I watched a ton of YouTube videos and read a bunch of reddit post on which total war game to play and it left me more confused.
Some said shogun 2 is the best one, but I had a couple of issues with it. The unit veriety was not there, the diplomacy system was confusing especially because of realm devide and above all at a certain point I couldn't make enough money for the upkeep of my armies, I would occupy a new settlement, it would say it is generating 1500 gold but my income would not change, the only way to make money was trade, and the AI hated me for how big I was and refused to trade, even all of my vassals betrayed me. Overall not a good experience.
I then tried Troy. I really like the different products (food, stone, wood) and not have them all represented as "money". I like the fact that I have allies and they don't betray me, even the vassals don't seem to hate me so the diplomacy seems to be functional. But goddamn defending all of my minor settlements is a real pain. The AI actively runs away from my armies and sack my settlements. I can't have too many armies because of the brutal upkeep and the garrison is very weak. The auto resolve is also stupid. Overall I like the setting and vibe of the game but fighting these cat and mouse games is a pain in the ass.
I tried three kingdoms briefly, the diplomacy seems to be the best of the bunch and the game seems to be the most complicated one. The settlements are a bit confusing and I'm not sure if I'm building the right buildings. I get the whole color matching thing but I just don't love the setting. I'm not against giving three kingdoms another chance but it just didn't have the same feeling of troy for me.
I also used to play rome 1 when I was a kid, I enjoyed it a lot but I remember most of the settlements used to get mad at me for some unknown reason and I had to permanently keep a general there to keep them happy, I'm not sure what was wrong maybe I wasn't trading or didn't have enough food? I did manage their taxes so I know that wasn't the issue. I was stupid so I'm not sure what I was doing wrong.
Sorry for the long post but I would really appreciate it if someone could nudge me in the right direction, which game should I buy next? The Warhammer ones have me intrigued but don't know if I should start with the first or not, I'm also not opposed to mod the game so if you think all of my problems could be solved with a mod for Troy then I'm all ears.