I'm no stranger to M&B, and I've never been a fanboy. I continue to pay it because it STILL has the best non-target combat experience in a game, and I can usually feel a sense of accomplishment. Also, the game is still simplistic enough to allow players to modify most game experiences through modifying the scripts.
After reading reviews on both here and through Steam, I knew this title was problematic. Based on the free mod, Brytenwalda, I couldn't really see paying full price for it unless it was exceedingly better. The free mod was a decent piece of work, if you ignored some major gameplay issues. The reviews I read indicated that it was not. Then came the re-release, with more fixes and content, and lately it has been on sale, so I decided "what the heck, why not?" One of the reviews summed it up "They fixed it everyone! Come back!" But they didn't.... not really.
I have yet to be able to even play a full game. My game crashed to desktop frequently, leaving no error log regarding the incident. It does this more than the original mod ever did. Because it's a mod, not a game, these are almost certainly scripting mistakes that cause the game to halt.
In game play, the formation controls are frustrating, and cannot really be turned off. You troops will never be exactly where you want them to be, and will not behave as you would like them to, and that's with formations on. Turn them off, and your troops ignore all other commands to run way off to the left, do not stop, do not properly advance, and all your positioning must be done with the realization that the mod creator has no idea how bad a job he did on them. With the free mod version, I ended up going in and ripping the script responsible out of the game. I'm sure eventually I'll do the same thing here, since it's exactly the same as before.
The quests are annoying, and clog up the notes menu even if you have declined to participate. The winter moral penalties continue, even if your units are nice and snug inside a town or castle. The NPCs marked a essential to completing some combat requests do not work and play well together. All quests should have an alternate completion method, IMO. It has an "unfinished" feel to it. Describing itself as "vast" is misleading, because it really isn't. The world isn't remotely polished, it just fades off into unfinished terrain tiles.
I cannot recommend this incarnation of the Brytenwalda mod. It simply doesn't work well enough for me to inflict it on other players. The combat, instead of being M&B enjoyable is frustratingly clunky. It's a sloppy title, IMO.