Which Total War should I play?

If you dont know what you want, the answer is most likely Warhammer II.

Every total war attracts their own fan base, but not for to long unless it is hardcore fans. Like the rome guys will play the new Rome total war and a minority will play it for almost forever, the medieval guys that still play medieval are also hardcore fans. This goes on for every other Total War, from Shogun over Attila to Empire...but all of them end at Warhammer, which is the most played total war. Source

I play like 5-6 campaigns per year, 4 are Warhammer, maybe more. The rest might be Empire, Shogun2, Rome2 ... the games i enjoyed. But Warhammer is just superior.

And thats why everyone ends at Warhammer and i suggest to go for this one. It is up to date in terms of graphics and controls, unlike Medieval. It doesnt have game breaking bugs like empire. Flawed gameplay Rome2 or a fairly limited amount of faction diversity like Shogun2. I loved all of these game, but Warhammer is just better in almost every aspect.

I wasnt playing Warhammer right from the start because i was part of the historical or anti fantasy faction and the price for warhammer is pretty high. But these days the game and dlc can be bought fairly cheap everywhere and the monster/magic stuff made the game better instead of worse.