Brings me back to the great Warhammer game - Dark Omen
After a quick installation i've applied patch 1.2 and began playing. Naturally, i went for the Empire campaign first. Impressive introductions, superb voice acting (don't laugh, crappy voice overs can ruin any game), and amazing, astounding graphics. Zooming in reveals very detailed troops, that actually look different from one another. Zooming in also reveals the grass, the flowers, and unfortunately some unit movement bugs (such as units sliding on the ground instead of walking). Such bugs are rare and do not hinder gameplay, so they can be overlooked. What cannot be overlooked is the wonderful detail of your units in battle. Reloading and cleaning of the guns, splashes of blood, bodies that stay on the field in pools of blood - they all add to the atmosphere of carnage.
True, the game does feel like a simplified version of Total War. The strategy could have been deeper and perhaps more complex. Sometimes you feel like repeating the same shooters-behind-swordsmen-ahead formula. but as i've found out, it depends entirely on you. Some nice strategy moves can be executed, and the result of broken enemy morale is satisfying. You get to upgrade your units with time, so you will have some veterans bringing down doom on the heads of your enemies.
Heroes duelling can be confusing at first, until you get idea and start hammering orders. I advise you to play the tutorial to get a better grip on things, or you will get frustrated quite quickly. As soon as you get the hang of it, hero duelling becomes big fun.
So, to sum this up in a way that would befitting the game - i am not disappointed. I had high expectations of the game, and i must say that although there is some room for improvement, this game rocks. You are sucked into the bloody warfare of Warhammer right away, and you will enjoy every minute of it.
One more thing - there is no saving during battles, only on the very well made tolkien style map between missions. I was worried by this at first, but what the hell, you can't save during real wars either. So just plan everything right, improvise, and the most important thing - enjoy this wonderful game.