Total war for me always been about the battles..

And they are terible..
I hope they fix this arcade feeling and learn from games 10 years ago where battles were immersive, grounded and more satysfying to play.

Bad things so far i dont like

- Arrows, stones/ javrlins bounces from naked man chest or head. WTF?!

-units marching animation is janky, feel like your army is wearing instead armor shield and metal weapons... All they have is made from plastic.
For compare see Rome 2 or Attilla that war proper marching animation you can feel the might and the weight of your units.

Sync combat animation is short and some moves are so fast that instead of swordsman you have karate ninja style. Kickboxers imean they really like to kick more than using their wepons...

AI is idiot... Thats all TW games sadly. He like to rush objectives with all in from same spot..

Annoying mouse over big window pop up info card about the unit... Cant turn off really ♥♥♥♥♥♥ idea....

Banners dont scale when zoom in or out they are just BIG floaty things over your units....

Ranged unit Fire Arc is on or off, not dynamic

After CA start making Warhammer series, they lost their ability to make Immersive realistic grounded atmospheric historical games....
If you want good Historical Game look Older ones.
I recomend
Empire
Shogun 2
Rome 2
Attila only if you have NASA PC 😂 im joking its optimisation mess doesnt matter your Hardware
Damn even Thrones of Britania will recomend you when compare it with newest titles i start appreciated it 😂

The games i didnt like.
Warhammer 3
Three Kingdoms
Troy
PHARAOH

Message
So CA please play your older games and learn again how to make historical titles.... Then you can make Medieval 3 or empire 2 but not before you change the battle mechanic and animations.

That was long review but it was ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game so i nedded to let you know dont buy it.

The game improved drastically compared to October 2023 and with the upcoming map expansion is likely going to improve further. I have played basically all TW titles since Medieval I and I have to say the Pharaoh is an extremely enjoyable product of the franchise. The good part about this title is that there are several systems implemented that are not present in past titles and it offer a higher degree of complexity and immersion compared to previous historical titles. It is not perfect, but if you compare its status since release it is one of the title with the higher degree of improvements. Think of what was Rome 2 at the beginning as a comparison. I definitely advise this title even for people that are not necessary into the bronze age as it is a good opportunity to get in to a really fascinating part of history.

Challenging, detailed, flawed and yet beautiful - a SAGA title with the promise to grow big. If they deliver with the updates, it's going to be an underrated Total War.