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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFor most first-time players, start with Total War: WARHAMMER III if you want fantasy, monsters and a guided introduction; choose Total War: THREE KINGDOMS for the clearest historical interface and richest diplomacy; pick Total War: SHOGUN 2 for a compact, focused lesson in the classic formula; and buy Total War: ROME II when ancient Rome is the reason you want to play. You do not need to own every game in the series. Your setting preference and tolerance for overlapping campaign systems matter more than release order.
This guide explains how each choice teaches the campaign-and-battle loop, what makes it difficult, which edition or add-ons to check, and how to avoid buying a game that does not match the way you want to learn.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Empire: Total War - PC | $15.59 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Rome Total War Complete Edition (PC DVD) | $19.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Empire Total War Complete Edition (PC Game) - - PC | $26.24 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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Total War: Rome 2 - PC | $61.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Empire: Total War & Napoleon: Total War (Gold Edition) - Windows | $33.27 | Buy on Amazon |
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What a new player is learning in Total War
Every mainline Total War game alternates between two kinds of play. On the strategic map you expand or defend territory, develop settlements, manage income, research technologies, negotiate with rival factions and move armies. When armies meet, the game shifts to a real-time battlefield where positioning, morale, terrain, formations and timing decide the result. You can resolve many fights automatically, but a newcomer who wants to understand the series should manually play the early battles.
The best first game is therefore not simply the one with the most factions. It is the one that lets you read the map, understand what each unit is for and recover from a mistake without managing too many systems at once. Fantasy and historical games teach the same basic loop, but their information load is different: magic, monsters and heroes add spectacular options, while historical titles rely more heavily on conventional formations, diplomacy and economy.
#1 Best Overall
- New Real-time 3D Naval Warfare. Players control single ships or vast fleets with fully destructible sails as well as cannon and musket action, boarding raids and more. This is the complete naval combat experience.
- All-new Game Engine. With a newly created Windows XP-compatible DirectX 9 graphics engine, players will experience real-time seascapes, dynamic weather and a new advanced landscape and flora system.
- Episodic Campaign. Improves accessibility to the game by gradually introducing advanced features over time.
- Massive Scope. Over 30 in-game factions encompass all of the World's major powers including the United States of America.and dodge pursuers using the stylus.
- Brand New Multiplayer Modes. Players vie for a place at the top of the rankings and join leagues and ladders for even more gameplay challenges.
Quick comparison for first-time buyers
| Game | Setting and release | Onboarding strength | Campaign scale | Strategic complexity | Battle readability | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WARHAMMER III | Fantasy trilogy; released 2022 | Structured Prologue; official beginner recommendation | Large, especially in Immortal Empires | High after the tutorial because of heroes, magic, monsters and faction rules | Clear unit identities, but many special abilities | Players who want fantasy and a long-term sandbox |
| THREE KINGDOMS | Three Kingdoms China; released May 23, 2019 | Mouse-over explanations, contextual tips and informative interface | Broad regional campaign | High: diplomacy, relationships, characters and subterfuge | Readable formations with additional character abilities | Historical players who value guidance and diplomacy |
| SHOGUN 2 | Sengoku-era Japan; released March 15, 2011 | Focused campaign with obvious unit jobs | Compact, Japan-only map | Moderate; fewer overlapping systems | Exceptionally easy to parse once unit roles are learned | Players who want the clearest classic introduction |
| ROME II | Ancient Mediterranean; released September 3, 2013 | Usable, but broader and less focused for a first campaign | Large, multi-faction world | High: provinces, politics, varied economies and armies | Many unit and battlefield identities; more to track | Players whose main motivation is ancient Rome |
Total War: WARHAMMER III — the default fantasy starting point
Why it is the safest fantasy purchase
SEGA’s Total War portal gives direct beginner guidance: “Start with the Total War: WARHAMMER III base game.” SEGA Support identifies the Prologue campaign as the best place to start. It teaches movement, settlement management, recruitment and battles in a structured sequence rather than dropping you immediately into the trilogy’s enormous sandbox.
