Turn 10: Cao Cao declares war on me (Liu Bei)
Turn 11: Cao Cao marches 2 full stacks towards my capital in sync with each other (an AI actually seeking large army battles? how great!)
Turn 12: Cao Cao captures Liu Bei and Guan Yu, then executes them (even in romance mode things can get difficult)
Turn 13: Liu Huimin takes over and wrecks Cao Cao's stacks because nature's ally is an OP trait
Turns 14+: trying to stop the realm from imploding because Liu Bei was apparently the only likeable person in my nation

I played all total wars from rome 1 to rome 2, and I'm surprised by the quality of the campaign. The choices around characters, buildings, and diplo are starting to remind me of eu4. There's plenty of buttons to press, plenty of nations to scheme with, and they will actually try to punish you if you get too greedy.

This review is only based on early game experience; will probably update with how the late game feels.

Great game, especially if you get the Napoleonic Wars DLC with it