Giving quick and precise orders to your armies on land and — for the first time on mobile — your fleets at sea, can mean the difference between heroic victory and crushing defeat.

With that in mind, we designed EMPIRE’s new touchscreen controls to offer intuitive simplicity for common commands, as well as a suite of gestures for finger-tip control. So, if you thought you needed a desktop computer to take over the world, today’s diary aims to demonstrate how the tap can be mightier than the click!

Controlling the camera should feel completely natural. Drags, pinches and twists will pan, zoom and rotate, exactly as you’d expect:

Select your units with a tap on the battlefield, or the Card Bar at the bottom of the screen. Multiple units can be selected with subsequent taps. Then, once an order has been given, the next tap will deselect the occupied units automatically. This deselection behaviour is fully customisable in the Options Menu.

Speaking of orders; movement and attack commands are as simple as tapping on a destination, or target. If time is of the essence, order them to charge by double-tapping. Alternatively, you can tap and hold to draw a movement path for your units to follow:

You can also order them to halt, change their move speed and combat behaviour at any time with the buttons above the Card Bar.

EMPIRE’s gunpowder warfare relies on cleverly arranged ranks of infantry, and there are multiple ways to achieve this. The first is the quick two-fingered drag. This will arrange all selected units in the direction you drag, like so:

The game speed will automatically slow down while issuing this type of command. This is also true when using Positioning Mode:

Just tap and hold on selected units, and you’ll be able to drag the box to the exact location desired, adjusting its length and depth to create those precise infantry lines which are so characteristic of 18th-century warfare.

EMPIRE’s controls will soon feel like second nature, but if you long for something more akin to the desktop experience, you’re in luck! Total War: EMPIRE supports Bluetooth keyboard and mouse controls on Android and iPadOS! Just connect your peripheral of choice and take the field with all of the keybindings and mouse controls of the desktop game.

Next week we’ll be taking a closer look at the other side of the Total War coin: the Campaign Map, and all the shiny new interfaces and features you’ll use to forge your empire on it.

Keep your spyglass trained on Feral’s social feeds for more on Total War: EMPIRE until then:

EMPIRE’s campaign map spans three continents, and every turn offers new possibilities for conquest, trade and diplomacy on a grand stage. To ensure players make the right decisions, they need easy access to accurate information. 

That’s the guiding principle behind the revamped user interface. Whether it’s getting new players up to speed quickly, or presenting all the facts and figures you need at a glance — it aims to take the pain out of campaigning.

For fresh recruits (and returning players who need a refresher), there is now a First Time Help system and in-game Manual. They offer context-sensitive tutorials over the first few turns, and an ever-present guide to EMPIRE’s most important mechanics. Links throughout the game will also bring you to relevant entries, ensuring you are never out of your depth.

The Advisor system has also been reworked, saving screen real estate by making them considerably less chatty. They still let you know whenever farms and towns in your Empire could be upgraded, or when you could get away with squeezing more tax out of your people…

…but most of the time they’ll collate their memos into a handy Advisor’s Report, which you’ll receive as a notification at the start of every turn, with links that will take you right to the point of interest in question:

“That’s all very well for those new to EMPIRE!” we hear accomplished statesmen cry from beneath powdered wigs, “But what’s in it for us?!” 

Well, as someone accustomed to ruling a large empire, you know how daunting it can become to manage many regions, each with its own capital, as well as a crop of outlying farms, mines, towns and resource sites. 

In EMPIRE for iOS & Android, you’ll be shown the entire region’s building sites on the Card Bar, and can make your upgrade choices as quick as a tap:

Detailed information on regions, armies, fleets and agents is also shown on the Lists Panel — be sure to check it regularly:

Recruitment has seen similar streamlining. Now, you can train land units in your capital, and construct fleets in your region’s many ports, all from one, unified interface:

Those of you who love getting stuck into the business of management will also find some useful stats surfaced for the first time on iOS & Android. These include:

The maximum number of towns that can develop in each region, along with an approximate timeframe at current population growth levels:

The export capacity of your trade ports, so you know exactly when to upgrade to keep the wealth flowing:

Feral has been bringing big games to small screens for almost a decade now, and has poured all of that experience into EMPIRE. The result — we hope! — is an intuitive user interface that is simple to understand, and also presents all the fine details that enrich the game's strategic depth.

Next week we’ll be breaking out the alembics, retorts and, yes, the bunsen burners as the bold new frontiers of the Research system are unveiled!

