SEGA and Creative Assembly have put the historical side of Total War on sale across Steam until 30 April, with discounts of up to 80% on roughly a hundred entries in the catalogue. This is the one that matters if you play these games for the historical and cultural context rather than the lizardmen, and truth be told, Total War has always been at its best in historically grounded settings, however enjoyable the Warhammer detour has been. Several titles on offer are hitting new historical lows on SteamDB, and with Total War: Medieval III confirmed but years from release, a lot of the series’ lapsed fans are going to be looking for something to tide them over. This sale is the best way to fill the gaps in your Steam library when it comes to Total War titles.
What Is Actually On Offer
The sale runs from 16 April to 30 April and focuses on the historical lineup, not the Warhammer fantasy titles. That means Medieval II, Rome II, Attila, Three Kingdoms, Pharaoh, the Troy and Thrones of Britannia sagas, plus the older classics (Shogun, Empire, Napoleon, and the Rome Remaster). DLC is included across the board, with campaign packs and culture packs discounted between 50% and 75%.
The headline number is 80% off, and it applies to most of the base games. Medieval II Definitive Edition drops to $4.99. Rome II Emperor Edition and Three Kingdoms both sit at $11.99. Attila is $8.99. Pharaoh and the Troy saga are both at $7.99. The genuinely deep cuts are the early classics: Shogun: Total War and Medieval: Total War Collections at $1.99 each, which is pocket-change territory for what are now functionally gaming history exhibits.
Medieval II Is Still The One
At $4.99, Medieval II Definitive Edition is the obvious recommendation and has been the obvious recommendation every time it has gone on sale for the past fifteen years. It still holds a 93%+ positive rating on Steam, which is not an accident. In my humble opinion, it was a genuine leap over the original Medieval: Total War, and a sharper, more complete game than Shogun 2 in the ways that matter for a Total War campaign: the map, the factions, the sense of place. The battle AI is serviceable, the campaign layer has aged well, and the modding scene (Stainless Steel, Third Age: Total War) gives it a second life that nothing else in the franchise can match. If you have never played a Total War game, this is where you start. If you have, this is probably what you are going to reinstall the week after the sale ends.
Rome II And Attila Are Now Mod Projects In The Best Sense
Rome II Emperor Edition at $11.99 and Attila at $8.99 are the two most interesting pickups in this sale if you are willing to engage with the modding scene, and you absolutely should be. Rome II shipped in 2013 in a state that most people correctly called a disaster; the 82%+ review score it carries now reflects a decade of patching and a dedicated modding community that has essentially rebuilt the campaign experience. Divide et Impera is the headline act and turns Rome II into a genuinely different, deeper game than the one Creative Assembly shipped. Attila is the same story with a different flavour: a game about managing civilisational decline that has always been polarising, but one that the modding community (Medieval Kingdoms 1212, Age of Justinian) has pushed into some of the most interesting historical territory the franchise has ever covered.
Both of these are also, according to SteamCharts, among the most-played historical entries in the franchise right now. Rome II sits at roughly 4,300 average concurrent players over the last 30 days. Three Kingdoms matches that number. Attila holds around 2,000. These are not dead games being resurrected by a sale; these are living communities that a new buyer can walk into. At the sale prices, both Rome II and Attila are a no-brainer, particularly if you are prepared to spend an afternoon learning the mod install process.
Three Kingdoms at $11.99 is the harder one to rank. It was not a bad game; it was objectively one of Creative Assembly’s most polished historical releases, the Romance mode character system was genuinely interesting, and the playerbase numbers back that up. It just never sat in my personal top tier the way Medieval II, Rome II, and Attila do, and the fact that Creative Assembly abandoned post-launch support (whether they were told to or chose to depends on which forum thread you trust) did not help its long-term standing. For $11.99, it is still worth picking up; just do not expect it to dethrone Medieval II in your own ranking.
Pharaoh And Troy Are The Sale’s Weakest Pitch
Pharaoh and the Troy saga both sit at $7.99, and this is where the buying advice gets more conditional. Both are generally regarded as the weakest modern historical entries, and the player numbers reflect it. Pharaoh’s Dynasties update genuinely fixed a lot of what was wrong at launch, and at $7.99 the current version is a reasonable ask for the version of the game that should have shipped in the first place; it is, however, probably not the game that converts you into a fan. Troy is stronger than its reputation suggests, particularly with the MYTHOS expansion now at 50% off, but it is a game that has never quite decided whether it wants to be historical or mythological, and the compromise satisfies neither camp. Thrones of Britannia at the same price is the weakest of the three and only worth picking up if you have a specific interest in post-Viking Britain. Personally I am not a great fan of hero units and definitely not in anything that is a so-called “historical” game.
The Old Classics Are For Completists And The Curious
The Shogun, Medieval, and Rome Collections at $1.99 each are nostalgia purchases. They will run on a modern machine, they still contain the DNA of why this franchise worked in the first place, but they are not games most people will actually play through in 2026. Rome: Total War got a proper remaster (also on sale, at $5.99) which is the version to buy if you actually want to play Rome; the original Collection at bargain-bin prices is a historical document for the price of a coffee. Empire and Napoleon at $4.99 each are a different proposition: both have small but active modded communities, and Napoleon in particular has aged better than it had any right to.
Personally I would recommend Medieval II: Total War for the incredible atmosphere and I have fond memories of it. I think I will cover it soon again in my Nostalgia Gaming section.
What This Sale Is Actually For
Historical Total War has been in a strange position since Pharaoh underperformed and Creative Assembly publicly reoriented towards Warhammer. The December announcement of Medieval III gave the historical side its first genuine tentpole in years, but “early pre-production” and “still years from release” is a long wait. Read cynically, these franchise-wide discounts are a way of monetizing a back catalogue during that wait. Read less cynically, they are simply the cheapest this material has ever been.
For strategy gamers who have never touched the franchise, the entry point is Medieval II at $4.99. For lapsed fans who stopped somewhere around 2015 and want to see what they missed, Rome II and Attila at sale prices, installed with their best mods, are the single best use of the money; this is where the sale genuinely earns its keep. Three Kingdoms is the safer modern pick for those who prefer polish over mod tinkering. Pharaoh and Troy are for existing fans filling in gaps, not for converting newcomers. The older collections are a novelty at $1.99, nothing more. Whatever bracket you fall into, 30 April is the deadline.
