If last week’s chat about Total War Saga: Troy has got you itching to dip into The Creative Assembly’s back catalogue of Total War games, you’re in luck, as Humble are holding an entire week of Total War deals right now. With savings of up to 75% in some cases (plus a very tasty 25% off last year’s excellent Total War: Three Kingdoms), there’s plenty to get excited about. So let’s sharpen those deals swords and dive on in, shall we?

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After a satisfactory trial run with Football Manager last year, Sega Europe have announced that they now plan to use “fully recyclable packaging” for all of their physical PC game releases. Their initial recyclable boxes are made of recycled cardboard with recycled paper manuals too. This scheme will start in earnest with the launch of Total War: Rome II‘s new Enemy At The Games Edition, out next week. It’s a bit weird to still be selling boxes that essentially contain a Steam key and a disc of data that will soon be rendered near-obsolete by downloaded patches, but hey, I suppose this is better than plastic DVD cases.

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The act of reading tea leaves is an art, but there are many ways to peer out into the mists of time. Like the Oracle of Delphi, my preferred method of making psychic predictions involves inhaling the fumes from my KFC bucket until I astral project into the future. But there’s still another option: the UK Intellectual Property Office website. And [pivots to camera>] if a trademark recently filed by The Creative Assembly is any indication, Total War Saga: Troy will be joining the ever-forking family tree of strategy games that make up the Total War franchise.

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According to an ancient Sussex proverb, there are as many factions in the 20-year-old Total War series as there are sand grains on a beach, as there are angels dancing upon the head of a pin, as there are grenadiers in the armies of his Imperial Majesty Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Co-Prince of Andorra. This is providing, of course, the answer in each case is between 100 and 200, depending on whether you include the DLC and think Sicily is a real country.

From stinky hill tribes through trim Teutonic phalanxes to bawling rivers of undead, Total Warring has certainly come in all shapes and sizes. At a recent hands-on event for Total War: Three Kingdoms, a heinous idea occurred to me: why not confuse and upset all the developers in attendance (plus a couple more over email) by asking them to pick a favourite faction? The results, which involved surprisingly few headbutts, are below.

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An army of ten thousand makes camp for the winter, preparing to unite China as the snows thaw – Creative Assembly’s Total War: Three Kingdoms finally has a release date: March 7th, 2019. Below, a new trailer introducing us to the Yellow Turban Rebellion, expendable early-game enemies in many a Dynasty Warriors game, now turned fully playable DLC faction. The Yellow Turban pack will be free for those who pre-order or buy within a week of launch.

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Back before Rome became the big boss of the Mediterranean civilizations, it was just one of many cities on the Italian peninsula, distinguished primarily by being founded by a murderer with a taste for dog milk.

It s this early phase in Rome s existence that s the setting for The Creative Assembly s new Total War: Rome II DLC, Rise of the Republic. The 12 pack whisks players back to 399 BC, plonks them into the sandals of its first politicians, and asks them to guide the nascent city to control all of Italy (and small bits of north Africa) on a shrunk-down version of the standard grand campaign map. (more…)

It’s a big day for fans of sticking broom-heads on top of helmets, as Total War: Rome 2 is experiencing a burst of wild growth that will undoubtedly lead to public unrest and peasant revolts. Launching today is the Rise Of The Republic expansion, set during the messy conflicts of 399BCE and set across a detailed map of Italy. Alongside that is the Ancestral update, which has been in public beta for some time, and introduces a full family tree system to the game, as well as giving it a bit of a graphical makeover.

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Creative Assembly today announced Total War: Rome 2‘s next expansion – Rise Of The Republic. A prequel campaign set 127 years before Rome 2’s campaign, it promises a more focused game of grand ambition as nine playable factions set their eyes on a detailed, zoomed-in map of Italy. In the real world this era of conflict led to the Second Founding of Rome, but with Gallic tribes and Syracuse playable, the history books seem due for a rewrite on August 9th.

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The Creative Assembly are keeping a lot of plates spinning these days. Not only did they recently release Total War spinoff Thrones of Britannia, but they’re still working on Total War: Three Kingdoms and continually updating their Warhammer games, too. They’ve clearly not forgotten about Total War: Rome 2 either, as they’ve just released a massive new update adding a major new gameplay element; family trees and the intrigues they spawn.

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It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. That’s a useful motto, a pick-me-up for the smaller among us, but the truth is right now, I am a very small dog with very little fight left in it.

I’m the boss of Mide, a province in the middle of Ireland. The 9th century is drawing to a close and everything is in disarray. The coasts are saturated with Danes, there is no unification among my own people, and at the horizon’s edge, England is burning. Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia has a cumbersome name but it might be the leanest and meanest game in Creative Assembly’s long-running strategy series. It’s a little dog with a whole lot of beautiful fight in it.

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