SEGA and The Creative Assembly are celebrating 15 years of the Total War franchise, releasing a trailer at E3 yesterday that includes a glimpse of Total War: Warhammer.

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The long-running strategy franchise is one of the best in the genre, combining turn-based world map play with real-time army battles on a scale unmatched by any other series. The trailer below takes you through all of the different time periods and settings Total War has visited over the years, set to Lorde's excellent cover of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears.

The series began back in 2000 with Shogun: Total War, which boasted the dual turn-based and real-time gameplay from the start. The features evolved further in 2002's Medieval: Total War, and the series really came into its own with Rome: Total War in 2004. Rome's visuals were a step up, and it was the first game to include free movement on the campaign map rather than simply allowing armies to move from province to province.

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The series' first sequel arrived next with the fantastic Medieval II: Total War in 2006, which included impressive graphics, a religion and crusades system, and an eventual expansion pack named Kingdoms with 4 new campaigns. The world-spanning colonial title Empire: Total War launched in 2009, with the Napolen: Total War spinoff a year later. The next sequel, Total War: Shogun II, took us back to Japan (and also gave us the new Total War first naming convention).

The most recent main game in the series is Total War: Rome II from 2013, which saw its own spinoff (Total War: Attila, centering on the Hun hordes) release in February of this year. The next planned release, which makes a glorious debut at the end of the trailer, is Total War: Warhammer. This is a crossover game that will use the famous franchise's settings and resources to take The Creative Assembly's gameplay into the world of high fantasy.

Details and footage on that project are still scarce, but stay tuned for more information on this departure for the series, and enjoy the retrospective video below.

Tags: Total War Total War: Warhammer