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''Total War'' is a series of strategy games developed by The Creative Assembly and published by {{Sega}}. The series combines TurnBasedStrategy with RealTimeStrategy and each game takes place in a distinctive historical period.

To date, there have been seven installments in the series, with associated expansion packs:
* ''Shogun: Total War'' (2000)
** ''Mongol Invasion'' (2001)
* ''[[VideoGame/MedievalTotalWar Medieval: Total War]]'' (2002)
** ''Viking Invasion'' (2003)
* ''[[VideoGame/RomeTotalWar Rome: Total War]]'' (2004)
** ''Barbarian Invasion'' (2005)
** ''Alexander'' (2006)
* ''[[VideoGame/{{Medieval II Total War}} Medieval II: Total War]]'' (2006)
** ''Kingdoms'' (2007)
* ''Empire: Total War'' (2009)
** ''The Warpath Campaign'' (2009)
* ''Napoleon: Total War'' (2010)
** ''The Peninsular Campaign'' (2010)
* ''[[{{VideoGame/Total War Shogun 2}} Total War: Shogun 2]]'' (2011)[[note]] (where the name format was reversed to "increase Brand Awareness".)[[/note]]
** ''Rise of the Samurai'' (2011)
** ''Fall of the Samurai'' (2012)
* ''[[VideoGame/TotalWarRomeII Total War: Rome II]]'' (2013)

The games' system is an interesting hybrid, with a continent-scale strategic turn-based game that jumps to real-time battles for resolving conflicts between opposing armies. The main campaign takes place on a RiskStyleMap divided into territories, cities, and fortifications. Here the player manages his or her empire, selects construction projects for settlements, raises armies, hires and dispatches agents, conducts diplomacy, and marches troops around. When those troops encounter a hostile army or attack a settlement, the game [[AstronomicZoom zooms in]] to the conflict and loads a battle map, where the engagement plays out in real-time.

Battles in the ''TotalWar'' series are known as much for [[TheWarSequence spectacle]] as strategy, to the extent that the History Channel used the ''Rome'' engine to provide visuals for a series on noteworthy Classical Era battles, and TheBBC used the same engine for the GameShow TimeCommanders.

----
!!This game provides examples of:

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Or to be specific, all love is one-sided. You can send a princess to attempt to marry a general in another faction in order to bring him over to your faction, the chances of success being determined by a comparison of their respective levels of desirability. It's implied that it is more a less a contest of who can get the other to fall harder in love; a success means the general falls hard enough in love with the princess to value her family over his own, while a failure can backfire and result in the princess falling hard enough in love with the general to join his family.
* AlternateHistory: An ''very'' likely outcome of a game in any entry of the series, although it's possible for players to recreate battles and scenarios virtually as they happened in real life. This is also one of the possible endings for ''Napoleon,'' should you succeed in taking over Moscow and ''winning'' Waterloo as the French.
* AmazonBrigade:
** ''Empire'' had the Amazons of Dahomey, actual RealLife BodyguardBabes (albeit appearing slightly too early).
* AmbiguouslyGay: Your general, with the right traits (such as "Uninhibited," "A Bit Odd," and "Unmanly.") Of course, he can also be ''un''ambiguously gay with the traits "Shameful" and "Too Well-Groomed," and/or the retinue member "Foreign Fruitcake." This being the Middle Ages, all of these traits decrease the stats you want him to have as well as his popularity and public order. Also frustrating if you're running low on heirs, as many of these traits decrease the chance of having children. Princesses can also gain a "Prefers Women" trait, which reduces their ability to seduce enemy generals.
** In ''Empire'' it's possible for Politicians to get "mistresses", heavily implied to be men. If your Monarch is female, she may also take a female mistress.
* AnachronismStew: The ''Total War'' games generally pay more attention to historical detail than other games of the same calibre. There have still been a number of minor mistakes in most of the games, albeit forgivable ones.
** ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'' both feature Moscow as the capital of the Russian Empire, when it is supposed to be St. Petersburg from 1713 to 1918. This also includes the Russian unique buildings the Winter Palace and the Kunstkamera museum, which are located in St. Petersburg in RealLife but can only be built in Moscow in the game. During Napoleon's campaigns in ''Napoleon'', the goal is to take Moscow, thereby defeating Russia and winning. Except, in RealLife, Napoleon did reach Moscow only to see it burned by the retreating forces following their "[[SaltTheEarth scorched earth]]" policy, and he was forced to return with nothing.
* AnimalAssassin: Assassins will often use animals to kill people.
* AnnoyingArrows: Averted. Arrows are the bane of slow moving and/or tightly packed units. They need protection though; an archer unit versus an infantry unit of equal tier will generally find itself cut to pieces before it can deal much damage with the arrows. They work best in conjunction with shock troops; the extra casualties and morale loss the archers inflict can be followed up by a brutal cavalry or shock infantry charge to scatter the foe.
** Arrow towers, during sieges, continually shoot arrows at a machine gun-like pace. If you leave a unit in their range for a few minutes, you'll probably find a large pile of corpses and a few demoralized survivors. Furthermore, they never run out of ammunition, and they will continue to shoot arrows at your men until you capture THAT section of the wall or the troops manning the tower withdraw.
* AnotherSideAnotherStory: Most factions you encounter in the game are playable, but are only unlocked if you defeat them at least once in the Grand Campaign. Other nations are unlocked only by beating the Grand Campaign.
** The exception is Shogun 2, with all the major nations being playable from the start, with the only "locked" nations being DLC ones like the Ikko Ikki.
** The first Shogun and Medieval were also exceptions where any faction was playable from the start. It was only with Rome that factions started being locked.
* AntiCavalry: Comes in various forms across the games. In order of game release:
** ''Shogun I'': Cavalry were never best used from the front in the first place, but cavalry fell foul to spears (obviously) and units deployed in forests or on hills. As spearmen are your default pick for your armies, being the [[JackOfAllStats most balanced]], and hills and trees are omnipresent in the game, cavalry are at just about their weakest point in this game. The exception is the Mongol Heavy Cavalry, who might just manage to roll over an unlucky spear unit by sheer force. (Mongol Heavy Cav. are ''devastating''.)
** ''Empire/Napoleon'': The square formation is the infantryman's very eloquent and persuasive argument against cavalry, but charging your cavalry head on into infantry is a bad idea in general. Cavalry are restricted to flanking and maneuvering by this time in history, and the vast majority of infantry can hold their own against any force of cavalry stupid enough to try a full frontal charge, thank you very much. Cavalry are best used as flankers; failing that, they are best concentrated against small segments of line to break units in detail while the infantry focus on keeping the other side's infantry from turning their guns on the cavalry.
* ArrowCam: Thrill as your volley of arrows/artillery fire arcs into an enemy unit.
* ArrowsOnFire: You can order your archers to set their projectiles alight, but doing so makes them [[IncrediblyLamePun burn]] through their ammo supply twice as fast, and the arrows take longer to reload, are much less accurate, and generally don't do as much damage (except in ''Shogun 2'', where they increase damage). However, they are quite effective as breaking enemy morale, and of course can set fire to siege equipment, buildings and ships. You can also order your catapults, ballistae, and cannons to fire flaming rounds.
* ArtificialStupidity: You've built an empire spanning most of Europe, the Pope is firmly on your side (and in your pocket), the Middle Eastern powers are currently busy dealing with the Timurids and are in no position to oppose you, and your armies will be in position to deliver the final blow to Russia on your next turn... and then Spain, who is currently being thrashed by the Moors, is down to its last territory, and has exactly five military units, declares war on you. In an extreme example, England in ''Empire'' is effectively invincible due to the AI's inability to transport armies by ship, though England's "invincibility" has been fixed with patch work and is now vulnerable to AI sea invasions.
** In siege battles, attackers have a habit of standing right in front of your towers doing entirely nothing as they get shot to pieces, leading to easy, if rather uneventful battles. Sometimes said attackers are archers or javelin throwers who are hurling shit up at your wall defenders or even over the walls at your defenders on the ground, but melee units share the same tendencies, which is an incredibly stupid move even by units that have a chance of dealing some minimal damage before getting annihilated.
** The AI seems to assume that you'll never actually try to disrupt the attack once the siege transitions to an assault; if you can hit the troops manning the siege equipment, even for a moment, they'll drop their rams/ladders/siege towers to fight. They'll usually forget all about the equipment even after the fight is over. It's possible to suck a large army into a brutal, costly entryway fight by destroying/disrupting their ladders and towers and forcing them to ram the gate, and then letting them run inside. A player can shred a 2,000 man army with only a few hundred spearmen just by holding them there and pummeling them with missile fire.
