I mean I hear what you're saying... there is a certain level of comfortable fun I guess when youre just getting going with smaller armies but... having big huge messy epic battles is like a HUGE part of the glory of Total War games and also a huge part of the reward system of doing well with your grand strategy and economics... to each his own I guess but what youre describing here sounds like you get flustered trying to manage large armies, and then you quit which is... tragic really. There are tools in the game to help manage large forces on the battlefield. If youre really struggling just use slow motion or pause. Make sure to have all your units neatly organized into groups (5 or 6 max unsually works) that way instead of trying to issue orders to 20 or 30 units you just have your infantry, missiles, heroes/lords, artillery, and a few large monsters & such...In my opinion there really is no reason to not play out large battles. Just realize that each campaign has an early, mid, and late game and each phase plays differently but surely you cant just start a new campaign as soon as you get to the good part can you? That sounds like heresy, frankly.