Focus your microscopes on Feral’s social feeds for more on Total War: EMPIRE until then:

Total War: EMPIRE transports you to the 18th century, in the ‘Age of Enlightenment’. Monumental advancements in philosophy, economics, natural sciences and engineering were made in this epoch, by great minds who found patronage at royal courts around the world.

EMPIRE models this in its Research mechanic, where individual projects can offer you an edge both on the battlefield and the campaign map. Though it’s now a Total War staple, this concept was a first for the series at the time of EMPIRE’s desktop release.

And, in the spirit of progress, we’ve taken this opportunity to build on this innovation for iOS & Android. The result is a more transparent and less micro managerial experience, allowing for greater specialism with less wasted potential.

Now and Then

In the desktop version, to research a project it had to be assigned to a University Town somewhere in your empire. This meant that the number of projects you could advance simultaneously was constrained by the number of Universities you had built. It also made it impossible to focus multiple Universities on a single project and accelerate the research.

In the mobile version, research projects have been untethered from Universities. Now each University generates Research Points which are added to a shared pool. These points are then distributed (up to a cap per project) across as may projects as you wish. As you might expect, higher-tier Universities generate more points.

The cap on the number of points that you can assign to any one project can be increased by completing certain developments. This allows for further specialisation as you progress along a technology tree.

Any unspent Research Points are shown on the main campaign HUD, so there’s no excuse for falling behind your rivals!

A Gentleman and a Scholar

Remember those “great minds” we mentioned earlier? They are represented by the Gentlemen in your ranks (or Scholars in some cultures). Whatever name they go by, these smart alec Agents offer powerful bonuses to research — when they’re not too busy duelling each other.

In the desktop version, they could be found crammed shoulder to shoulder in your nation’s University towns, where their presence brought a bonus to the project being undertaken.

For mobile, they have been given leave to stretch their legs, and will automatically contribute points to your research pool (relative to their research skill) whenever they are in territory that you control.

With clever management, they can grow to become specialists in certain fields. For instance, if you were to send a Gent off to one of your factory towns for a few turns, they may develop the “Manufactory Owner” Trait, increasing the number of points they contribute to projects in the industrial tech tree.

Not So Gentlemanly After All

Gentlemen of lesser moral fibre can also sneak across international borders to tea-leave, half-inch, knick, purloin or otherwise steal research from foreign powers.

This used to be a simple dice roll, where your Gentleman snooped around a rival’s University, chose a technology, and had a percentage chance of stealing it each turn.

In the mobile version, even if a Gentleman fails to steal a technology outright, they now progress your understanding of that technology by a number of points proportional to their skill and the total cost of the project — after all, no one likes to leave empty-handed!

Not only that, but they can now steal technologies from other appropriate locations — for instance, naval technologies from foreign ports.

That about wraps up our treatise on Research. Join us next week where the topic of study will be glorious revolution and the mobile version’s new system for changing your nation’s government!

Until then, follow us on social media, for life, liberty and all the latest Total War: EMPIRE news:

To say that the late 17th and early 18th centuries were politically unstable is an understatement. The unchallenged rule of absolute monarchs was beginning to be questioned by philosophers like John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, whose novel ideas around giving the people a say in how they were governed moved from the fringes of political theory into the mainstream. For more information on how that worked out for absolute monarchs, just ask Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

One of Total War: EMPIRE’s unique and innovative features is its systems of government and the modelling of political change through “Clamour for Reform.” The mobile version brings more prominence and flexibility to this inventive feature of the original.

Types of Government

Each nation starts as one of three possible Government types: Absolute Monarchy, Constitutional Monarchy or Republic:

Absolute Monarchy gives powerful bonuses to the ruler (that’s you) but comes at the expense of ever harsher penalties to Public Order, causing unrest across your realm. You are free to pick your cabinet ministers and raise large armies, but the more you modernise through industrialisation and research, the greater the risk of unrest and rebellion, fuelled by Clamour for Reform.

The greater the number of powerful technologies you research, the more attractive changing to one of the more liberal government types potentially become.

Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution

In the desktop release, government type could only change when Public Order in the national capital fell so low that rebellion broke out. You’d then be given the choice of whether to support the rebels or the old order. If you chose the former and won the resulting battle, the rebellion would succeed and your government type would change.

Because Total War players are accustomed to maintaining order in their realm, the cool government change part of this mechanic often goes unnoticed, while mounting Clamour for Reform penalties ramp ever upwards.

Give Peace a Chance

The iOS & Android release introduces a slightly less dramatic method of changing government, through Peaceful Reform Movements.

