Quote Originally Posted by Crownsteler
Well, I'd say

pro's:
-more historicly accurate
-better gaming experience
-easier to keep your citizens happy
-much better battlefield experience
-larger map (it includes scotland!)
-more provinces
-smaller problem with AI shipbuilding
-unified rome!
-cool new units
cons:
-not a history textbook (yet)
-unified rome!
-it is somewhat buggy (there is a huge bug with the generals)
-there are a lot of useless features which appeared great, but turned out to suck, like the ZOR which sucked and the new carpenters buildings and the like, which sucks a lot more!
-easier to keep your citizens happy

my verdict: wait for Total Realism 5.0 to be released, it promises to be a lot less bugy (which is a huge downside of it) and removes some of the useless features from the game.

oh, and like with any mod, it is difficult to remove it, unless you made a backup, or you are willing to reinstall the entire game once you get tired of it.
RTR 5.0 has been promised to be released today. More provinces, better units, more fun.
I've been playing RTR 4.1 for about a month and apart for the general's CTD bug (which is already fixed) I can say is a far superior game than vanilla RTW. No dog hordes or deranged pyromaniac swines to ruin your day.