** For that matter, siege battles as a whole suffer from severe ArtificialStupidity from both yours and the computer's units. You'll almost always have a group of units somehow end up with half its numbers outside the walls attacking, while the other half is stuck running into the wall on the other side, or other such monstrosities of logic. Generally, it's a good idea to consider a unit on a wall as "committed" to that wall; trying to pull them off the wall for quick redeployment is not a bright idea unless you've got extra time to pull it off. That said, an army outnumbering the player's army 2:1 can easily be beaten if you just place your archers on the walls and let them rain death on the enemy while you place your spearmen at the gates to slaughter the enemy cavalry as they ride in. However, avoid the wall if the enemy has ''any'' siege gear beyond ballistae. The AI will ''mercilessly'' pound any wall that has archers on it if it has any effective siege gear.
** While the AI suffers in attacking cities, they are ''very'' good at ''defending'' them; it will ruthlessly exploit both fighting on the walls (and is very good at flanking your troops if they try to climb the walls) and the perfect morale boost from holding the square. Almost all city assaults end with a prolonged bloodbath as your men slowly hack and stab their way through the defenders, and you're lucky if you end up killing the enemy at a roughly 1 to 1 ratio because of that... unless you use a distance exploit. Bring gate-smashing artillery to a city and stand far away enough that the AI rushes its troops to the square. As soon as the gate is broken, run your men into the city. The AI always walks to the breach, and most of the time you can trap the enemy defenders in a bottle neck with spearmen while raining missiles both from behind your spearmen and from their own city walls.
** Your artillery captains may need to be hanged in ''Empire''. When told to cease fire, they tend to discharge their loaded guns directly into the line of battle. If they aren't relentlessly baby-sat, expect embarrassing friendly-fire incidents the second their target moves within musket range of friendly infantry. God forbid cannon arranged in a line, and the target moves to their immediate right or left. However unintentionally hilarious it is to see them shooting each other in the back from mere feet away, the fact that in many campaign battles friendly fire causes far more deaths than the enemy is frustrating indeed.
* AscendedExtra: This sometimes happens to the Captain of an army after it goes into a difficult fight and comes out victorious - assuming the army didn't have a General at the start of the battle. The Captain-turned-General becomes a member of the royal family and a powerful combat unit. It ain't cheap after ''Medieval II'' though, and promoted characters become generals rather than relations (though most generals are non-royalty in ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'' anyway.)
* AstronomicZoom: When it's time to fight.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: If you're lucky, captains of armies not led by officers can be promoted out of the ranks into the royal family or become a general after battle for their good work at commanding and kicking ass. (And [[RagsToRiches become Emperor of Rome!!!)]] Unfortunately, this costs a lot of money from ''Empire'' onwards.
* AttackAttackAttack: Units with high enough morale won't balk at charging the entire enemy army unsupported. Impetuous units occasionally do this without being asked! This is less common in ''Shogun 2'', completely outmatched units (particularly those that have already taken casualties in a previous battle) will flee before contact under the right circumstances. The in-game encyclopedia even stresses that as much as samurai place HonorBeforeReason when it comes to their own survival, simply throwing their lives away for no gain or glory is not something they consider honorable, and even they will fall back if the odds are too against them.
** AI armies will generally just keep charging against the most invulnerable positions (directly into a pikewall up a mountainside while under arrow fire, say) until they're routed.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Played straight with Alexander, who comes with a 60-man strong unit of what might be the best cavalry in the entire series.
** Averted in ''Fall of the Samurai''. A General's Hatamoto unit is reasonably strong for the early game and at least as effective as any other cavalry available at that point, but when you hit Modernization Level 3, the Hatamoto are replaced by Bodyguards who are completely useless in melee and not particularly powerful with their revolvers. The description of the new unit even says that it's a general's job to direct the battle, not fight it himself.
* AwesomeButImpractical / CoolButInefficient: Some of the big and/or expensive units.
** First-Rate Ships. Especially the ''Santissima Trinidad''. They're so slow and they hurt your economy so much ''just by merely existing''.
*** Technically, only Spain can build this, and it's a non-playable faction in a non-modified game. However, like any ship, it can be boarded and captured.
** Hero units. You have to spend a lot on building and research just to be able to make them in the campaign. And chances are by the time you are able to get them, you probably won't need them anymore.
*** Kisho Ninja are only good for scaling castle walls, making surprise attacks, and butchering units that are poor in melee, weakened by casualties, and/or already tied up in melee against another friendly unit. If they try to wage a fair fight by themselves against a full-strength unit that is strong in melee, they'll get their asses kicked badly.
**** Actually, Kisho Ninja are fairly effective, they're just very specialized. Their ability to hide in the middle of the battlefield can be used to break enemy charges; simply put them in front of an enticing target, and when the enemy gets close enough to risk detection, activate stealth. Then watch that charge get broken by dozens of grenades being thrown, which will almost always cause the charging enemies to route or at least break their charge. That's just one use of the Kisho Ninjas. They're also great when attacking from a hill or defending your castle; you can basically think of them as more expensive fire bomb throwers with the bonus of stealth abilities and a pretty good melee attack.
** Ironclads in ''Napoleon''. You pretty much have to max out the naval research tree to get them. By that point, you will have, most likely, beaten the campaign or lost it due to the time limit.
* BadassBeard[=/=]BeardOfEvil: When a general gets older, they'll start to go gray, but during middle age their character portrait may show them sprouting a beard.
* BadassBoast: The intro of ''Napoleon'':
-->''"My enemies are many. My equals are ''none''.\\
In the shade of olive trees, they said Italy could never be conquered.\\
In the land of pharaohs and kings, they said Egypt could never be humbled.\\
In the realm of forest and snow, they said Russia could never be tamed.\\
Now they say ''nothing.'' They fear me. Like a force of nature - a dealer in thunder and ''death.''\\
I say: I am Napoleon - I am '''EMPEROR!'''"''
** Which is followed fittingly enough by him ordering the [[spoiler:''HMS Victory'']] to be burned [[AlternateHistory as his men march towards London]].
* BadassBookworm: Your generals can gain this trait, and it reflects in their pre-battle speeches.
--->'''General''': ''"I am a well-read man, I have studied law and mathematics, decoded and scribed, yet I can still swing a sword and cleave a head or two!"''
** Another example is in ''Empire'', where Gentlemen serve as both scholars and duelists.
** There is a reason why the saying "Pen and sword in accord" is attached to the Samurai class with righteous and exact meaning: Samurai are highly educated warriors who are both fluent at writing calligraphy and fighting on the battlefield.
* BadassGrandpa: Even at 60+ years of age, most generals still kick ass as part of their bodyguards. And usually, by that time, they'll be ''literal'' grandfathers. In the original ''Shogun'', Daimyos could be found going into battle at ''seventy''.
* BadassFamily: Given that many of your generals in ''Shogun 2'' come from your family, this can easily result. For that matter, since keeping a dynasty alive is a key game play element from ''Rome'' onward, this could apply to most of the series.
* BadassPreacher: Norse War Clerics.
* BeingGoodSucks: Diplomacy is rather useless as everyone that is not of your faction or under your rule is an obstacle to you and your plans for world conquest. The only time diplomacy is useful is early on when you don't want a strong faction bearing down on you. Even then, they'll eventually terminate their diplomatic relations with you at anytime for no good reason. (See ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption)
** In ''Fall of the Samurai'', making alliances with minor clans is a bad idea that can backfire as the clans will usually go to war against each other despite being on the same side, forcing you into a lose-lose situation that permanently damages your clan's diplomatic standing, and honour, through a betrayed alliance. On another note, minor clans are unpredictable in the fact that they will make alliances with clans of the opposite camp and will change their allegiance without warning at anytime.
* TheBerserker: It's possible to have one of these as a retinue member.
* BilingualBonus: Played straight in '''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'', where units will answer to your commands in their respective languages. Averted in all previous games, where units responded instead with ([[JustAStupidAccent badly]]) accented English.
* BloodlessCarnage: Played with in the total war series. Rome had none, while Medieval II had some blood splatter, and units became bloody after getting into melee. However, Napolean and Empire were played straight, with battlefields being bloodless despite the dozens of corpses.
* BloodKnight: A small number of units are explicitly this, including Slavic ''Peasants''.
** Your generals as well, with the right traits and/or a high enough Dread rating.
* BoringButPractical:
** In ''Empire'', Sweden. Sweden has a typical European army list, with only one unique unit, the [[FinnsWithFearsomeForests Hakkapeliitta]] [[FragileSpeedster light cavalry]]. They're also the only faction in the whole game to ''not'' receive any new units through {{DLC}}. However, to compensate, their base-line units have fairly good statistics: their Line Infantry are surpassed only by those of Britain, France and Prussia. While they're criticized as a boring faction to play, they remain high-tier in multi-player and quite a few players swear by them.
** In ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'', most of Austria's available units are average if not weaker compared to their French or British counterparts. On the other hand, it's compensated by there being more men in each unit, the light infantry Greasers and the Hungarian variants.