Take a look at the philosophy tech tree, and you’ll find a brand new, repeatable research project called Peaceful Government Reform. You’ll need to build a tier 4 Modern University (available only in your National Capital region) to research it, but once you do, you’ll begin the process of attempting to peacefully transition to a new government type based on the following logic:

Over the next few turns, the Clamour for Reform penalty will be increased, while a new Reactionism Public Order bonus will be applied to offset this, relative to the skill of your Head of State. These modifiers impact the “Relevant Social Class” above.

Each turn, the Movement has a chance to either succeed and change your Government Type, or to fizzle out. The success chance increases with higher levels of Clamour for Reform — the chance to fizzle out increases for each turn that the movement continues without succeeding.

Should the movement fizzle out, Public Order returns to normal levels, and you may repeat the attempt as often as required via the Peaceful Government Reform research project.

So there you have it. Violence isn’t always the answer, even in a Total War game!

Next time, we’ll be looking at what happens when bloodshed can’t be avoided, and you need to recover from losses in battle. In other words, it’s Replenishment time! Until then, put your feet up, relax, and keep up with all the latest EMPIRE news over on our social channels:

The action in Total War: EMPIRE for iOS & Android takes place on the battlefield, where, even in victory, casualties are unavoidable. That makes bringing damaged units back to full strength a key consideration. Replenishment is the system that makes this happen.

Those who have played the desktop release may remember that damaged units must be manually replenished; you clicked the button, paid your money and waited two turns. This system has been retained in the iOS & Android version, through a toggle at campaign start.

The new default option will be our Modern Replenishment system. Heavily inspired by Total War: NAPOLEON, this marries strategic depth and convenience in a way that should feel both intuitive to newcomers and familiar to Total War veterans.

Modern Replenishment works automatically for any damaged unit stationed in your territory or that of an ally:

Not all automatic replenishments are created equal, however. Several factors impact the rate at which units are returned to full strength.

Stationing units in Regional Capitals or Forts increases replenishment speeds considerably:

You’ll also get a hefty boost to your replenishment rates when units are stationed in regions where they can be recruited, as shown in this handy table:

(You’ll find this info in the new in-game Help Menu. Just tap the Advisor button at any time.)

Finally, certain technologies like Reorganised Procurement also improve the overall replenishment rate.

“But what about the navy?!” we hear the ship’s carpenter cry from the bilge. Well, damaged naval units replenish a small amount of damage per turn while at sea, and a little more when moored at a Trade Node. To repair and recrew quickly, however, they’ll need to be returned to a port you control. Naval replenishment happens at a flat rate, rather than by percentage, meaning massive dreadnoughts will take longer to get back in shipshape than smaller vessels.

That about wraps it up for Modern Replenishment. Hopefully, you’ll agree that it takes a little bit of the busywork out of managing a globe-spanning war machine, without compromising the game’s strategic depth.

Next time we’ll be unveiling a totally new mechanic: the Auxiliary System, so stay tuned for that! If you can’t wait till the game’s release on November 21st, you can keep up with all the latest news on Total War: EMPIRE for iOS & Android over on our social channels:

A Local Army for Local People

Equipping, feeding and paying a professional army is an expensive business. Equipping, feeding and paying multiple professional armies across a global domain is even more so. In Total War: EMPIRE, this eye-watering, every-turn expense is known as Upkeep, and it’s a burden on the treasury of every faction with dreams of world domination.

In the 18th century, in order to manage ever-rising costs, both the British and French East India Companies employed “Sepoys”. These locally recruited musket regiments, supplemented by irregular militias, were used to expand and maintain colonial rule. Similar systems of military organisation developed in many empires.

To reflect this development and reward strategic recruitment, the Auxiliary system has been introduced to Total War: EMPIRE for iOS & Android.

When using the Modern Replenishment system discussed in last week’s diary, certain land and sea units receive the Auxiliary Bonus, which boosts their replenishment rate and confers a tasty discount on their upkeep costs. A unit is eligible for the Auxiliary Bonus if:

A: It has the Auxiliary Ability.

This applies mainly to geographically specific units, and those comprised of armed citizens, outlaws and others outside the traditional military hierarchy.

B: It can be recruited in the region in which it is currently stationed.

The building enabling its recruitment does not actually have to be constructed. To apply the bonus, it need only be possible to do so.

This restriction only applies to land units.

This makes using locally recruited units to garrison newly acquired territories cheaper — however, the more units receiving this bonus, the smaller it becomes! The level of bonus being applied is shown by the green pips on a unit card:

Auxiliary units’ faster replenishment also means that they are more easily replaced, so use them to face down charges and march into enemy fire ahead of more valuable units.

