I never played medieval but i did Rome the latest total war... you need a good ish pc to play it , proper 3d graphics unlike Shogun Total Wars 2d on a 3d landscape , Rome has a HELLUVA lot of micro managment but you can leave it to be done automatically , and control just a few areas you want to turn into troop production centers , i like Rome better but shogun is nice for japanese fans ( you can play the game entirely in japanese if you know the language) .
Total war = The best historical strategy game series ever!
