Oh don't worry, this is very much going to be Crusader Kings and not Total War. The only 3D models will be for CK3 style character bits, and they'll be at an era-appropriate graphical fidelity. The light tactical bits will look more like Duskers than anything else.
The absurd level of geographic detail is purely to satisfy my own love of geography; and because I think it would be fun if most players are able to set up a secret base in their IRL hometowns.
And I would love to release an alpha for testing, but there is currently literally zero gameplay, all there is to do is admire the excessively detailed map, which is neat, but only for a couple minutes.