** Speak of Line Infantry, nearly all ''Total War'' factions feature a militia or infantry unit that isn't especially special, but forms the backbone of any smart commander's army or city garrison. Militia especially, as they keep your town defended.
* BossInMookClothing: Large armies without a general can be surprisingly hair-raising to fight, particularly if [[ZergRush they use their numbers to overwhelm you.]] Also, just because a faction is classed as "minor" doesn't mean it's not capable of defeating you at war; especially in ''Shogun'' and ''Shogun 2'', where the great clans are frequently devoured by rebels and ronin in the former and minor clans in the latter. In ''Shogun 2'', an army without a general or daimyo leading it will have the highest ranking unit in the army take on their role. It will even say "our general is in grave danger!" when they are attacked, and killing them, just like killing a real general, is vital to destroying an army's morale.
* BowAndSwordInAccord: Some archer and javelin units are quite capable in melee.
* BreakMeter: As of ''Shogun 2'', unit morale runs on the following scale:
** "Heroic" - Only available in ''Rome'' and ''Barbarian Invasion'', impossibly high morale, the soldiers are so eager to fight that they become oblivious to all of your commands and absolutely nothing can cause their morale to drop until there is no one left to fight. Only berserkers can enter this state, which are only available to Germania in ''Rome''. ''Barbarian Invasion'' adds a few more, with the Alemanni and the Lombardi sharing the Lombard Berserker, while the Celts get the Hounds of Culann. In this state, virtually every hit a berserker makes sends several infantrymen flying (even if they are weighed down by 70 pounds of armor or a twenty foot long pike) their attack score goes way up, and inflict a substantial morale penalty on their soon to be slaughtered enemies.
** "Impetuous" - very high morale; soldiers want to fight - whether you want them to or not! In ''Shogun'', ''Rome'', and ''Medieval'', units at this level of morale may charge without orders. In ''Napoleon'', generals can sometimes inspire troops to reach this state.
** "Eager" - high morale; soldiers are happy to fight. The default morale level from ''Shogun'' to ''Medieval II''.
** "Confident" - medium-high morale; soldiers are ready to fight. The default morale level in ''Napoleon'' and ''Shogun 2''.
** "Steady" - medium morale; soldiers are fighting but aren't as enthusiastic.
** "Shaken" - medium-low morale; troops are getting skittish.
** "Wavering" - low morale; unit breaking up and about to flee. The games will warn you (via an icon on the unit's card) that the unit is on the verge of running.
** "Broken" - very low morale; soldiers are fleeing in panic and oblivious to the world. Units with broken status will try to leave the field and cannot fight back against other units post-''Medieval I'', and have their offensive strength severely curtailed from ''Shogun'' to ''Medieval I'' against any units they do happen across as they flee. A general who gets close to one of these units ''may'' be able to rally them and get them back in the fight. Post-''Empire,'' Broken units that are attacked can fall one level lower, to...
** "Shattered" - zero morale; soldiers are running for their lives and have no intention of returning. No amount of rallying, inspiration, or force can convince these soldiers to come back to the fight. Its worth noting that soldiers in the earlier games can reach a point where they will just refuse to return, its just not explicitly called "shattered."
** "Fighting to the Death" - Units that would ordinarily be broken or shattered, but have no possible means of escape. [[CorneredRattlesnake They have infinite morale unless the enemy allows them an exit, and will often break their enemies instead]].
* CadreOfForeignBodyguards: The Papal Swiss Guard and Byzantine Varangian Guard in the ''Medieval'' games.
* CallThatAFormation: Thoroughly averted, units that should be in formation are, and those who shouldn't be usually aren't... and the way these units usually get cut to pieces demonstrates aptly ''why'' this is a bad idea.
* CannonFodder: Peasant units have no armor and attack with farming implements, and tend to run away if the enemy so much as looks at them threateningly. They have absolutely no purpose on the battlefield other than to absorb arrows or tie down an enemy unit while you flank it. Peasants ''can'' be useful in defensive battles for settlements, if you've got nothing else available. ''Someone'' needs to man the walls so the towers can fire on attackers, after all, and better to have your relatively useless peasants up there than a unit that can actually fight.
** Ashigaru from ''Shogun 1'' and ''2'' are far more capable cannon fodder. While weaker than the samurai and best used in [[ZergRush overwhelming numbers,]] they are still definitely worth recruiting, especially since samurai units tend to be much more expensive and harder to recruit. Good tactics can also allow them to beat samurai units with relatively few casualties.
** The Armed Citizenry in ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'' are little more than local townsfolk hastily given muskets and would break before just about ''any'' other unit. They are mainly used in sieges, either in [[ZergRush massed rushes]] or for garrisoning buildings.
** Militia and levy units throughout the series also tend to be rather weak compared to regular soldiers.
** The Garrison Retainers in ''Shogun 2'' are an inversion of the aforementioned Armed Citizenry. While relatively few in number, they ''can'' give besieging enemies a good beating.
* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: One of the biggest aversions.
** In ''Medieval II'', the French are the bane of anyone playing the Moors or the Holy Roman Empire. They're always able to pull armies of elite heavy infantry out from nowhere and butcher your forces with ease, and they're very hard to counter early-game. They're also one of the most aggressive factions in the game, sending huge armies against Muslim factions during Crusades and waging war on neighbors for no reason at all.
** Averted even further in ''Napoleon'', where most of the campaigns have you conquering your way through Europe, the Middle East and North Africa as NapoleonBonaparte, and the French will probably take over most of Europe alone by the mid-game if you're playing ''Campaigns of the Coalition''.
* ChurchMilitant: The original ''Shogun'' had militant Buddhist, and later Christian, samurai, who would rise up if upset at your daimyo's religious policy, be it conversion to Christianity or refusal to give up Shintoism if said daimyo conquers a territory that has been converted to Christianity.
* ClownCarBase: Honestly, how does a '''full stack army''' consisting of '''Maratha war elephants''' fit onto a single '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhow dhow]]'''?
* ClusterFBomb: Your generals can deliver these as part of their pre-battle speeches if they've got the right traits.
* CommandAndConquerEconomy: There's no resource harvesting, only taxes, but your samurai/knights/whatever will require barracks or stables or blacksmiths to be built before you can hire them. Historically, the Medieval-era units at least ''ought'' to be providing their own equipment and training. However, [[AllThereInTheManual reading the info cards]] shows that the better-equipped units actually ''are'' purchasing their own equipment, especially if they're nobles. You're simply paying for them to join your army. [[FridgeBrilliance This also explains perfectly where all those massive armies of well-equipped rebels come from]].
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: In ''Empire'', the AI knows exactly which kind of ammunition you load in your cannons even before they fire a single shot. Early on, the only viable anti-personnel option is canister shot, which basically turns your cannons into gigantic shotguns. Switch to canister shot as the enemy closes in. Watch them immediately stop just out of range, then move around precisely following the edge of your range cone. Switch to round shot, they move in again. Switch back and oh look, they're all running right back out of range!
** This trope is taken to ridiculous extremes when playing ''Shogun 2'' on hard and legendary difficulty. The computer controlled clans will use their recruitment discounts to pull full stack armies and fleets out of their ass at anytime on every turn. EVEN if a computer controlled clan has only ONE province left, they'll have at least one full stack at ready to make a counter-attack or a last stand despite the obvious fact that their province can't even make enough money to pay for their upkeep.
* CowardlyLion: In both ''Rome'' and ''Medieval 2'', the generals speeches sometimes include a line that it is normal to be afraid before battle, but shameful to let fear rule you.
-->''"There is no shame in fear! There is only shame in letting fear rule you! Try not to look scared, and you will find bravery in your heart!"''
* CorneredRattlesnake: This trope is why it's not a good idea to surround an enemy force in an open battlefield.
* CrackDefeat: It can happen. Defeats of [[BadassArmy Roman armies]] by Frankish forces outnumbered 6:1 have been sighted, and this is hardly the only occurrence.
* CripplingOverspecialization: Averted mostly by units with more than one weapon but still significant enough to be a rule of thumb. This rule can even apply to factions in terms of their unit rosters. Artillery can be hopelessly lost to cavalry and infantry if they're allowed a chance to close the distance.
* TheCrusades: A major part of ''Medieval'' and ''Medieval II''. If you're a Catholic faction that gets excommunicated, they can happen to ''you''. On the other hand, if you control the Pope, you can do this to others.
* CultureChopSuey: The overall aesthetics of ''Fall of the Samurai'' increasingly give this impression, with its mix of 19th Century Western and Japanese styles, such as Victorian style photographs for the unit portraits, and the unit control interface looking more "western". This is also reflected in the soundtrack.
* CurbStompBattle: Able to be handed out both by you and to you, and is denoted by a Heroic Victory or Crushing Defeat respectively post-''Medieval''.
