I don't play them in a way that would let me exhaust their tactical or strategic potential either.
I guess I'm just a terrible general on the tactical maps and the tactics that make sense to me only yield marginal results but the tactics where, for example, I'm just spamming things to death with a few ballistas as I inch them forward slowly and my opponent slowly inches away from them are very effective. Takes forever because I don't hit **** at these ranges but they cave eventually and when I'm out of ammo I chase the rest of them down with cavalry. Even spear units because softened up enough they're easy to route and not a threat. Doesn't feel good.
Sieges, where I would hope for some clever tactics, boil down to endlessly watching completely stuck units very very very slowly whittle each-other down until the way to the village square opens up and that artificial "hold this for five minutes and the city is yours" nonsense starts.
I just don't enjoy any of this as much as, say, a skirmish in Kingdom Under Fire for the old xbox.
But I still have to fight manually because I don't want to get screwed over by the autoresolve.
The strategic map is a lot more fun to me. Don't get me wrong, I love that the tactical battles are there! It adds a lot to the game, obviously, I just don't like them as much as I would hope I would.
But I'm even a little fed up of the strategic map because Civ IV spoiled me. I just like that game a lot more.
Not saying the Total War games are bad. Especially the new ones, because I haven't played one for any length of time since Medieval 2. Just, eh, not for me, I guess.
I'd love to go sight-seeing in Rome 2, however! Doesn't seem like I'd be able to though.