I have been a Creative Assembly fan for a long time.  My favorite game is still Shogun 2 and its various expansions.  There was a dark time before that though (Napoleon was neat, but did not impress me compared to Empire) and after that (I bought very cheaply, and still have not played Rome 2 or Attila.)  There were mechanics and focus changes I disliked there.  There were design decisions and graphics requirements I did not like.  I might have also been suffering burnout by spending almost 500 hours of my life (sadly true) playing Shogun 2.

Along came Warhammer and Warhammer 2.  Both are released in normal Creative Assembly fashion (i.e. wait six months for patches, DLCs, and optimizations to kick in) but conversely, they become these monstrous sprawling sources of amusement, aggravation, and constant nights filled with "one more turn, oh crap, that happened, I need to take care of it" and so on.  I am still trying to get the hang of fighting the tactical battles (Shogun 2 admittedly did not have monsters and hordes of Vampiric Bats, which change the flow of a battle significantly).  I found a rather helpful article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun (they have some, it's true!) which suggested, among other things, to practice with your chosen army in a few custom battles just to see how it worked.  I've started doing that with my beloved High Elves - I used them regularly in tabletop games a decade ago - and found that they are a finicky but powerful force.  In other words, how they play in the game is how they play on the tabletop.

If anything, Warhammer and Warhammer 2 are TOO GOOD - I've completely lost all desire to ever get out my dusty miniatures, as I can setup and fight an enjoyable battle in about 1/4 the time the tabletop would.  Plus the graphics are far better than my painting ever was.  Take a look, watch some Twitch streams, and if you like either Games Workshop or Total War games, these are well worth your time.