* CursedWithAwesome: Can sometimes apply to High Command (and Chivalry, where it exists) Generals. Sure, they give a massive boost to morale whilst they're on the battlefield and make battles loads easier, but if they die, the hit to your army's morale is huge - far bigger than simply losing a captain, and thus statistically far more likely to push them over breaking point.
** Also applies to AI Reinforcements, which believe in AttackAttackAttack. At least ''Medieval II'' gives you limited control over the buggers.
* CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain: ''Shogun'' had such a near-future Japan as its victory cinematic.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Wallachia (in one mod) can still have Chivalrous generals and family members, despite their [[{{Dracula}} reputation]] and iconography.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Some of the games compared to their predecessors. Such as ''Medieval II'' (which is notably more graphic in presentation), ''Napoleon'' (which seems to have a more ominous atmosphere compared to ''Empire'') and the upcoming ''Rome II'' (which is apparently slated to ''really'' drive the brutality of war home).
* DeathFromAbove: Get yourself a decent number of heavy howitzers and bombardment mortars with percussive shells in ''Empire'', then repeat after me: '''And how!''' Incidentally, this function is actually what makes it safe to stick your own units in front of them... as long as you're not aiming there, anyway. For other games, any medieval archer unit with the "Long range" trait is capable of this; and always beware of archers in ''Shogun'' and ''Shogun 2''.
* DecapitatedArmy: Killing an army's general causes its morale to drop like a stone, making it easier to rout them. In extreme cases, the general going down can, indeed, cause an entire army to rout. For example: an army of 800+ attacks a castle. Your walls are lost, the gate is down and you are pulling what is left of your infantry to support knights in the LastStand. THEN, a lucky pikeman kills the enemy general. Outcome? ''Entire enemy army routs and flees after the first cavalry charge.''
** Averted in ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'', as folks have actually seen an online battle where the winner had lost his General's Staff (the generic non-historical "general") unit almost in the first artillery bombardment. It got ugly, but since a GS was cheaper than any named historical general, he'd been able to afford other units that were good enough for him to win anyway. In ''Napoleon'', it's also possible for a general to only be wounded, which will deprive the unit of its Rally and Inspire special abilities (and thus much of the point of having him there) and morale boosting aura, but in the campaign, he will survive for future battles (Although he will have to return to the capital, stay for two turns and return to his army before he can be used again, something unhelpful when fighting a difficult war right on the border, especially as Russia, seeing as the border is miles from the capital). This is continued on to ''Shogun 2'', which is just as well as generals die right, left and centre there if you are not careful, due to the greater emphasis on melee and the bodyguards being far weaker than in ''Medieval II'' or ''Rome''.
* DepravedHomosexual[=/=]DepravedBisexual: Your general can get traits that reflect his lack of inhibitions when pursuing same-sex pleasures. And if he has one, he tends to get another trait with worse effects, to the point that a city will break into riot the moment he sits on the governor's seat. One of the worst traits is Catamite, in which your general keep a boy-toy SexSlave. {{Squick}}.
* DespairEventHorizon: Pushing the enemy to this point is often the main objective in battles, as once the entire enemy army is routed you've automatically won the battle.
** Assaults on cities and castles add an extra layer of complication, as they have "squares" - usually either at the base of the castle or the middle of the city - where any unit that enters the square automatically rallies and can't rout, causing them to fight to the death. Since pitching your melee troops into battle with an enemy who won't break is a recipe for a costly meat-grinder, most assaults center around trying to kill as many of the enemy as possible before they retreat to the square, usually by maneuvering cavalry or fast light infantry around on the flanks to cut off the defenders before they can fall back. This makes it very hard to take higher-level fortresses and citadels without suffering major losses, as they have multiple layers of walls and gates, making it much easier to retreat to the heart of the castle and hold out. The AI naturally exploits this, quite mercilessly.
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: In ''Empire'', if you are fighting ''nearby'' a city with fortifications, scroll over to the map's edge closest to the city. You can see the fort in the far distance. It's a nice touch.
* DigitizedSprites: The first two games, ''Shogun'' and ''Medieval'', used CGI Renderings for all the units. This was probably a cost-cutting measure to avoid going over on the development budgets and to reduce the system requirements needed to run the games.
* DistantFinale:
** [[spoiler: In ''Shogun: Total War'', after your clan achieves victory, the final cutscene jumps forward into the far future. It show your daimyo's statue being displayed in a public square in high-tec, CyberPunk style Tokyo, with the narrator saying how legends of your courage and cunning still lives on to this very day.]]
** [[spoiler: In the ''Mongol Invasion'' expansion pack, if you fail to defeat the Mongolian invasion of Japan, the ending skips forward to the future. It shows the same cutscene as mentioned above with the modern day Tokyo in the future, seemingly suggesting that history goes on same as before... [[WhamLine except then narrator reveals that you are looking at the province of Japan, which is now part of Mongolia]]. With its cultural heritage and legends of the samurai being long since forgotten by history. The final shot of the ending being a giant statue of Kubla Khan standing proudly in a public park at the city center.]]
* TheDreaded: A character in either of the ''Medieval''s can keep order with a high Dread rating. It even says that the room goes silent when your character enters the room in ''Medieval'' with maxed out Dread, and ''Medieval II'' has Dreaded characters lower the morale of entire enemy armies by their mere presence. This is very annoying when fighting the Mongols, who all have high Dread generals. Use Chivalrous generals to balance it up... or use a general of your own with ''even higher'' Dread to make the ''Mongols'' break first. With a general whose Dread is maxed out, it's possible to break an entire enemy army by simply ''charging them.'' You don't even have to hit them; simply charge the entire army straight at them, and there's a pretty good chance that the lower-morale units break immediately, starting a chain reaction of routing that sends the entire army fleeing. With your faction leader, if you push the Dread high enough and execute enough prisoners/exterminate enough populations, he'll end up with the moniker ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Lord of Terror."]]''
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Shogun'' and ''Medieval'' could count, as many game play elements associated with the series debuted in ''Rome''. Among others, a stricter RiskStyleMap was used, meaning units could only move one province at a time every turn. Also, units do not recover their stamina during battle even if they're walking or standing still. Requiring a tactical emphasis on having exhausted units being switched out with fresh reserves.
* EasyCommunication: Probably one of the most blatant examples in gaming. You can command a surrounded group of knights half a battlefield away from your general to break off, struggle through the enemies and reform, before having them charge right back into the enemy (assuming they haven't routed). In ''Rome'' and ''Medieval II'' at least, you can select an option that forces the camera to stay at your general's unit to counter this somewhat.
** The EasyCommunication on the Campaign map, on the other hand, can be explained by the fact that each turn lasts half a year, and it is entirely reasonable to acquire the status of every asset in your empire and communicate orders back in that time. Also this way in ''Empire''... but that was pretty annoying (11 years to research a technology?!), so each turn became half a month in ''Napoleon''. One can ultimately treat the whole affair as a {{Handwave}} on account of the player representing the whole of one's own force's commanders at both "overall" and unit levels, though of course the player still has the advantage of being able to see unit statuses exactly (i.e. morale), being able to give orders with the "big picture" in mind (nominally anyway...), and the complete lack of tactical fog of war unless a unit is hidden.
* EliteMooks: Every single faction has them, and usually they are an extreme nuisance to kill, if not a threat all unto themselves. [[DespairEventHorizon Unless you break their morale, that is...]] though one of the reasons the EliteMooks are such a nuisance is that they're much less likely to break and run than other units. Some of them even have traits that cause them to inflict morale penalties on your troops by their very presence.
* EndOfAnAge: Some of the games and expansions are set during periods fitting this tropes. In some cases however, it's possible for the player to either bring this about or a DawnOfAnEra over the course of a campaign.
** ''Empire's'' ''Warpath'' DLC, which is essentially an updated version of the Americas Campaign from ''Medieval II: Kingdoms'', serves as this for the Native American factions as more and more European colonists move ever further inland.
* EnemyCivilWar: Several games in the series allow for this, at least from the perspective of opposing factions.
** ''Empire'' includes emergent factions which can emerge into dissatisfied regions of an existing faction, e.g. Ireland, Scotland and the American colonies may rebel against British rule.
* EpicFail: Those assassinations/infiltrations that don't end thanks to [[RealityEnsues reality ensuing]] are these. For example, an assassin hiding behind a door who stabs himself with his own dagger when someone opens the door, an assassin who gets bitten by the very snake he's trying to slip into your bed, or a ninja trying to drop-kick a target off a railing only to miss and take a tumble himself.
* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: Averted. The only part of the series that features bagpipes are parts of the soundtrack, which was painfully received by many fans, especially since ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'', where Scottish regiments were given the same boring drums as everyone else. Even mods could not yet introduce bagpipes, although they get more and more historically relevant as the series advanced.
* EvilLaugh: Generals with high Dread are fond of this upon victory.
