while Attila was a Barbarian Invasion going standalone. While I understand your points, particularly on the topic of Realm Divide which is the game feature that I dislike enormously, I think a lot of the limitations are due to the game engine. Warscape to me was created from the ground up for gunpowder fighting, and you can see that clearly when archers shoot or when you have close combat.
Even more, Warscape in itself in ETW and NTW was problematic, the limitations on cities having just a handful of buildings and sieges being... well... a wall and a cannon, made it not so enjoyable outside of normal battles.
It was made even worse years later when Thrones of Britannia legit has some of the best sieges in game, with detailed settlements. That was rather baffling to see, such an enormous effort to make custom settlements in, of all games, Thrones of Britannia.
It's not the game, it's the architecture behind it. And S2TW despite the shortcomings was a brilliant, brilliant game, one of my favourite of all time. Finished all campaigns.