Picked up Total War Troy and I'm really enjoying it.

I hadn't planned on getting it, despite being a long time total war player. I didn't like the idea of it being an Epic exclusive. Luckily I saw some youtubers playing it early and they were enjoying it and it looked fun, so I picked it up when it was for free and I'm glad I did.

I much prefer it over 3K. I found 3K shallow - it looked pretty but it became a monotonous grind very quickly, especially given all armies felt very muck like clones of each other. The improvement of diplomacy and sieges was welcomed, but given combat is a very big part of the game, that fact that it felt lacking played a big part of that.

So going in, with the memory of Thrones of Britannia and the Epic exclusive colouring my initial views of the game, I had a remarkable turn around. It isn't the best total war game ever (my favourite still remains Empire), but it is fun. The heroes all have interesting mechanics and play different, even on the battlefield.

The battle maps have a lot more detail and encourage the use of tactics. My very first battle I took a while to actually find where the enemy was given all the trees and hills around. They also had the ranged advantage with their slingers and javelin troops, which could have caused problems but I had managed to sneak my light troops undetected through the trees onto their flank and were able to get in among their ranged troops and drive them off before turning on their infantry and hitting them from behind. Flanking manoeuvres are very important in Troy. And the AI does it as well. A number of times I've had AI troops appear out of nowhere on my flanks having snuck around through the terrain.

The other thing I like is that they are using a proper resource system rather than just gold - in this case grain, stone, timber, bronze and gold. If you are short on one you can trade with other nations, which helps foster relations. And you will need them, as the game is based on the Trojan war and so heads towards two large alliances duking it out.