* EvilPaysBetter:
** This is averted in ''Napoleon'' and ''Shogun 2'', where looting and pillaging cities hurts your economy in the long run, causes ''more'' unrest and gives you a hit to your daimyo's honor in ''Shogun 2'', and as mentioned, it is a bad idea to exterminate valuable settlements in ''Medieval II'' in the long term.
* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: Or close to it, anyway. When a major clan is destroyed (and thus the daimyo dies) in ''Shogun'' and ''Shogun 2'' (only when it happens to the player-controlled one in the latter), he recites a historical "death poem", written by samurai before they either committed seppuku or went off to a LastStand.
* FactionSpecificEndings: The ending cutscene of ''Shogun: Total War'' changes slightly depending on what clan you played as.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Many historical battles have you playing as the side that historically loses, leaving you to do your best to try and change history by winning.
* FearlessFool: One of the generals of the game makes reference to these characters, describing them as moonstruck fools.
* FlavorText: Each unit, building and technology (especially from ''Empire'' onwards) has a lengthy description of its use and some of its history in RealLife.
* FoeTossingCharge: A well-executed cavalry charge can do this. This is particularly true of the General's bodyguards in ''Medieval II'' or the Cliblinarii in ''Barbarian Invasion'', both of whom are quite capable of murdering entire formations of infantry and far more than their fair share of opposing cavalry... and that's ''without'' infantry support!
* ForeignCultureFetish: A possible trait for diplomats.
* FriendlyFireproof: Averted. Firing artillery or missiles into close combat is only advisable if you like huge casualty reports. Mounted archers in particular seem adept at hitting their own squadmates, and in older games, it's a well-known "rule" that if you fail to call your archers off shooting a target ''before'' the General's bodyguard units slams home, the last volley will cause one casualty.
** [=PrinceofMacedon's=] Website/YouTube videos for ''Napoleon'' have shown several incidents of artillery-induced friendly fire, the possible most hilarious being [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frgp0UaLiIY&hd=1#t=2m30s here]].
** Light infantry are partially immune to this because of their skirmish ability, which lets them kneel down so as to avoid getting shot from behind by friendly soldiers. However, they may still get hit by friendlies depending on the terrain.
* GameMod: The series as a whole is well-known for its support for mods.
** For ''Medieval II'', there's the ''Stainless Steel'' mod, which goes a step above, adding new units, retexturing many of the units, adding more historically accurate troops, a wider range of traits and titles, a realistic ageing system, and including several of the ''Kingdoms'' factions while adding a few others (including the Mongols!)
** ''[[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=89 The Fourth Age Total War]]'' is one based off TheLordOftheRings and Tolkien's abandoned story called The New Shadow. It deals with the Reunited Kingdom having to deal with it's people turning to evil. Still being updated and worked on today and is filled with references of Tolkien's works while made as detailed as possible.
** ''Medieval II'' has some excellent ones based on other universes: ''[[LordOfTheRings Third Age]]: Total War'', ''Call of TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', and ''[[ASongOfIceAndFire Westeros]]: Total War'' are all excellent.
** In addition, there's the ''{{Thera}}'' campaign mod, placing the campaign map in an alternate LowFantasy universe.
** There's also ''Darth Mod'', ''Imperial Spendor'', ''Rights of Man'' and several other mods for ''Empire''.
* GameplayAllyImmortality: In ''Napoleon'', certain historical generals can only be wounded, even in the event of a successful "assassination" attempt -- they simply respawn later at their national capital. Subverted in that if he is wounded on the battlefield, his unit loses his special abilities and aura for that battle, essentially "mission killing" it.
* GlassCannon: Mounted ballista in ''Barbarian Invasion''. They will tear apart MightyGlacier units with ease, but die whenever a cool breeze blows on them.
** To some extent, artillery in ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon''. Despite being ''the'' core of a proper army, even moreso in the latter, they are extremely vulnerable in close quarters unless immediately supported by infantry (preferably line) or cavalry to check a charge... or with canister shot ready and waiting to be fired to do the same. Part of the role of cavalry in the game is to destroy (can't capture 'em) any undefended guns that they can charge... from the side or behind, that is.
** Most light cavalry units. Their light armor makes them exceedingly vulnerable in pitched combat, but they are ''fast'' and hit almost as hard as heavy cavalry on a charge. Just keep in mind that they have to be babysat ''constantly'' because if a heavy cavalry unit catches them, slaughter will ensue. It is not uncommon for a battle to take out ten to twenty percent of your light cavalry troops, even if your other units only take light casualties. On the flip side, they gain experience very quickly due to the high attrition rate.
* GovernmentInExile: Even if you defeat a faction and take over their lands, if you don't keep your newly obtained citizens happy, you'll see revolts and the spawning of nationalist rebels.
* GunsAreWorthless: The early Medieval-era ones anyway. Hand cannons have less range than a javelin and can't hit squat, but they make a lot of noise and are therefore effective at breaking enemy morale. Arquebuses and muskets are more useful, while guns from ''Empire'' onwards are a completely different story.
** Artillery weapons are far more effective - though they lack the pure range of trebuchets in some cases, their accuracy is far greater, and they are better suited to taking out 'sheltered' targets (namely city gates) and incoming infantry groups, as one cannon shot can tear through several armoured men before stopping.
*** ''Napoleon'' goes further: artillery are the kings of the battlefield, which rather fits with his background in artillery.
* TheHashshashin: Islamic factions can recruit them in ''Medieval'' and ''Medieval II''.
* HaveAGayOldTime: Invoked when ''Empire'' hails artillery-centric generals: ''"Here's a man who knows when to blow his load!"''
* HiredGuns: Mercenaries in at least some games, ranging from cannon fodder to very potent battlefield units (so long as you pay them). It's even possible for a general to gain a "mercenary captain" as part of his retinue. ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'' are exceptions however, with the rise of standing, professional armies rendering the need for mercs irrelevant.
** Foreign Veterans in ''Fall of the Samurai'' meanwhile can also get traits emphasizing their OnlyInItForTheMoney motives.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: GeorgeWashington (the classic example) in the "Road to Independence" campaign in ''Empire.''
** Arguably, ''[[NapoleonBonaparte L'Empereur]]'' himself in his campaigns in ''Napoleon.''
* HitAndRunTactics: Possible after ''Shogun''. If you tried that there, your soldiers just randomly ran away. [[HonourBeforeReason Damn samurai honour!]]
** Skirmishers can of course do this better than any other infantry, but this to some extent is the main role of cavalry from ''Empire'' onwards -- other than cuirassiers, cavalry have little or no armor, and thus rely more on their speed for committing flanking attacks.
* HonorBeforeReason: All units in the mobile game ''Total War Battles: Shogun'' can only move and attack forward or forward-diagonally. Never to the side or backwards. The same applies to the enemy. This turns the game into a glorified chess game where every piece is a pawn. According to the game, this is because every Japanese warrior abides by the code of Bushido, which demands no retreat.
* HorseArcher: Present in every game in some form or another. Varies in deadliness from game to game.
* IncestIsRelative: You can order your princesses to marry within the royal family. In ''Medieval'', it's also a surprisingly common trait for your units to acquire, always with their daughter. Nothing is stopping a prince from having a relationship with his daughter. Even if he isn't married, and is in his teens...
* InstrumentOfMurder: There is a brief cutscene in ''Shogun'' that shows a ninja assassinating his target with a poison dart blown out of a flute. The Geishas also have several fairly brutal instrumental kills. Special mention goes to the assassination scene where a Geisha kills a room full of enemies, armed only with a violin-type instrument.
* JustOneMoreLevel: So many things to do in a campaign, and always so little time to do them all.
* TheKnightsTemplar: Recruitable in both ''Medieval'' and ''Medieval II''
* LastStand: Units that are in a city or castle's square will fight to the death, and if they have to fight there, they usually ''are'' fighting to the death. In city or castle fights, if a defending unit routs, it will attempt to run to the city square. Sometimes, if you get to the square and are controlling it, a enemy unit somewhere else might rout and [[HilarityEnsues run right into your soldiers]]. Soldiers completely surrounded in the field will also fight to the death; but this is just to break out.
** In ''Medieval'' and ''Rome'', you can get special defensive traits for being great at these. Risky Attacker gives an attack bonus, and is gained when you attack enemies who outnumber you greatly, and Skilled Last Stand is gained for defending against enemies outnumbering you 2-1.
* LeeroyJenkins: Some glory-hungry units, such as Medieval knights, may charge without orders, thus dooming themselves by chasing skirmishers into an ambush or throwing your careful redeployment into utter confusion. The Date clan in ''Shogun II'' also has this as their specialty: They gain a bonus to charging units and their specialty unit is the No-Dachi samurai, a unit that's most effective when charging an enemy unit.