The Ottomans receive a larger Auxiliary bonus, applied to more of their units. This is to model the decentralised structure of the Ottoman military of the period.

Staying Afloat

Lighter ships can also take advantage of the Auxiliary bonus. While Restriction B above doesn’t apply in the case of naval units, the reduction in bonus for multiple units in the same region is instead applied per sea, bay, or ocean (e.g. the Bay of Bengal, as visible in the tooltip bar along the top of the screenshot below).

Room and Board

But wait, there’s more!

Generals on the Campaign Map can build Forts to defend strategic chokepoints and hinder enemies. These fortified positions have always given the defenders a significant military advantage, but on iOS & Android, they also offer a financial incentive.

To model the lodgings and supplies they offer, all units garrisoned in Forts now receive a reduction to their upkeep costs. This can be used to drastically reduce your outgoings, so a flat rate of Fort upkeep has been implemented to balance things out. Ensure you’re making good use of the Forts in your empire, or they can become a drain on your treasury too!

The last few diaries have been very wordy affairs, so we’re going to drop the quill and pick up the brush for next week, and peruse some of the game’s artistic updates! Until then, you can feast your eyes on all the latest Total War: EMPIRE news over on our social channels:

Bringing any desktop game to mobile requires a deft hand on the paintbrush — and Total War: EMPIRE is not just any desktop game! Our talented artists have laboured long and hard to update the game’s visuals, and we sat down with Eilidh and Michele to hear about what that entailed:

Can you give us a brief rundown of all of the areas of the game that the Art Team have worked on?

Michele:

“We covered the entirety of the UI and its structural elements (backgrounds, frames, panels, dividers, buttons etc.). We also worked on a multitude of icons, as well as the original digital illustrations replicating the style of historical oil paintings of the 18th Century, which appear in specific segments of the game.”

What was your impression of the original game’s art style, and how do you even get started on a project like this?!

Eilidh:

“The original UI has a very rich almost baroque aesthetic, with polished wood, ornate gold frames and embellishments. Having previously worked on a project with a very minimalist art style, it was a refreshing change to work on EMPIRE. Working on any game is particularly enjoyable when we’re fans of the original art!”

Michele:

“Due to the assets’ increased size, the task of transitioning them to mobile requires striking a balance between a higher level of detail and the immediacy and utility of the various icons, while also taking into account reduced screen space of mobile devices.”

Eilidh:

“Our UX Engineers use the Design Team’s mockups to begin setting up each screen for mobile, using the original game assets as placeholders. The Art Team then have to address the majority of a game’s 2D artwork , as the originals are usually too small or low resolution for modern displays and appear blurry.”

What were your favourite elements to work on, and was there anything that was particularly challenging?

Michele:

“My work on EMPIRE was extremely varied, but some of my favourite elements were:

The “Technologies” icons for their variety and the interesting subjects they represent, which were a good opportunity to learn more about the inventions and tools discovered during that historical period.

It was also very interesting to work on the “event” pictures. These images simulate the style of old oil paintings, and working on them involved virtually the same techniques — and oil painting is one of my favourite activities!

Eilidh:

“Due to the sheer volume of assets, our process involves a mixture of upscaling then overpainting existing assets to varying degrees, or recreating them from scratch where necessary, keeping in line with the overall art style. To adapt to smaller screens some text elements are often replaced with icons or new functionality is added that requires brand-new artwork. One of the most challenging areas is trying to represent a lot of information with one simple icon.

In addition to recreating them in high resolution, background elements such as panels, dividers and large buttons - which were originally single images - have to be redesigned to tile seamlessly so that our UI looks great on every device, regardless of the screen’s aspect ratio, and there are a lot of variations!

EMPIRE is the first Total War title where I was tasked with reworking everything on screen, from the ground up. Figuring out how every element fit together in the best visual way possible was a lengthy but rewarding experience. Recreating the original game’s ornate 18th-century aesthetic in high definition was one of my favourite parts.

There are a lot of things to consider, but most importantly we want to enhance what is already a great game, by reinvigorating the 2D graphics while remaining true to the original title.”

And with that, our Building an Empire dev diary series draws to a close. We hope you’ve enjoyed this peek behind the curtain at Total War: EMPIRE for iOS & Android, and that you’ll continue to let us know your thoughts on our social channels:

Total War: EMPIRE is available for pre-order on iOS & Android: