The third installment Creative Assembly's Total War series is the first to be peopled with fully 3D polygonal characters. Troop leaders are individuals with faces who can hunted by the enemy, strengths and failings which may aid or undermine their abilities on the field. The game engine is all-new, not a knock-off of the previous Total War games (Medieval: Total War and Shogun: Total War). Historical accuracy in troops, formations, battle strategies, etc. is adhered to as much as is possible without being a drag on gameplay. Environments are detailed as the eye would see them, right down to individual rocks and blades of grass on the ground. And you can play it on a Pentuim 3/600Mhz machine.

GameSpot calls this real-time strategy game "superb" and gives it a 9.1 out of 10.