* LosingTheTeamSpirit: Losing a standard in ''Rome'' or your general in any of the games will demoralize your entire army. While the death of one's general won't cost you the battle outright from ''Empire'' onwards, it often ends up being a MoraleEventHorizon.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: There's rocket troops and rocket ships as late as ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'', but their tactical effectiveness is limited compared to simply getting proper artillery (although rocket ships can kill any large and slow ship in the game, due to their forward firing weapons, long range and ability to start fires).
* MilitaryMashupMachine: See the page for ''[[VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar Medieval II]]'' for a striking example. Though if you want sick, look at Rome's ''incendiary pigs''; the pigs are pointed at enemy units and then set on fire! Stand well back.
* MissionPackSequel: Fans disagree as to whether ''Napoleon'' was this in regards to ''Empire'', or simply a stand-alone expansion. The Creative Assembly's silence on the issue just makes things more complicated.
* MisterMuffykins: A possible retinue member for princesses.
* MoraleMechanic: The series implement MoraleMechanic for armies. One of the best ways to decimate a unit or entire army's morale is to kill its commander.
* MoreDakka: Canister shot turns an ordinary cannon into an enormous shotgun that rips even {{Mighty Glacier}}s to bloody shreds. Shrapnel shot does the same at long range, meaning you can subject your enemy to an unending hail of buckshot.
** There's nothing like a battery of Gatling Guns to wreck a full stack army into a bloody and fleeing tatter of stragglers who've been completely scared beyond reason, eh?
* MultiMeleeMaster: Phalanxes in ''Rome'', pikemen in ''Medieval II'' and ''Empire'', and yari ashigaru in ''Shogun 2'' caught out of formation or at close range will down spears (or, apparently, [[{{Hammerspace}} stash pikes taller than they are in their trousers]]) and haul out swords. Only the Spartans and a few really tough pike units (like Swiss pikemen or Spanish Tercios) truly fit the mastery of both weapons part of the trope however. For others, its an EmergencyWeapon.
* TheMusketeer: All gunpowder units can fight in melee. Why you'd want them to is another matter, as they generally have plentiful ammo.
** Post-''Empire'', ranged infantry and cavalry can run out of ammunition, and can befit the trope with varying effectiveness depending on unit stats and abilities. Dragoons are the best example, but are limited to melee attack when on horseback (since they're basically "infantry who ride to the fight"), while several minor nations in ''Empire'', France in ''Napoleon'' and everyone in ''Fall of the Samurai'' have cavalry who can fire carbines from horseback, such as Napoleon's ''chasseurs à cheval''. Averted with artillery -- they don't run out of ammo (except in ''Fall of the Samurai''), but their crews are ''not'' skilled in melee and are way too few (i.e. 12-18 men per battery) to survive against most units. As a result, one of the main roles of cavalry is to get close enough to unprotected batteries to prey on them.
** Played with in Fall of the Samurai. All the rifle units (barring a few elite units like the US marines) can draw swords, but have ''very'' bad melee stats. This is the one thing that makes [[AnachronismStew the traditional vs. modern]] multiplayers battles reasonably balanced.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Anyone, potentially, as titles and nicknames are assigned based on traits, reputation and deeds. What's more, if the character in question has high enough Dread, enemy forces often actually ''will'' run away from them. Nothing like seeing King Edward, the Lord of Terror, charging an army of several thousand all by his lonesome only to see them turn and rout at the mere sight of him.
* NeutralityBacklash: In ''Fall of the Samurai'', breaking a military alliance with a clan that calls upon you for help will inflict a penalty to your diplomatic relations. A premature termination is even worse: Your Daimyo's honor goes down which will also drop public order in your provinces and the loyalty of your generals.
* {{Ninja}}: Recruitable in ''Shogun'' and ''Shogun 2''. In keeping with the emphasis on realism, these act mostly as spies, saboteurs, and occasionally assassins, going into enemy territory in the RiskStyleMap and compromising them behind the lines. Kisho Ninja can also be recruited as a battle unit. They will get swamped in open combat, but they can use an ability to hide in plain sight for a short time, climb castle walls quickly and safely, and use blinding grenades to stun foes and finish off critical targets, making them an excellent utility unit in the right hands.
* NoArcInArchery: Averted. If the front rank of a unit of archers or crossbowmen has direct line-of-fire to the enemy they'll take a straight shot, but otherwise archers will, well, arch. This lets them fire while safely behind tougher units or hit enemies on the other side of cover, but such volleys are less accurate and damaging than direct arrow fire. That said, archers in earlier games and ''Shogun 2'' have an unfortunate tendency to shoot shielding units in the back.
** Wonderfully averted in ''Empire'': even individual bullets from infantry volleys receive realistic arcs. This aversion is also the point of using howitzers, although their different ammunition from cannons can be a nice, nasty touch. It's also the only safe way to use cannons behind one's own units, if said cannons are also overhead.
* OneManArmy: Thoroughly averted for the most part, save in the case of the Kensai unit in ''Shogun'', a master swordsman capable of tearing through entire units or holding a choke point all by his lonesome.
** Subverted in ''Shogun'''s Tokugawa campaign. You command a unit containing three of them, and your opponent on the same map also has one.
** Both ''Shogun'' and ''Medieval'' also featured the infamous Jedi Generals. Simply put, the more command stars a general accrued (mostly by winning battles), the harder and tougher to kill he became (this to counterbalance the fact that killing him made the entire army's morale drop like a stone, and the AI wasn't programmed to protect its generals). A single dude on horseback could rack up hundreds of kills until he was finally put down... or he could win the battle by himself. The later games fixed this, firstly by segregating command and combat abilities, and secondly by making all cavalry units much more vulnerable to protracted melees.
*** An undefeated conqueror with ten stars in command, max dread and authority, and all the traits that give him additional hit points, to a grand total of 12-15 [[hottip:*:Elephants have ''[[MadeOfIron 6]]'' would at most take 30 highly qualified soldiers by himself. Worthy of legends, but not unrealistic.
** ''Empire'' onwards (except for ''Rise of the Samurai'') has generals as light cavalry, so they are much weaker compared to previous games.
* PedophilePriest: Implied if a priest has the retinue member "Choir Boy".
--> "This child's voice is a gift from God! Once which I must keep close at hand..."
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: The Mongols... sometimes. On easier difficulty levels, they'll just sort of sit there and occasionally besiege one of your settlements, only to retreat later. Perhaps they're busy razing the countryside or something.
* PowerOfLove: Your royal family's princesses can attempt to bring foreign characters onto your side through marriage, though there's a chance this will backfire.
* PraetorianGuard: Family members take to the field in units of (usually mounted) bodyguard, elite soldiers that can either protect the general from harm or provide a powerful punch to an offensive. Sometimes both if things go sour.
** The general's bodyguards post-''Empire'' (except ''Rise of the Samurai'''s, which are Mounted Samurai in all but name, a very powerful late game unit) aren't exactly the strongest cavalry in the game. You start off with somewhat weaker (but more numerous) cavalry and end the game with much stronger (and still more numerous) cavalry in comparison to the guards.
*** For ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'', this is because they are not in fact elite guards, but simply the general's staff officers, there to ferry orders and reports to and from the general. For ''Shogun 2'' and its expansions, it's simply because cavalry in general isn't as powerful as in the previous games.
** Many of the elite units across the series are drawn from military units that historically were body guards to national rulers. Byzantine Varangian Guards, Napoleon's Imperial Guard, and many different nations' Life Guards/Republican Guards in ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'' are some examples. Really, pretty much any unit with the name "Guard" in its name has a good chance of fulfilling this trope.
* PyrrhicVictory: Almost inevitable, given the nature (and the design) of the game. In ''Shogun 2'', it's actually called a Pyrrhic Victory if you have a ''lot'' of casualties in a battle you won, though depending on the circumstances, this can be a mere [[WeHaveReserves annoyance]].
* RagsToRoyalty: Recruit a unit of peasants. Win enough battles with that unit so that its commander is promoted to a general. You can now make that general the faction heir or marry him to the ruler's daughter, depending on the game, and he can succeed as ruler.
* RealityEnsues: More than half of the failed assassination/infiltration videos involve the would-be assassins/spies getting caught doing something fairly obvious and getting killed instantly. Especially notable in ''Shogun 2'' with one of the geisha assassinations, where the geisha approaches two guards with polearms armed with two very short daggers. If successful, she kills both of them, while if unsuccessful....
** This extends to the battles themselves, especially given certain conditions: that enemy commander may be intimidating and legendary but all it takes is for a well-timed charge or a lucky shot...
** Also, if you surround an enemy force out on the battlefield, they won't give up, but instead [[CorneredRattlesnake fight with all they've got to try to get away]].
* RealTimeWithPause: In the single-player battle portions. Extremely useful, as it allows effortlessly commanding massive armies, as well as minimizing casualties. The strategy part of the game is strictly Turn-Based. ''Shogun 2'''s [[HarderThanHard Legendary]] mode throws a blinder at veterans by taking away the "With Pause" bit.
