Looking for an entry point into the Total War games

I’ve been looking at the Total War games for a long time and have always found myself intimidated by them. After reading ZombiePie’s excellent thoughts around the factions of Warhammer 2, I’ve decided to try one out. The problem I’m having is I can’t decide where to begin. After a 10 year hiatus from PC gaming I finally built a great PC so I’d like to play one of the newer Total Wars to continue to see what my machine can do. This has left me looking at Three Kingdoms and Warhammer 2. I just don’t know which one would be a better starting point for a newbie. Any duders have thoughts on which game is a better introduction?

Also, I know most fans of the series say “if you like Fantasy go with Warhammer, if you like history go with the others.” The problem is I’m both a huge History nerd and a huge Fantasy fan.

Thanks as always everyone.

Thank you for the kind words and feel free to share what you enjoyed on the blogs and don't forget to check out @arbitrarywater's series ranking the factions from worst to best.

In terms of an entry-level Total War game, your best bet is A Total War Saga: Troy. It is has a bite-sized campaign with a variety of factions that play distinct enough to one another that everyone is worth checking out at least once. After that, maybe try Warhammer II vanilla before getting in deep with its DLC. If you like the Vortex campaign, and you should 100% start with High Elves, you are bound to enjoy the rest of the game. If you want a historical experience, your choices boil down to the two more modern titles: Total War: Rome II and Total War: Three Kingdoms. Going back to the older titles is rough. I would go with Three Kingdoms because its diplomacy system is the best in franchise history and there are a handful of easier factions.

I would agree 100%, Troy is the most polished Total War with the least amount of distractions. There's no novelty mechanic and plays very straightforward whereas the Warhammer ones have lots of crazy systems per faction which could be overwhelming.

@zombiepie: Thank you so much for the reply. I was really hoping you would opine as it’s clear you have a deep understanding of the mechanics that work and don’t in these games. That being said, Troy it is!

I can’t wait to get back into strategy games and this series in particular. Unfortunately, now that I’m in my 40’s, my ability to keep up (whether due to my hand speed or the mush residing in my skull) with modern action games is diminishing. So a more thoughtful, slower paced game is right in my wheel house.

Thanks again! Really appreciate it.

@cirered: Thank you! You are absolutely nailing what I need to get started. As I said, I’m still intimidated by all the systems in these games so a polished, stripped down version sounds great.

Really appreciate the reply!

As someone who tried to get into Total War across 3 or 4 different entries in the series and bounced off each time, Warhammer 2 is the game that finally reeled me in. It has since hooked me to the point that I have purchased all the DLC for it and the first game. And this is all despite me mostly disliking Warhammer as a setting! The game's that good.

I still prefer Europa Universalis 4 as a strategy game overall, but TWW2 is probably my second favorite at this point. I am greatly anticipating the third game.

Three Kingdoms would be a good entry point (for my money, it's probably the best total war right now). Also, a remaster of Rome 1 is coming out next month (the classic that really kicked off the franchise). It's a little hard to recommend a specific entry as each game tends to have its own unique feel and comes down to preference but with these being newer entries, they should be easier to get in to.

If money's no object, your best bet would be the most recent one. If you don't want to spend too much on a game you might not end up liking, look for the best discount.

A word about Rome 2 - I just started playing it for the first time. It seems the tutorial (or prologue as they call it) is horrendously broken from a gameplay perspective. I spent 3 hours on it, had my ass kicked, and was not having any fun and was extremely perplexed about everything in it. I admit I wasn't playing great, but come on - it's the tutorial, I didn't think I'd need to fully invest in it. The AI just kept getting full stacks of armies literally every turn, even with superior forces I could not keep up and eventually failed when the main "this character must not die" died when fighting a full AI army for the 4th turn in a row. So if you end up with Rome 2... Maybe play the tutorial for a few turns to get the controls but don't waste too much time in it like I did.

They just announced that they're doing a Remastered version of Total War: Rome: https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-rome-remastered-faq/

It's also releasing pretty soon, end of next month, so if you're willing to wait just a tad, it will launch with modern accessibility in mind. That might get you started on the older ones afterwards.

Shogun 2 is probably a good place to jump in. It's pretty simple with a small world map. Otherwise, that remake of Rome Total War might be a good place to jump in. The original certainly was.

Also: you mentioned might not being able to keep up with fast management--neither can I, but every Total War game has a time manipulation button by the minimap. I almost always play in slomo cause I can't keep up, might wanna give that a shot!

I think the best answer is Warhammer 2. Troy may be polished, but it's not the simplest TW in my opinion. I found the multiple resources to be novel (and really improved trade/diplomacy) but actually overcomplicated the game when you had a larger empire, because you had to keep up with which cities produced which specific resources and it became a bit of a mess. I also just didn't have as much fun with Troy as I've had with other TW games, for whatever reason (and this seems to be a common opinion).

Warhammer 2 is the best blend Creative Assembly has made of complicated and fun. Yes, some factions have complicated mechanics, but overall the grand campaign management is much simpler than in other games. At every settlement there is only one money building, one population growth building, etc. that you can build. This is why WH2 is a much more streamlined experience than Rome 2, which went the complete opposite direction where there were multiple types of each building you could build in a settlement and it was too confusing to really care about it. Basically it's very easy in WH2 to build an "optimal" city, whereas in other games it's more difficult to know what to build where.

So again I think Warhammer 2 is the best modern TW game they've made and is the best jumping-in point for a new player (there's a reason it has sold so many copies). I say modern TW game because you could go back and play Medieval 2 or Rome 1/Remastered (both fantastic games), but they use a completely different settlement/army management system that was revamped from Rome 2 onwards. So I think it would be tough to go learn all of the systems from an older title only to start one of the newer games and be completely confused.

I think the last thing that should be considered is what setting you find interesting. Total War games are similar to Assassin's Creed games in a way, that being your interest in a time period will add a lot to your enjoyment of a title. If you have no interest in Roman history, it'll be a lot harder to enjoy Rome 2 than if you loved the time period. I think Warhammer 2 kind of transcended this, because I had no interest in Warhammer Fantasy prior to playing (and now I'm quite a big fan).

I have been a fan of basically every single Total War game since I started with Rome 1. I have to second everybody that said Warhammer II. After so many updates and expansion packs, it's become a mature and well put together game. I would recommend starting as the Empire or the Dwarves in a Mortal Empires campaign to get a feel for the basics, since neither faction has terribly complicated mechanics. Definitely save a Skaven playthrough for when you're more experienced! I think you'll find that each faction's unique mechanics, while initially challenging, create really unique campaigns and mechanics for each factions. I'm sure that I am far from the only person with hundreds of hours in this game solely for that reason.

Three Kingdoms is an excellent game, and I think the refinements in that game would be better appreciated after going through Warhammer 2 (stuff like units not being destroyed completely in battle and immediately start replenishing, more elaborate hero duels). However, like all the historical games, you lose the crazy spells, gigantic monster chimeras, and other wild units (notwithstanding Rome 1's flaming pigs :-P).