After the Prologue, you can move into a standard campaign. The headline long-term mode is Immortal Empires, which SEGA describes as combining the trilogy’s maps, races, Legendary Lords and locations. That scale is a major reason to choose WARHAMMER III, but it is also the point at which a new player can feel overwhelmed. Hundreds of faction abilities, unusual victory conditions, flying units, monsters, spellcasting and hero actions create more exceptions than a historical game does.
How to make the first campaign manageable
- Play the Prologue instead of skipping directly to the largest sandbox.
- Choose one faction with a straightforward economy and conventional frontline units. Keep the campaign objective visible and avoid opening several wars at once.
- Use the encyclopedia and unit cards to learn one battlefield job at a time: frontline, missile, cavalry or artillery. Add magic and hero abilities after the basic formation works.
- Manually fight the first battles so you can see how morale, armor, damage types and terrain affect outcomes.
- Delay additional downloadable content until you know whether you prefer infantry, monsters, ranged armies, aggressive raiding or defensive settlement play.
Do you need all three Warhammer games?
No. The base game is the official starting recommendation and provides its own Prologue and campaigns. The trilogy is modular: earlier games and downloadable content primarily expand the roster of races, Legendary Lords and starting positions available under the current access rules. Those rules, store editions and bundle contents can change, so check the exact platform, region and ownership requirements shown at purchase rather than assuming that a historical bundle description still applies.
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Buy WARHAMMER III first if you want the modern interface and fantasy setting. Add content only when you can name the faction or play style you want; buying the entire catalogue before learning the core loop adds cost and choice without making the tutorial easier.
Total War: THREE KINGDOMS — the best historical interface and diplomacy
Why its information design helps beginners
THREE KINGDOMS is set in China during the Three Kingdoms period and was released on May 23, 2019. Its interface explains more of what is happening than many older entries. Mouse-over pop-ups, contextual tips and clear information panels expose the consequences of actions while you are making them. That reduces the need to memorize hidden rules about buildings, characters and diplomacy.
The campaign also treats relationships as a central system. Generals have personalities, rivalries and loyalties; factions can bargain over territory, trade, access and alliances; and subterfuge gives you alternatives to a direct invasion. These tools make the strategic map feel communicative: a diplomatic problem often has a visible cause and a possible response.
Romance mode versus Records mode
At campaign setup you can choose between two presentations. Romance mode gives leading characters heroic abilities and makes famous generals powerful battlefield personalities. Records mode removes much of that heroism and keeps commanders closer to historical army leadership. Romance is more dramatic and forgiving when a strong character can turn a fight; Records is the cleaner choice if you want conventional formations and a stricter historical tone.
Rank #2
- Rome Total War Complete Edition
Neither mode is automatically “the beginner mode.” Romance adds spectacular abilities that must be learned, while Records removes some of those exceptions but makes positioning and army composition matter more. Choose the mode that matches the kind of explanation you want from the game, then keep the first campaign narrow: secure a defensible home region before chasing every political objective.
The trade-off
THREE KINGDOMS is easier to understand than its system count might suggest, but it is not as mechanically spare as SHOGUN 2. Character assignments, court offices, faction legitimacy, coalitions and diplomacy create a deeper decision tree. If you enjoy reading tooltips and planning relationships, that depth is a strength. If you want to learn through a small number of obvious actions, the Japanese campaign is less demanding.
Total War: SHOGUN 2 — the focused classic introduction
Why the smaller map matters
Released on March 15, 2011, SHOGUN 2 confines the campaign to Japan. The single-island geography keeps strategic distances, rival borders and expansion routes legible. You still learn the essential loop—capture provinces, develop settlements, maintain an economy, recruit armies, negotiate and fight real-time battles—but you are not simultaneously learning a continent-spanning political system.
Its roster is comparatively compact, and unit jobs are obvious. Spearmen hold a line, archers provide ranged pressure, cavalry attacks exposed flanks and specialized units have clear trade-offs. That makes the battlefield readable: when a plan fails, you can usually identify whether the problem was terrain, morale, timing or a mismatched counter.
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A practical first campaign
- Pick a clan with a defensible starting position and a conventional roster rather than one built around a specialist gimmick.
- Secure nearby provinces before opening distant fronts. Every additional border creates another place where an army can be required.
- Build an economy that funds replenishment and garrisons before spending heavily on elite troops.