* RiskStyleMap: The campaign map, which was noticeably more "Risk-like" in the earlier games: [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness armies can move only to adjacent provinces per turn while provinces themselves were used almost solely for producing taxes and additional units]]. From ''Rome'' onwards however, this gets progressively more dynamic and expounded upon (such as diffused structures, development types and even forms of government), though the principle largely remains the same.
* RousingSpeech: Delivered by your generals before every battle. Some are straightforward, some are hilarious, and some are downright bizarre.
** Later games in the series will alter the content of the speech based on context. Things like the general's experience, previous battles against the same faction, the weather, and the relative sizes of the armies will affect which lines the general delivers.
** This was removed in ''Empire'', ''Napoleon'' and ''Shogun 2'''s ''Fall of the Samurai.'' Somewhat justified in that such speeches were not very much practiced during the time periods in question.
* RPGElements: Keep your units alive throughout the campaign and they gain experience, allowing them to hold their own against green units from further along the Tech Tree in ''Empire'' onwards, and against units from more advanced settlements in other games. Your generals also gain traits according to their performance as generals, governors and other duties, as well as their surroundings, and this is codified in ''Shogun 2'' as you can purchase traits as your generals or agents gain experience.
* SaveScumming: Pretty much mandatory to level up your agents. Since you only get city improvements that allow you to train better spies, merchants and the like ''after'' you have an experienced agent in the field, your starting agents are breathtakingly incompetent morons who somehow swallow their murder implements or never learned basic mathematics. Quicksaving before sending them on a mission and reloading until the RandomNumberGod smiles upon you is the best way to level them up without constantly recruiting replacements.
* SedgwickSpeech: Your general gives an inspiring speech before every battle, even when utterly outmatched. These vary in quality based on the general's leadership skill, from "I have never lost a battle in all my campaigns!" to "Maybe we'll survive if they do something utterly stupid."
** Removed in ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'' but brought back in ''Shogun 2'', where honor (both yours and your enemy's) affects the speech (depending on how honorable the enemy is, the general can go from "kill these dogs" to "regrettably, this must be done"). Then removed again in the ''Fall of the Samurai'' ExpansionPack. Possibly something about post-17th century warfare that makes generals unwilling to give speeches. Naturally, there are no speeches before naval battles, as that would require the admiral to be heard across the entire fleet over the waves.
* SequelDifficultySpike: [[SequelDifficultyDrop Inverted]] after Shogun I where the rebels could wipe you out and there were super assassins that could kill your entire family: Medieval I is a far easier game at least for the majority of factions and Rome got easier still, culminating in Medieval II where a major complaint was that even on Very Hard the game simply wasn't a challenge. Played straight however in further games; Empire, Napoleon and Shogun II are all harder than their predecessors, with Shogun II arguably being the hardest game of the entire series.
* ShoutOut: One of the randomly generated princess names for Parthia (ancient Iran) is "[[Disney/{{Aladdin}} Jasmine]]".
** And four available traits for characters in the game to pick up are: [[FatherTed 'Arse', 'Feck', 'Drink', and 'Girls']]
** A random leader name for the Scots is "[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Captain Kirk]]." Play as Scotland and have him defeat the Mongols and their... [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!?]]
** Diplomacy in the various games sometimes gets absolutely crazy. Egypt in ''Rome'' would tell you that "[[ZeroWing All your Base are Belong to Us]]", and in ''Empire'', every single response from the Swedish diplomat is a quote from an {{ABBA}} song.
* SpringtimeForHitler : See UriahGambit below. Sometimes, you just prefer that the heir of the throne is that epic conqueror with eight stars in Command and seven in Dread, instead of a shitty governor from nowhereland, since it gives bonuses (i.e. counter assassination attempts). So you send the 0 star general and have him attack Milan alone, facing his personal guard of at most 30 men against at least 300 soldiers. He wins and gets a trait which makes him much harder to kill.
* SpritePolygonMix: ''Shogun'' and ''Medieval''; ''Rome'', apart from its series defining changes, also introduced full 3D.
* StopHelpingMe: ''"Your siege equipment is automatically deployed-"'' (''click'')
* StormingTheCastle: Pretty much how you take down most fortifications in the game, unless you're willing to tie up an army for up to ten turns besieging the fortress.
* TheSiege: The only way to take cities and fortifications. Unlike how it's normally depicted in video games, however, the attackers can just besiege the city until the defenders run out of food, and will either have to desperately sally forth or surrender.
** The AI (unless barbarian) will often wait for the last turn of the siege and then attack. Enemy units will slowly be depleted during the siege, however. Justified, since the rebels have no support and are likely hoping that the enemy tires out before they do, and attack as a last attempt to remain independent, while settlements belonging to other factions are most likely waiting for reinforcements before making one last attempt to hold the city.
** It can be costly to maintain a siege, as you need to have an army capable of matching the enemy army locked in place until the siege ends. That can potentially mean that you'll be forced to have a full-sized stack of troops tied up for ten turns doing nothing but siegeing and weakening the enemy.
* StockFootage: Kind of, in that the opening cinematic of the Warlord edition of ''Shogun'' is an actual scene from ''Film/{{Ran}}''.
* StuffBlowingUp: Once you acquire gunpowder, this is your assassins' favorite method of either killing or sabotaging.
* SuicidalOverconfidence: Prior to a degree of improvement in ''[[VideoGame/TotalWarShogun2 Shogun 2]]'', the strategic AI tends to gravely overestimate its chances and will gleefully attack an empire five times its size and three times as powerful. They'll also refuse terms if you try to reason with them, somehow still confident that they can destroy you with only one city and a few units. On the tactical level, however, the AI will form a defensive block or flee outright if you clearly outmatch it. On rare occasions, the AI may genuinely offer ceasefires if they're outmatched. However, they quite often come with ludicrous requirements, such as almost destroyed factions asking for tens of thousands florins for a ceasefire against a vastly more powerful enemy.
* SuspiciouslySmallArmy: Despite being one of the most realistic representations of battlefield tactics in the gaming industry, the series does this a lot. A unit's standard size in ''Rome'' is between 40 and 60 men, and even at the huge unit size, where unit sizes can reach a massive 240 men, armies can't exceed 4,800 men. The actual Roman army, meanwhile, could number tens of thousands in single battles. Naturally this is due to graphical limitations, a 10,000 man army would break all but the most advanced computers of the time. Every faction bringing that many or more to the field would make the game impossible to run. There is, however, a mod for ''Empire'' that increases unit size to about 500 men per unit, making a full stack grow close to 10,000 men.
** ''Shogun 2'' and its expansions avert this, though, with each side being capable of fielding up to ''64,000 men'' in a battle.
** Done if you or the enemy hide your army in trees during battle, leaving only a small number of units visible. When the enemy gets close enough they stand up, and if the woods are big enough, they can conceal a very sizeable army.
* TakeOverTheWorld: Or at least a good part of it, but this is your intended goal.
* TheThirtySixStratagems: Well, obviously in a series like this they're going to come in. #16 is most obvious, though - a surrounded enemy who would otherwise be 'broken' will 'fight to the death' if there is no avenue for escape. As soon as you ''create'' one (by ordering a unit to break off), they'll down tools and leg it, allowing you to butcher whatever's left of them with zero losses.
* ThievesGuild: Building one enhances your spies and assassins. Conditions have to be right for it to appear however.
* TitleDrop: In the opening cutscene for every game before ''Napoleon'', the narrator will manage to work "Total War" into his final sentence, often rather [[LargeHam conspicuously.]]
* TutorialFailure:
** The optional tutorial of the first Shogun, where in one scenario, you're suppsoed to take out marching Spearmen on a hill, while you only have archers. The spearmen WILL get to your archers, causing a melee fight, in which may end up you failing the scenario. Supposedly, this was to play out "High places, stronger arrows".
** When the tutorial makes you the attackers (Now Cavalry), while you're supposed to drive the archers (now Gunners) out of a hill. A simple [[ZergRush rush]] makes a victory, no less.
* UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny: Want to see how the Moors would have fought the Mongols, how the Scots would have handled the Timurids, how the Turks would have invaded the Americas, or the Danes would have fought Reconquista Spain? Have at it! ''Shogun 2'' takes it a step further, by letting 12th, 16th and 19th century armies battle each other in multiplayer. Ever wanted to reenact the final battle in ''TheLastSamurai?'' Now it's possible.
* UriahGambit: The vagaries of fortune mean that some of your royal family members will be utterly lacking in redeeming qualities. You can't retire them, but you ''can'' order them to, say, charge the enemy army on their lonesome... on the plus side, if they ''do'' survive after getting beat up, they have a good chance of getting one of the "Scars" perks, which increases their health in battle, allowing them to take even more of a beating next time!
