@belegorm: Keep in mind I am not a 100% up to date on TW shenanigans, last TW game I've played a lot of was Shogun 2, skipping Rome 2 and Attilla due to a lot of negative feedback (and not really being into the themes). But there are definitely some carryovers, some points of comparison to previous entries, and definitely some of it's own baggage.
First of all is the campaign movement system or rather how it ends up working out. With the introduction of 150% movement bonus with the march stance a lot of the game begins to resemble a merry chase while silly music plays in the background. The AI will just run from any army of yours it doesn't think it can win against. With the 150% movement bonus it means you have no way to catch up to them directly ever. (since you can't attack from it if you march also) The small bonuses you can get are not enough. Leading to situations where you are on a never ending chase. And with the map being so open it's a hassle tryign to pin them down with other methods. The AI also knows to a pixel exactly how far your army needs to move to still be able to attack and will without fail position itself just outside this radius.
On top of that while TW games use certain abstractions to kind of make sense in terms of army blocking, control zones, movement etc, these work as a general rule and as abstractions. When the AI starts to directly exploit these specific idiosyncrasies in the system it becomes kind of a farce. For example, I am about to catch a tiny strangler enemy force, they have 1 unit, I have a massive army about to crush them, they are very close (about 1/5th movement range). Next turn the enemy army crosses the river next to us and just sits on the other side. My turn. I can't attack them at all. Why? Because apparently the cost to cross the river is just enough to reduce my movement to the point where i will not have enough movement left to attack them, but their 1 stacks army zone of control is positioned such that I cannot even cross the river (since you cannot end a turn in their army's zone of control), thus my army can do nothing, not attack, not move to the other side, they can just sit with a thumb up their arse looking at a single enemy troop right in front of them, preventing and entire giant army from moving because of it's zone of control. >< The game is full of similar smaller instances, with city zones of control etc.
Then the AI straight up cheats. And I don't mean in the simple they get more shit way on higher difficulties, or the fact that they artificially always keep pace. And yes every AI cheats in most strategy games. The problem is that the TW ai in this game is super blatant and in your face about it. Getting shitloads of army stacks out of nowhere with no infrastructure. Getting quest items, you know they never even went to the required territories for. Getting level up agents in impossible time frames. Some grade A obcious bullshit.
While i mentioned agents. They are very snowbally and can be infuriating to manage against. Especially when Chaos enters the picture and they just pop free ones on the entire map. Since agents get better % odds as they level and get skills, a game can become a nightmare with enemy agents running amok assassinating your leaders left and right while you try to assassinate them back with no luck. The RNG frequently feels off and skewed. But if you ever get the upper hand it's snowbally in the other direction.
Now there are already mods out that attempt to tinker with stuff like this to attempt to fix it or improve it, with mixed results.
Autoresolve is kind of broken, but my understanding it has always been off. It is either too much in your favor with certain armies (like orcs) to the point where you are better off just auto resolving every battle and you will get less losses every time. Or the other way around with say Empire and Vampires when I can can next to 0 losses playing manually, but auto resolve will keep giving you results that wipe half your force. It also favors specific units like your heros and monsters to take the brunt of the damage that can result it them dying in autoresolves when they ahd no business doing so. (it's not spreading out the damage appropriately or realistically)
The siege battles are a big sticking point for more hardcore TW fans, they are somewhat simplified and bland from previous entries. And while I personally have no horse in this race (Shogun 2 or Empire battles were not stellar either), they do have a valid point. Also the size of the maps, they're much smaller then previous entries, while fine for 1v1 battles, for 2v2 and bigger they are too small in effect creating very constrained battles, with little room to maneuver left.
A lot of spells are very similar in effect and results. With so many in the game a majority of them are copy paste jobs of each other with a slightly different color. There are some unique and interesting ones, but it's still a bit disappointing to see so many similar ones.
Finally the way the game looks. There are times when it can look downright gorgeous. But there are also so so many maps, levels and environments where the lighting or the ground textures are so poor it makes the game looks dated and like a mess. It's weird.
There are also a ton of minor faction specific issues I am not mentioning, but they are smaller issues and this post has gotten overlong. Plus unit imbalances, but hey players found shit that works better then other shit and exploit it, there's a surprise.
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All that said the game is still tons of fun imo. Like I mentioned I've been playing it all this time since release in that, one more turn addicted fashion that ruins sleep schedules. To the point of ignoring Overwatch and the Witcher 3 DLC what I was planning to be playing at this time. Warhammer is a great fit for Total War. Factions are more different then ever. Unit designs are cool and battles can become a clash of awesome.
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