Total War- Warhammer has two main problems that make me not want to recommend it even if you can get some enjoyment out of it. The first one is that it has the most insane monetisation scheme I've ever seen in any game ever released. The base game is bare-bones and offers only a small number of races. If you wish to have an actually complete experience you're expected to purchase a large number of absurdly overpriced DLCs that amount to a total sum of over 300€. Creative Assembly have even gone so far as to require you to own the previous two Warhammer games (including their DLCs) in order to access the full content. Some content is even locked behind requiring you to create a CA account and linking it to your steam account, something that isn't mentioned anywhere on the store page mind you. Not only are races and factions tied to DLCs but essential units as well. For example, you might be interested in playing as the Skaven after watching some gameplay on YouTube, so you purchase Warhammer 2 only for you to find out that their best and most exciting units, the Weapons Teams (Ratling Guns, Warplock Jezzails etc.), aren't even part of their base roster. So if you want to have the true Skaven experience you have to buy even more DLCs just to get their full roster. The game is essentially a big jigsaw puzzle where you have to buy each individual puzzle piece separately at ludicrous prices. Just to put this into context, the Chaos Dwarf DLC costs 25€. Half the price of a full game for just one measly race.

The second big problem with the game is that after all that you're left with a rather mediocre gameplay experience. I've played previous Total War titles extensively and I must say that the battle mechanics are incredibly watered down. Tactics barely matter (unless you count cheese) and it's mostly a stat game. The majority of battles revolve around you decimating the enemy with overpowered magic or artillery and any "tactic" you might use simply aims to abuse the AI and make them bunch up their troops in one big blob to make killing them easier or you dancing with a single entity unit in front of them to make them waste their precious ammo. What was once known as morale is now called leadership and basically doesn't matter anymore. Each battle is fought to the death as routing a unit from the battlefield is utterly impossible in most circumstances. Flanking and charging in the rear does nothing. Formations are gone, even something as basic as loose formation has been removed. The game has the depth of a puddle and can only be described as a glorified spectacle of explosions and magic fireworks. Some people like that. But if you're looking for something with strategic depth and more along the lines of a battle simulator packaged as a video game (which Total War aimed to be a long time ago) you'll be very disappointed.

Not for me. The combat is both too much for me to track and kinda boring to watch play out. Yet I appreciate what is here and I can see why people love it.

4x and RTS built in one, pretty great for tiktok brain rot era.
Can be quite expensive, depending on how many factions you want to play as a lot them are locked behind DLC paywalls.
Recommended if on sale