A brilliant magic-based strategy game where you can control large armies and wage wars. Have put several hundreds of hours into the game, and there are still new experiences.
Several features I quite like: 1. variety of different play styles with quite distinguishable factions and races; 2. vivid unit models; 3. magic, magic and magic. I'm not that hardcore for Total War, but I like games with a complicated story, especially when magic is involved. The game kinda reminds me of Heroes of Might and Magic, where units also have attributes to represent their melee attack hit chance, melee damage, defense abilities, etc. While their stats can be boosted by the hero leading the army and the items the hero carries, units' stats in TWWH can be boosted as the hero gains experience (and by researching). Magic in HoMM can greatly hinder the enemies or apply buffs across the board, being a game-changing effect, and it certainly achieved similar goals in TWWH. The difference I see is that while in HoMM you have to imagine huge armies clash, you can now see the battlefield unfolds before your eyes and witness the truly great battles.
There are certainly some improvements the game can make. Some balance changes are needed for some factions so they can be competent. Siege battles and sea battles become somewhat boring as they are mostly similar (it has been improved greatly as new maps are introduced and now sea battles can actually be played). And there are some annoying physical rules that are so hard to figure out, like the shooting arc of hellstorm rocket battery.
As a plus to my recommendation, the blogs published on CA's website for patches, upcoming events, etc and their ways of handling issues are genuine and helpful. They never mince words about why they can/cannot add something into the game, and it shows they care about what we players think. It's quite a merit for game developers.