SEGA, Creative Assembly and Relic are ready to kick off this year's 'Make War Not Love' community competition, pitting the Total War and Company of Heroes strategy buffs against one another for the corporate-mandated Valentine's Day. Every in-game victory achieved in "consecutive three hour rounds" will be tallied, with the most won rounds earning players of that respective game free DLC.
SEGA and developer Creative Assembly has released a new in-engine cinematic trailer - The Ashen Horse - for the upcoming Total War: ATTILA, which significantly changes the campaign. We see the man himself, Attila, boasting his conquests over 'learned men' and their civilisations. The new Total War lets us literally destroy settlements as roaming barbarians plaguing the land.
The team at Creative Assembly has been showing off more of the upcoming Total War: Attila, this time looking at the game's one-off historical battles rather than the full campaign. In the latest episode of the studio's Rally Point series, CA's James Given takes on the mighty Huns with his Roman legions in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.
A new feature spotlight has been released for Total War: ATTILA which covers the Barbarian Hordes in the upcoming standalone expansion. It's over 6 minutes long and shows us this new way to play. Migrating factions are nomadic and "effectively carry their towns with them", and don't need fixed settlements to improve technology, increase their production or recruit new forces.
It's one of the worst kept secrets in PC gaming. Since Creative Assembly netted the Games Workshop license back in 2012, everyone knew that it was only a matter of time until a Total War game draped in the Gothic finery of Warhammer Fantasy emerged. Now we know for sure. A poster on the TWCenter forums has got his hands on a Total War art book early, and hidden within is a passage from Creative Assembly’s Mike Simpson confirming the existence of the slightly clunkily named Total War: Warhammer.
Creative Assembly has just launched the Wrath of Sparta Campaign Pack for Total War: ROME II, which adds a new "epic campaign expansion" which sees time crank back to 432 BC. The new DLC deals with the Peloponnesian Wars that engulfed the city-states of Greece. The new pack includes "all-new technology trees" to represent Greek culture and disciplines.
Creative Assembly's free-to-play, team-based strategy Total War: ARENA has now achieved its Closed Alpha phase. The studio has begun to take registrations for those willing to test the Total War spin-off. It's purpose built for multiplayer as a real-time strategy, where 2 teams of 10 players control 3 warriors each led by "an iconic commander from history," with specialist skills earned through victory.
Total War: Attila might be just over the horizon, but that doesn't mean that Creative Assembly has given up on Total War: Rome 2. The developer has just announced Wrath of Sparta, a new “epic campaign” that sets the clock way back to 432 BC at the outset of the Peloponnesian War.
Creative Assembly's Digital Team, creators of Total War Battles: SHOGUN, are now behind the newly announced Total War Battles: KINGDOM. It's a free-to-play "persistent-world" strategy title. We'll rule our home kingdom across multiple platforms, and it's set during the 10th Century. Realm-building and "large-scale tactical battles" are on offer to would-be Kings.
We're sort of used to being all-powerful when playing as the Roman Empire, but in the upcoming Total War: Attila the once glorious empire is having its trousers repeated pulled down by just abut every rival faction in the world. One of those factions is the Sassanid Empire, who are keen to take advantage of corrupt and failing Roman governance.
SEGA and Creative Assembly have announced the release date for Total War: ATTILA as well as the pre-order bonus. The Viking Forefathers Culture Pack is the DLC on offer and it adds three factions to the campaign. These Norse factions will be able to take advantage of the new scorched earth feature that lets us tear down settlements, instead of conquering or just sacking them. Pre-orders are now open for business.
The 12th piece of free content DLC is now out from developer Creative Assembly for Total War: Rome II. The Black Sea Colonies adds a "wealthy trading-state" with the Massilia on the North-Western coast of the Mediterranean. The Black Sea Colonies Culture Pack is also available from today, but that's going to cost you some denarii. It adds custom battles and three hybrid factions to the Grand Campaign.
There's a free update out for Total War: Rome 2, and yes, of course it's Halloween themed. It adds the Lemuria festival and a new seasonal challenge called Nightmare Mode. Lemuria was apparently an ancient feast during which restless spirits were ushered away by first offering them beans, and then banging cooking pans together. How effective this was is open to debate.
Stop sacking Rome for 5 minutes and pay attention. Today Creative Assembly will be announcing where the drums of Total War are going next in their live streamed EGX presentation today @ 4PM GMT+1. There's been much speculation on time periods, but rumours also speak of another IP universe as the setting? Some photos have leaked from EGX showing off some scale armour.
The next instalment to the grand series of Total War is Attilla, and with it we're thrown into the dawn of the Dark Ages. The Roman Empire is on its last legs and barbaric hordes revel in chaos. A terrifying force gathers behind one known as Attila the Hun. Creative offer us the chance to lead this 'herald of destruction' or to try and revive the ailing Roman Empire.
The Creative Assembly might have picked the fall of Rome as its next setting in the recently announced Total War: Attila, but picking a historical period to cover clearly wasn't an easy choice. Interestingly, when Strategy Informer asked CA artist Pawel Wojs and developer Ed Ainsley at EGX whether they'd ever considered a Total War game set in China, we were told "anything's possible!".
It’s now time to turn a bleary and gin-sodden eye (drinking gin is a large part of “method designing” for Empire Total War) to matters military in the 18th century and in particular land warfare in the period. I can promise that the next few installments are not going to be a detailed history lesson – hurrah! – but more a gallop through the subject – huzzah! – while backhanding matters of interest with a sabre – swish! – from time to time.
An official internal interview with Michael Kutsche, the artist behind Empire: Total War, has been released. It discusses various art topics and we'll get to know whose real face lies behind Empire: Total War musketeers.
"PRO DEO ET REGE ("PDER") is a modification aimed at providing a longer, more challenging and realistic campaign. Featuring many new factions, provinces, units and a unique regional Area of Recruitment system, establishing and maintaining a medieval empire will not be easy - For God and King!" Forget about reading more, download Pro Deo et Rege 1.0 now!
Creative Assembly and Sega have released the first patch for M2TW - Kingdoms expansion. This 100MB - 200MB patch (depending on locality) addresses a range of bug fixes and minor tweaks to game balance and play. Download the Medieval II Total War - Kingdoms patch.