I’m also a Total War head and have played just about all of them for at least 100 hours. I usually play on something like Hard Campaign/Very Hard battles.

Tried playing Civilization 6 today and have only barely played some of 4 a decade ago. I feel like I’m really straining my brain with stuff like that and Paradox games. People bounce off Total War for sure, but at least stuff like “surround the enemy” and a lot of what goes on in battle is intuitive. Cities have significantly fewer resources or decisions to make.

I got owned by a flood during the first era that took out one of my fighters and builders and that let barbarians overwhelm me. It’s so embarrassing how little game knowledge transfers with genres like this.