A good, balanced game.
Gladly, the creators balanced it well. I enjoyed the persistent units. For those who have not heard, those are the units that gain experience and can be carried from one battle to the next. In my case, I had a monstrous pack of high-level Rohan cavalry that I brought through several battles. This was cool, because one, it is impressive to see these superstars mow down bad guys, and two, because it made me care whether or not my guys died.
Because of the unit persistence, I was not happy letitng one unit die and replacing him with another. That would have made for a boring single-player campaign. Because of unit persistence, however, I did not send any troops on "death missions," and paid close attention to all of them. I was more personally vested in each skirmish.
The only downside to this game is the direction-issues that others have spoken up. That is, cavalry can sneak up behind spearmen and ride them down, but will end up being massacred regardless of the surprise element. I am surprised that developers didn't see how badly this worked in testing....?
Still, a great game, worth your time!