** In the ''Medieval'' games, you can also refuse to pay the ransom if they get captured. This can become a MortonsFork, however, if you would also lose some valuable (i.e. experienced) troops as well...
** You may want to keep even your shittiest family members alive however, because the cavalry unit that comes with them is typically a very powerful unit.
** Want to be rid of all your superfluous family members at once? Pack them onto a single weak ship and have them go on a cruise, attacking the pirates where you can!
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential:
** If you actually listened to the credit songs whose lyrics are listed below, doing any of the above may induce a WhatTheHellHero from your conscience. [[YouBastard Yes, you]].
* VideoGameHistoricalRevisionism: Though it's obvious the developers are [[ShownTheirWork doing their research]], sometimes there are goofs.
* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: You can ''try'' diplomacy and being nice to people, but either the AI will force you to fight or you'll get tired of your annoying neighbors. That said, it's possible to bribe armies or settlements to disband or defect to your side (except in ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'').
** This is averted in ''Shogun'', on the easier settings at least. It is possible to win the game without ever declaring war on any rival clan, and to make alliances with them to this end. Said method, however, is to create dozens of spies to forment rebellions in enemy provinces and then sweep in yourself after the old clan is expelled, and to train a few Geisha and unleash them on your allies until, sooner or later, you inherit half the country. The only time you are at war is against peasant rebellions, and they are the most likely to flee without fighting, though eventually they will run out of places to hide and you will be pitted against an amalgamation of armies in one final, climatic super-fight.
** In ''Empire'', the AI will eventually declare war on all neighboring nations regardless of public opinion.
* ViolentGlaswegian: In ''Medieval II'' when you click on a dreaded Scottish general:
--> ''"I'll rep off yer head an' spet down yer neck!"''
* WarIsHell: [[CaptainObvious While the games themselves tends to glorify war]], the composer and is wife who happens to be the lead singer clearly has his view set on the nature of war. Just check out the lyrics of Jeff Van Dyck's credit song for ''Medieval 2'', [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lk2nB81iRs&feature=related We Are All One]] and ''Rome'', [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj_kRsTUwJc Forever]]
-->''I know you fight for God and you believe it's right\\
to risk your home, your life, to face the evil night.\\
But in the darkest night, when our children are asleep,\\
I think about the families of our enemy.\\
Do they feel the same believing their own truth?\\
They must love their children as fiercely as we do.\\
We all share one thing: our hearts were given from above\\
and the only thing worth fighting for in this world is love.\\
On and on through the years the war continues on\\
why can't we see the truth - we are all one.\\
On and on through the years the war continues on\\
on and on through the years - we are all one.''
** A general who repeatedly suffers heavy losses to his bodyguard can become convinced that this is true. Keep in mind that those free, readily-replaceable bodyguard cavalrymen are your general's ''friends'' who have sworn their lives to defend him.
** The ending cinematic for ''Fall Of The Samurai'' may also qualify: Your lord/general is drinking at a party, celebrating your faction's victory. He walks onto a balcony, seemingly in a melancholy mood. He gazes into the night sky, previously shown with the stars; as he looks up, you see a large number of paper lanterns of the variety used in ''obon'', a Japanese festival commemorating the dead, floating off into the distance in the sky. It is implied that your lord/commanding officer saw them in his mind's eye--the human cost of his conquests must weigh heavily on him.
* WarriorMonk: In the ''Shogun'' games, of course. In ''Shogun 2'', they are the best at what they do (naginata warrior monks at melee combat, bow warrior monks at archery), but they lack armor and thus are vulnerable to enemy arrows and melee attack (respectively).
* TheWarSequence: The games can be as fun to watch as they are to play, just to see thousands of little soldiers hacking or blasting away at each other on panoramic battlefields. One of the niceties about ''Napoleon'' is that it upgrades this a ''lot''... although sometimes you have some [[FunnyAneurysmMoment not so funny moments]], such as [[http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/4865/horsedragged.jpg a hapless cavalryman from a shattered unit whose foot is trapped in a stirrup, hence his being literally dragged away by his galloping horse]]... here's hoping that was a corpse. The battles themselves can get pretty brutal as well when [[WarIsHell viewed up close.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wISXDn8qyiY You sometimes can't help but cringe as someone gets stabbed by several soldiers at once, run over by heavy cavalry and blown away by artillery.]]
* WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou: If a faction's entire royal family is killed, their empire descends into anarchy and the faction is defeated. This is averted in ''Shogun 2'', in which it is now impossible to destroy factions through family assassination: The wife of the daimyo will lead the faction until a new heir comes of age/a new leader can be appointed. Apparently, [[EveryoneHasStandards even]] {{Ninja}} consider it uncouth to kill people's wives and children.
* WeHaveReserves: The combat system discourages this. First of all, hardened veterans tend to be too valuable to throw away - aside from the turns spent and the money/battles it took to train them, their experience makes them very valuable. You CAN go this way with [[CannonFodder throwaway cheap units]], but having other units rout is a major morale hit for even veteran units. However this tactic is ''very'' effective when besieging cities without a siege weapon, send the cheap units to climb the walls, fight the defenders there (normally they're just archers) and control the gates to allow the hardened veterans to go through the gates and finish the job.
** Played straight with ashigaru in ''Shogun 2''. While losing an entire experienced unit of them is still somewhat painful, they are cheap, can be recruited from pretty much everywhere and replace their combat losses very quickly, compared to samurai, who are expensive and require specialized dojos to be recruited as well as to replace battlefield casualties in any decent amount of time.
** From ''Empire'' onwards, the creation of units with experience from the get-go is possible, but requires buildings further down a building chain, or units that support them from a different tree. (For example, both the fishery and trading port and their subsequent upgrades allow you to build brigs and sloops, but the shipyard allows you to build inexperienced sixth rates, plus brigs and sloops with one chevron of experience already.)
** It isn't uncommon for a player to throw a General's bodyguard into the fray instead of another cavalry unit, because the bodyguard troops are replaced for free in all the games. However, throwing away the bodyguard needlessly can get your general killed, and even if he survives, there is a small chance he will go into a depression thanks to losing so many of his friends.
* AWinnerIsYou:
** Averted rather nicely in ''Shogun'', though, where it gives you a full cutscene with a short but epic description of the history of the shogunate after your victory, and then a flash forward to a modern-day Japan with a statue of your general, discussing how he's still legendary to this day.
** The same goes for ''Shogun 2,'' which is a homage to the original. The ending cutscene shows not only your daimyo triumphantly become Shogun and the statue of your daimyo in modern Japan, but also suggests that your clan would remain influential well into the present.
* VideoGameTime: The time scale of a turn on the world map and technological developments doesn't match up well with the travel time for a unit (e.g. from London to Edinburgh taking nine months) and nobles can die while units will march for decades. ''Napoleon'' is a lot better about this, due to turns equating to two weeks, though with some buildings and research it still is a little off in that it now happens too ''fast''.
* YouALLLookFamiliar: Especially in the early games. In ''Medieval II'' the series added more randomization to soldiers' faces and uniforms, but made them all have the same face again in ''Empire''. Fixed in ''Napoleon'', where there's differing (though often similar or reused) appearances for individual soldiers, but named historical generals will have their their distinct looks. For example, Thomas Picton appears in a long red coat and top hat (his luggage having not arrived to Waterloo in time), while Napoleon wears a long gray overcoat and his distinctive hat.
* ZergRush: The favored tactic of peasant rebellions is to create huge armies of peasants with a few archers mixed in for variety, and charge you. However, because they all run away if their general dies and their general is usually in a peasant unit like the rest, 20 knights can send hundreds of peasants running, [[TruthInTelevision which has actually happened in real life before.]]
** Semi-averted in ''Empire'' and ''Napoleon'' due to the presence of field artillery, and almost completely averted once the enemy infantry or cavalry are in range for canister shot. This can work against if the numerical advantage is sufficiently lopsided or if advancing against infantry, but usually by the time you can effectively zerg, you've tended to have gained the advantage anyway. On a campaign scale, however, Zerg rushing is still a viable tactic and is usually called "blitzing". At the beginning of the ''Empire'' campaign, each province - especially for the larger empires - only has a minimal amount of units, meaning that if you can build up a stack fast enough, you can sweep up most of their territory before they are able to muster up an army large enough to halt yours. If you use the GameMod that enables minor factions, Persia is good for this, as it is able to recruit Bedouin warriors (who are cheap but plentiful) and borders two overstretched empires - the Ottomans and the Mughals. The main obstacle is keeping your newly-acquired provinces under control while your army immediately moves on, although all but the capitals require a token occupation force and tax exemption status to be kept under the boot.
** Throwing mobs of light cavalry at heavy cavalry is a viable option, as light cavalry are generally cheaper than heavy cavalry, allowing you to outnumber and surround the heavies. Don't try it with a bodyguard unit, though, unless you like seeing piles of slaughtered light horsemen.

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