Five strategy games like Total War

So, you want to play more games like Total War? Creative Assembly’s seminal strategy series is a law unto itself, offering a rich, far-reaching turn-based campaign layer while also letting you load into a separate real-time tactical map where you can take your armies and fight it out for the glory of Rome, Sigmar, Troy, and so on.

In the pantheon of strategy games, few have approached Creative Assembly’s unique vision. Without any obvious competitors, this leaves us with a lot of ground to cover when pinpointing the best games like Total War. There are more strategy games out there than we’ll ever remember, so we’ve decided to focus on some new titles, as the classics have been well-trodden by now. Here are five options that just might scratch that Total War itch – enjoy!

Games like Total War

Here are five great games like Total War:

• Real Warfare 2: Northern Crusades
• Age of Wonders: Planetfall
• Field of Glory Empires
• Hegemony III – Clash of the Ancients
• Company of Heroes 3

Real Warfare 2: Northern Crusades builds upon two previous alternatives to Medieval: Total War – Real Warfare 1242 and XIII Century. The only difference – and the crucial distinction that brings it to our attention today – is that Northern Crusades was the first to add in a campaign later. You would find yourself in control of an army, roaming across a map of north-eastern Europe, before loading into a separate real-time tactical layer.

It was pretty cool – like a hyper-focused Medieval 2 mini-campaign, except the campaign layer itself was also in real-time, which makes this also a bit like Mount & Blade, or Heroes of Might and Magic. Sadly, the studio that created it is no more and the game still has some lingering bugs, but it’s available pretty cheap on Steam if you want to check it out anyway.

If you want something that reminds you of old school Total War, then Field of Glory: Empires is an interesting one to check out. It’s a grand strategy wargame set in ancient times, and you can choose to play as many of the usual suspects – Rome, Carthage, Parthia, and others. It definitely reminds me of OG Rome: Total War vs Total War: Rome II, but it’s got some unique mechanics that give it an edge.

It doesn’t technically have its own tactical battle engine, but you can give it one if you combine it with another one of Slitherine’s games – Field of Glory II. By porting the battle data from one game to another, you can play it out in full (although FOGII is a turn-based game, not real-time) and then port those results back into Empires, and carry on as normal. A novel, if not the most efficient, use of two very different games.

This one is probably the least like Total War out of the group, but it’s still pretty good and shares many traits that will draw you to it for the same reasons you like Total War games. Hegemony III is set in the Italian Peninsula, long before Rome came to dominate the region. You can choose the city of Rome itself, or a number of other factions from the period, and you must slowly expand and conquer the map.

It’s a wargame at heart, and a lot of what you’re doing is ensuring you’ve got enough food to feed your citizens during winter and your armies while they’re operating outside your territory. The map is littered with nodes where you can build forts and bridges – and you can set up supply lines to ensure there’s enough food to support an invasion of a neighbour.

It’s very indie, but a fascinating take on ancient warfare that will keep you hooked for hours on end. Everything’s in real-time here, and this is the only RTS game on the list that doesn’t load you into a separate tactical battle interface – you just fight it out on the campaign map whenever you encounter enemies.