of the most fun battle systems I've seen of any 4X game.