- Fight early battles manually and pause when you need to issue orders. Learn how fatigue and morale change a melee over time.
- Use diplomacy to prevent a second front while your main army is campaigning.
SHOGUN 2 is the best choice when you want a tutorial-by-play experience: each new province introduces a manageable variation on the same core rules. Its age means the interface is less modern than in newer games, but the limited scope offsets that friction.
Total War: ROME II — choose it for ancient Rome, not simplicity
What makes it attractive
ROME II launched on September 3, 2013 and covers a broad ancient-world map with many playable factions. Armies and settlements can feel substantially different across the Mediterranean, and battles offer varied terrain and battlefield identities. If your interest is legionaries, Hellenistic kingdoms, North African powers or the politics of the ancient Mediterranean, that breadth is the point of the purchase.
Why it is a harder first game
The same breadth increases the learning load. Provinces, public order, politics, technology, naval movement, multiple economies and faction-specific rosters compete for attention. Retrospective coverage notes that technical and artificial-intelligence problems present at launch were patched, and the game can now be deep and rewarding. That improvement does not make its campaign as focused as SHOGUN 2, nor does it provide the same level of contextual explanation associated with THREE KINGDOMS.
Rank #3
- Empire Total War Complete Edition
Choose ROME II when the setting will keep you engaged through a demanding first campaign. Start with a faction whose goals and unit roster are easy to read, keep the first war local, and treat the opening hours as a survey of systems rather than a race to conquer the map. If ancient Rome is only a vague preference and you mainly want the smoothest introduction, one of the other three games is a safer purchase.
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| Your priority | Best fit | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Fantasy, monsters and a guided lesson | WARHAMMER III | The Prologue provides a structured route and the base game is SEGA’s official starting recommendation. |
| Historical setting with the most help on screen | THREE KINGDOMS | Mouse-over explanations, contextual tips and diplomacy expose why decisions matter. |
| Fewest simultaneous systems | SHOGUN 2 | A Japan-only map and clear unit roles keep the campaign and battles readable. |
| Ancient Mediterranean above all else | ROME II | Its broad faction and map variety serve the setting, even though they make the first campaign busier. |
| Learning real-time battles first | SHOGUN 2 | Smaller rosters make counters, formations and morale easier to identify. |
| Learning diplomacy and character politics | THREE KINGDOMS | Relationships, negotiations and subterfuge are central rather than optional decoration. |
Buying and ownership checks before you pay
Prices, bundles and platform availability are not universal. They vary by store, region, edition and promotion, so inspect the current listing instead of relying on an old recommendation or a package name seen in a video. Confirm all of the following:
- The exact game and edition, especially when a listing combines a base game with season passes or faction packs.
- Your platform. A PC listing, console listing and cloud option can have different content and update histories.
- The region in which your account will redeem the product.
- Which downloadable content is included and whether it grants a new campaign, a faction, cosmetics or only an optional upgrade.
- For WARHAMMER III, the current ownership rules for any Immortal Empires races, maps or Legendary Lords you expect to use.
Do not buy all expansions as a substitute for choosing a first faction. Play the base experience, note which mechanics you enjoy and then purchase only content that adds that style. This approach also protects you from paying for a bundle whose included items you will never use.
A first-session plan that works in any entry
- Read the objective. The victory conditions identify what the game expects and prevent aimless expansion.
- Inspect the starting settlement. Identify income buildings, recruitment options, growth or public-order effects and the next upgrade you can realistically afford.
- Recruit a balanced army. Include a dependable frontline, a source of ranged damage and at least one way to punish an exposed flank. Avoid filling every slot with expensive specialists.
- Scout before declaring war. Check neighboring factions, diplomatic attitudes and the distance to the first target.
- Fight one battle manually. Pause freely, place units before contact and watch morale, fatigue and ammunition rather than chasing a perfect victory.
- Review the result. Replace damaged units, replenish the army and identify the single decision that caused the most casualties.
- Save before major choices. A manual save before a new war, settlement conversion or diplomatic agreement lets you test a plan without turning experimentation into a restart.
Common first-campaign mistakes and fixes
Opening several wars at once
More borders mean more garrisons, patrols and emergency battles. Keep one main front until your economy can support a second army.
