Great streamlining of Total War series. Doubles as turn-based strategy, with better diplomacy than before.
No disappointment. Had a lot of fun in purely turn-based mode. Actually more than with Civilization V.
Best sequel I have been played, since nearly all options are streamlined.
However the most important progress is speed of the game! No longer one has to get a sandwich while waiting for opponents to make a move.
The replayability is somewhat limited, since the map rather favours having well fortified position. After few first turns, when you play clan-specific script, I usually was best making sure that I have strong enough army not to be attacked by everyone, and at the same time trying to reach end of the map, and that fewer provinces would be directly on the border.
Then just before your renown comes too high, one has to increase prosperity and build up elite units. Final strategy is again to clear province by province, completely ignoring alliances and politics. So thumbs up for best Total War experience in terms of mechanics, along with decent speed-up, but thumbs down for underwhelming diplomacy options (your allies leave you at the finale anyway) and replayability.
Maybe playing battles would be better, but I must say that after playing battles in RUSE, Total War battles seem rather flat.