Total War

Creative Assembly's Total War games run on a clever split personality: a turn-based campaign map where you manage provinces, diplomacy and economy, then real-time battles where thousands of soldiers crash together under your direct command. The historical line traced here is a grand tour through warfare, from feudal Japan in Shogun to Rome, medieval Europe, the gunpowder era of Empire and Napoleon, and later China in Three Kingdoms.

The series' boldest swerve was licensing Games Workshop's fantasy world for the Warhammer trilogy, swapping legions for dragons and the undead without losing the underlying strategy. Alongside the sprawling mainline games sit tighter, single-setting Saga entries built around one conflict. Few strategy franchises balance scholarly history and pure spectacle this consistently.

The Total War franchise spans 20 games in the CrossBinge catalog.