Total War: Arena's Multiplayer Battles Are Best Fought With Friends

By TJ Denzer ·

Total War: Arena may have slipped under a lot of radars, but the game is well worth a go for strategy fans, whether you're familiar with the series or not. Just be sure to bring allies along for the battles ahead.

Total War: Arena's Multiplayer Battles Are Best Fought With Friends

If you follow Total War, you may have heard of the latest free-to-play version of the game, Total War: Arena, crafted by Creative Assembly and Wargaming Alliance. This game takes all the control of the massive armies in previous games and splits it between 10 players, which may sound outlandish to those familiar with previous games in the series. That said, while you can go in as a lone commander, it’s the planning, strategy, and camaraderie of partying up with others that make the best parts of Total War: Arena really blossom.

Set around the times of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, Total War: Arena takes the usual command of massive armies and breaks it up among ten players per side in a battle with each player taking up a commander and their choice of three armies at the player's sole command. The battles can be 10 players vs 10 AI or, after a quick rise to a certain level of progression (Tier 3), 10 players vs 10 players. Each player controls their own commander with their own three armies and abilities. On your own it doesn’t mean much, and we found it a little difficult to try to work around our fellow players, but when we came together with teammates, communicated, and strategized through the game’s party system, Total War: Arena truly began to feel like a rewarding experience.

Every battle brings you closer to customizations for your playstyle like new commanders, units, and armaments, but it's how your piece fits into the puzzle of a ten-player team that makes it a true army.
Every battle brings you closer to customizations for your playstyle like new commanders, units, and armaments, but it's how your piece fits into the puzzle of a ten-player team that makes it a true army.

In one match playing solo, we took up Rome’s Germanicus, who specializes in frontline swordsman with good, balanced attack and defense in upfront battle. On our own, we could hold an enemy down in combat, but depending on an ally to show up and lend a hand meant we were at the mercy of compassionate strangers to help us make a real dent in the battle. Germanicus is easy to use with his ability to batten down and ward off attacks or hardlock an enemy in battle, but again, there’s only so much one can do with three units of swordsman armies.

It all changed when we partied up. Suddenly we had the option of two commanders. One of us took Germanicus and the other took Arminius of the Barbarians. Arminius specializes in cavalry, scouting roles, and hit-and-run tactics. Instantly, even just as two players, we were able to open up our opportunities on the battlefield.

It wasn’t just about attacking and hoping for allies to arrive this time. We formed a strategy where the Arminius player would hide their cavalry in nearby forests and the Germanicus player would advance on armies in the open plains. When Germanicus locked up with an enemy, we would charge Arminius out from the woods with his amazing mobility and hit enemy armies hard from their flanks, doing major damage and breaking morale. The moment the fight looked won, we’d quickly retreat with Arminius back to the tree lines, allow Germanicus’s foot soldiers to kill off the rest of the broken unit, and set up again for the next one-two punch of an ambush.

Caesar on his own can't do much with his catapults, but with a fellow player playing defense to his units or creating a distraction for him to fire upon, the king can become a devastating force.
Caesar on his own can't do much with his catapults, but with a fellow player playing defense to his units or creating a distraction for him to fire upon, the king can become a devastating force.

So when you consider what just two of us at Twin Galaxies were able to do with two distinctly different commanders, what happens when you bring more friends to the fray? What happens when you have archers and artillery to add to your personal mix? What can you do when 10 people sit down to discuss their offensive or defensive parts in the battlefield?

Total War: Arena is something very limited when played solo, but spectacularly and exponentially more fun and strategic the more people you add to your party going into a fight. It’s the kind of game that could easily cultivate discussion of what mix of commanders, their units, and the strategies employed with them will best overtake a 10 vs 10 player fight. It’s easily a fertile ground for clan groups, new friendships, and competition from the group floor up to a possible esports scene, and there’s already a Discord server and Subreddit for the game if one wishes to get more involved with other players.

Every battle begins with players selecting their starting positions on the map. Working together allows you to choose your paths, link up quicker, and execute your strategy with that much more deadly accuracy.
Every battle begins with players selecting their starting positions on the map. Working together allows you to choose your paths, link up quicker, and execute your strategy with that much more deadly accuracy.

Is a true competitive scene likely in the future? It’s hard to say just yet, but our time with Total War: Arena was an eye-opening experience and it will most certainly be a cooperative and competitive strategy scene we keep our eyes on in the foreseeable future.

You can get the latest news and information on Total War: Arena from the game’s official Twitter and Facebook pages.

To get started on the game, you can sign up and download from the Total War: Arena website.

Want to dig into more strategy? Check out our recent interview with Bethesda's Pete Hines on creating expansions for the Elder Scrolls: Legends card game and keeping its competitive scene fresh.