Sega bringing Total War Battles to mobile

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Good news. The worlds best history and/or wargame is coming to mobiles in miniaturized totally gimped not as good form.

Sega's Total War strategy series is officially heading to mobile devices under the ‘Total War Battles' brand.

Fans of real-time strategy have been left largely un-catered for in the rapidly emergent mobile gaming space, but veteran publisher Sega, along with its long-standing design team at Creative Assembly, is looking to fill the gap with the popular PC-based Total War series by converting the franchise to tablet and/or phone platforms.

While Sega hasn't been specific about which system platforms or devices might see a launch of Total War Battles we have a feeling this will be aimed primarily at tablets due to the larger screen real-estate.
Apple's iPad seems like a likely candidate but we wouldn't rule out Android seeing a slice of the pie.

After all, Sega didn't survive as a company after losing the 90's console war by not being a savvy business mover, and covering multiple platforms sounds like the right move to us.

Apparently the first new game in the series has been under development for the last 12 months and it's based on the acclaimed Unity engine.
'This isn't the traditional Total War you might expect,' said lead designer Renaud Charpentier.

‘We are working on a title that is specifically tailored to the play styles and control methods of mobile platforms. We want to deliver a game that plays to the strengths of handheld RTS mechanics, and perfectly adapts to a host of different platforms.'

For those not familiar with the Total War series, the games put you in the role of leader and overall military commander of a faction within a set historical period and place.

The games have two modes, firstly, a turn-based strategy mode where you take it in turns against computer nations to manage your cities, fortresses and armies on a ‘campaign map' in a similar manner to games such as the Civilisation series.

Decisions you make on the campaign map have a direct effect on the second game mode, that is, the real-time strategic battles.

For example, the number of troops you station in a city garrison on the campaign map will be exactly the same troops you control defending that settlement if your enemies attack.

This system creates a very dynamic play style and it's quite entertaining when you end up creating your own stories of strategic cunning and success, or abject failure and defeat, depending on how you play it.
On PC one of the highlights is the ability to control thousands of soldiers simultaneously on screen. We're not sure what kind of scale the mobile version will be dealing with just yet.


The series started on PC with the original Total War: Shogun title, set in feudal Japan with samurai and ninjas, this was followed by Total War: Medieval, set in Medieval Europe and filled with knights and crusades.
Total War: Rome followed, arguably one of the most successful titles in the series and it put you firmly in Caesar's sandals, or those of his contemporaries from nations such as Gaul or Carthage - this was the first game to feature a fully 3D battle mode and you may have seen it before as it was actually used in the BBC Two TV series Time Commanders.

Since then we've seen Total War: Medieval 2, a 3D re-vamp of the second game in the series, Total War: Empire, which covered the 1700's period of colonialisation and introduced real-time navy battles for the first time, Total War: Napoleon and the most recent Total War: Shogun 2, a 3D re-working of the original game.

Sega hasn't outlined when the first game might be launched, or what period it might cover, but as it has started talking about it and it has allegedly been in development for about a year already we think we might be seeing more in the not-too-distant future.

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