Auto-resolving every battle
Auto-resolve is convenient, but it hides why a unit won or lost. Manually play early fights and reserve auto-resolve for battles whose likely result is obvious.
Recruiting elite units too soon
Elite troops can consume the income needed for buildings, replenishment and a second defensive force. Build a reliable core first, then add specialists when their role is clear.
Ignoring diplomacy
A neighbor that is not your enemy today can become one after a border change or broken promise. Use trade, non-aggression agreements and carefully chosen alliances to protect your vulnerable flank.
Rank #4
- Feel the thunderous clash of battle as the Roman war-machine takes to the field in real-time combat. Tens of thousands of men collide in bone-splintering detail that you directly control.
- All-new graphics engine - see exotic ancient cities and colossal armies rendered in incredible detail, while jaw-dropping cinematic battles unfold. New unit cameras allow you to see the battle from every perspective.
- Completely scalable experience, with performance optimized for your PC or laptop. Witness the awesome scale of Total War - Rome II, no matter what your spec.
Expanding without developing provinces
Captured territory can be expensive and unstable. Repair buildings, manage public order and connect the new province to your economy before launching another offensive.
Choosing a faction only because it looks powerful
A faction’s opening position and mechanics determine how much you must learn at once. For a first campaign, favor a clear objective and conventional army over a flashy but complicated gimmick.
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SEGA’s Total War Academy is the official guide hub for campaign control, army command and tactics. It includes guides for THREE KINGDOMS, WARHAMMER II and ROME II. Use it alongside the in-game encyclopedia: read the explanation for a system immediately after encountering it, then return to the campaign and test one change at a time.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to play the games in release order?
No. Each title is designed as a standalone campaign. Release dates are useful historical context, not a required learning sequence.
Is SHOGUN 2 or THREE KINGDOMS easier to learn?
SHOGUN 2 is easier if you mean fewer systems and a smaller map. THREE KINGDOMS is easier if you want the interface to explain relationships, diplomacy and consequences while you play.
Which THREE KINGDOMS mode should a new player select?
Choose Romance for heroic generals and more dramatic character abilities; choose Records for a more restrained historical presentation. Neither removes the campaign’s political systems.
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Can I start with ROME II if I have never played Total War?
Yes, if ancient Rome is your strongest motivation. Expect a broader and busier first campaign than SHOGUN 2, and begin with a straightforward faction rather than the most unusual roster.
Best Value
- Empire Total War-True 3D naval combat for the first time
- Empire Total War-Choose from 12 factions and expand your empire over the largest campaign map ever.
- Napoleon Total war- Three story-driven campaigns immerse you in the life and battles of Napoleon in Italy, Egypt and across the entire European continent.
- Napoleon Total War-Experience the famous conflicts of the Napoleonic age on the land and sea-Austerlitz, Trafalgar, Waterloo and many more
- Napoleon Total War New Campaign multiplayer-play online against a friend for the fate of Europe
Where should I learn the controls and battle basics?
Use the game’s tutorial or Prologue first, then consult Total War Academy for campaign control, army command and tactics. The combination is more useful than relying on a single long video because you can apply each lesson immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to play the games in release order?
No. Each title is a standalone campaign; release order is not a required learning sequence.
Is SHOGUN 2 or THREE KINGDOMS easier to learn?
SHOGUN 2 has fewer systems and a smaller map, while THREE KINGDOMS provides more on-screen explanations for diplomacy and relationships.
Which THREE KINGDOMS mode should a new player select?
Romance emphasizes heroic generals and character abilities; Records offers a more restrained historical presentation. Both retain the political campaign systems.
Can I start with ROME II if I have never played Total War?
Yes, when ancient Rome is your main reason to play. Its broader campaign requires more system management than SHOGUN 2.
Where should I learn the controls and battle basics?
Start with the in-game tutorial or WARHAMMER III Prologue, then use SEGA’s Total War Academy for campaign, army-command and tactics guidance.
The Bottom Line
Buy WARHAMMER III for the best guided fantasy entry, THREE KINGDOMS for historical interface help and diplomacy, SHOGUN 2 for the most focused classic lesson, or ROME II when the ancient Mediterranean itself is the deciding factor.
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