Continuing with my Danes campaign I'm very positive about this game.
A few positives: Generals look like their portraits on the battlefield. Sea battles work well now, basically just land battles on sea, I'm enjoying playing a mainly seaborne faction (the no high-seas attrition and seasickness are potentially very powerful). Auto calculation takes educated guesswork now instead of the boring 'choose the right button' thing from RTWII. Family tree and politics works well now and adds narrative and character to the faction and the campaign. Also great that they've included what I've always hoped for in the series, that the death of a faction leader means new diplomatic relations, historically a common issue in autocracies.
The graphics are great and the game runs really well. Very cool period and visual design overall, I like the grimy atmosphere and the good attention to historical accuracy in unit and building design (low points being RTW and ETW). More polish to numerous RTWII features that already worked pretty good in RTWII:EE, I really like the different army stances for example, province decrees, political events and streamlined skill trees for both armies and characters. Squalor and disease being a factor now in settlement construction. Changing climate. etc.
9/10, one of the best Total War games in my opinion, in line with some of the best such as the first Medieval, Viking Invasion, Mongol Invasion, Napoleon and Rome II.