Even more war

It’s going to be a major 2018 for the Total War series

It’s turning out to be a busy year for Creative Assembly. The developer has announced its next grand strategy game, due this autumn. Called Total War: Three Kingdoms, the game is CA’s first foray into Chinese history. As the name suggests, it’s set during China’s Three Kingdoms period—starting around 190 AD, in the final years of the Han dynasty. The era is a snug fit for Total War’s brand of intrigue and warmongering: It’s one of the bloodiest in Chinese history. The tyrannical warlord Dong Zhuo has seized the capital of Luoyang, and installed child-emperor Liu Xie as a puppet. Against this threat, three heroes rise and the warlords of the great families take up arms.

It’s a mythologized period of history, thanks in no small part to Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong, written in the 14th century. Historical accuracy is a malleable concept for the Total War series, and the trailer certainly focuses on larger-than-life champions. It will still be more accurate than the Dynasty Warriors series, although the beards will almost certainly be less impressive. Details are scant right now, but expect more info in the coming months.

While Three Kingdoms will be the next major Total War, Creative Assembly is also readying to release the first Total War Saga. This series focuses on more contained periods of history, with the first, Thrones of Britannia, being set on a detailed map of the British Isles, around 878 AD. While the action takes place in a similar time period to Total War: Attila, this is a standalone game, with a scope that CA compares to the scale of expansions such as Shogun II’s Fall of the Samurai. We hope to have more details on Throne of Britannia in our next issue.

In addition, the studio continues to work on its older games. Late last year, it released a new expansion for Rome II, called Empire Divided, and the meta-campaign, Mortal Empires, which pulls all factions from Total War: Warhammer and Warhammer II onto a single map. And in January, Warhammer II received its first premium faction with the Rise of the Tomb Kings DLC. Phil Savage

Historical accuracy is a malleable concept for the Total War series