What about Medieval? Medieval II was my first TW game and it's awesome. From those 3 i'd rather go for Shogun 2.

it's all about what era\culture you like imo
cause they're all great

I started with Empire and somehow own most of them now. But I think if you only want 1, take Shogun2 and also check out Fall of the Samurai (it's standalone expansion).

Shogun 2, its by far the best of the three, the only complaint is the AI, but if you ask me, get Rome, that IS the best TW game ever, cant wait for Rome 2 :D, and if you dont like the Japanese get napoleon, empire is awesome on paper but bad in execution, the AI is really bad and unforgiving, and its full of glitches, the only good thing about Empire is the naval battles, but Napoleon did it much better

Shogun 2 with Fall Of the Samurai DLC

I have all Total War games (only recently I bought them on Steam but I have retail versions since day 1).
I think Napoleon is the best one concerning live battles, Empire was mainly focused on ships battles (which I really don't like that much)...Shogun 2 is a great game....nice live battles, good empire management....
Rome was THE best for very long time....Medieval is "meh" for me....so I will go with: Napoleon 9/10, Rome 8.5/10, Shogun 2 8/10, Empire 7/10, Medieval 6.5/10.......

I really love TW franchise....I saw Shogun 2 for 7 bucks on GMG...don't know others....

If you want any other info write here or contact me

P.S. Obviously, if you REALLY like a certain period of time (like Napoleon Empire for ex.) pick that one...they are all pretty solid games

if you have a good computer go for shogun 2, the battles look awesome and are pretty fun. like most strategy games, your going to have to put in a bunch of time but its well worth it for the total war games.

"Shogun". In my opinion, "Empire" is the weakest game of TW franchise.

Empire. This game has a worldwile map. 3 major theaters, and all the other trading minor theaters. Napoleon is far better then ETW about graphics,gameplay,content etc. but it have only one major campaign and 3 minor campagin. I dont even talk about Shogun because its only in Japan. And Me as a Europeon person i dont hold any interest about some japonese clan fights in a island.

EDİT: I have them all anyway, Total War Love :)

You should really go for the type of warfare you prefer, i'll try to explain the basic differences between these 3 versions:

Medieval 2: If you like the middle ages,brutal combat & large differences between armies/nations this is the game for you (despite the game being really old it's one of my favorite games of all time & it has the best expansion i.m.o.)

Napoleon: it's basically empire without the bugs, if you prefer ranged combat this is the perfect TW game for you, you don't engage your enemies in melee as much as in Shogun 2 & medieval but it does raise the bar when it comes to tactics(think light infantry, snipers), Though lacking in decent early infantry. Naval combat is introduced and is at it's best in empire/napoleon.

Shogun 2: This most recent release has stunning graphics and the a.i. on the campaign map is seriously tough to beat (your first 50 turns on legendary are really a challenge)
Balancing between units is quite good too but it does lack in diversity, and without the dlc the game doesn't have any replay value.
Tactics are totally different in Shogun 2, for instance in all previous parts your main tactic when defending cities/castles you try to break your enemy before they get inside your walls, while in shogun 2 your castles are build in a way that makes it easy to climb over walls but then forces the enemy units in a bottleneck situation.
One of the features of this part I really liked is that you're able to assign points to your generals instead of getting traits automatically, this adds a whole new dimension of tactics.

So yea, you're choosing between unit diversity, guns & ships or strategy.

-edit- If anyone want to experiment in non-ranked matches feel free to add me on steam.

Wow - great response - thanks. As I see most is about era (or type of play) I like - that makes choice little less complicated.

As I'm european and I'll have choice to liberate my country in XVIIIth century I'll choose Napoleon, but close after that (as soon as I'll get money without wife's knowledge ;) ) is Shogun... you also convinced me to try Medieval.. and RomeI/II (depends if have time before or after release)... so Boss - you hear me? - I need more time and money :)

Medieval and especially Rome are buggy as hell (mainly thinking about the siege battles). The strengths of these games are the great mods and the awesome unit variety.

Napoleon and Shogun are polar opposites. The former requires more management than any other TW game. The latter is greatly simplified, distilling what's great about TW and removing unnecessary stuff. Napoleon also has purely gunpowder battles, with melee charges mostly at the end; Shogun is the classic TW-style bow&sword&primitive gun (though there's always FotS).

I'd go for Shogun. Napoleon is really unique as a TW game, and personally it's not my cup of tea.