Over the years, Feral Interactive has ported some of the greatest PC strategy games to mobile. Company of Heroes, XCOM 2, and Sid Meier’s Railroads are all playable on phones and tablets thanks to the company.
Total War: Empire, announced in September 2024, is the latest game ported to our mobile devices by Feral Interactive, and it’s a lot more than the classic Total War game with touch controls added; Feral Interactive dove into the game’s core mechanics and added, changed, and removed features to make this the most enjoyable version of Empire: Total War ever.
Performance and compatibility
Its compatibility list is limited, but this is to ensure quality play
Despite significant changes to the UI and gameplay mechanics, the mobile version of Total War: Empire does not feature remastered graphics, and the hardware requirements are relatively low compared to more demanding Android games, so you should experience a stable 30FPS on all compatible devices. I tested the game on a Nubia RedMagic 9 Pro and a Google Pixel 8, and performance was consistent. Even the largest battles ran smoothly without a stutter.
Feral Interactive is restrictive about which devices can run its games, but there is a reason for this, and it has everything to do with ensuring the game plays well for those who purchase it. All compatible devices are listed on the game’s Play Store page, but it’s a limited list. For example, my Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE is not approved by Feral Interactive, and is therefore unable to install the game despite being more powerful than other approved devices. So your mileage may vary, depending on what devices you own.
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Command armies with your fingertips
Clever UI changes make Total War: Empire easy to play on tablets
Feral Interactive has produced some of the best mobile ports of games we’ve ever seen. Games like Total War: Empire, which once would have seemed impossible to play without a mouse and keyboard, are just as immersive on our mobile devices. However, the learning curve is steep.
During my first hour with the game, I found myself struggling to issue simple orders, navigate menus, and generally make sense of the new UI buttons on my screen. Despite the hundreds of hours I’ve sunk into Total War: Empire over the years, I found myself losing even the simplest of battles as my units wandered this way and that.
However, the touch controls swiftly became second nature, and I found myself absorbed into Total War: Empire’s addictive gameplay once again. That said, I was constantly limited by the small screen of my phone, which marred the experience.
As I stated in 2022 during my review of Total War: Medieval II – Kingdoms, Total War is best experienced on large screens. Despite the clever touch controls, my screen quickly became cluttered with notifications and status symbols. Total War: Empire suffers from the same problems; Units’ status bars are near-impossible to make out on my phone, and the handy button to make them larger obscured most of the battlefield.
I applaud the effort Feral Interactive has put into make Total War: Empire playable on phones, but this is a game best experienced on tablets.
A new Total War: Empire experience for mobile
Changes to replenishment and research result in smoother gameplay
As previously mentioned, Feral Interactive worked on more than just a redesigned UI and controls for this port. Many of the game’s core mechanics have been reworked from the ground up, but veterans need not worry, as most of these are optional; you can play the classic Total War: Empire experience with minimal changes if you choose.
Some of these features, like automatic replenishment of land and naval units, are lifted from later games in the Total War series (in this case, Total War: Napoleon), whereas others, like a reworked research system, are brand new for the mobile version. An in-depth explanation of the major changes can be found on Feral Interactive’s website, but I noticed two changes that had the biggest impact on my gameplay.
First is the reworked research mechanic. Rather than researching one project per University Town in your empire, Universities generate Research Points that you can distribute across multiple projects. Upgraded universities generate more points, and Gentlemen also contribute points. You can also assign Gentlemen to locations (e.g. factory towns) where they can develop a specialty, increasing the points they can contribute to a specific tech tree.
Overall, this results in less micromanagement and a more engaging tech tree, as you can choose to fast-track individual projects by assigning all your research points to one, or research multiple projects simultaneously, but it’s slower.
The second major change is replenishment. Rather than manually selecting units and waiting for two turns for a unit to return to full health, units replenish automatically when their army or fleet is stationed in friendly or allied territory. Stationing an army or fleet in a friendly port, trade node, town, or capital significantly speeds up replenishment, and various technologies can also boost this speed.
For naval units, there’s an extra layer of strategy at play. All naval units replenish at the same flat rate, so the biggest vessels will take significantly longer to replenish than smaller ones. The overall result of these changes to replenishment brings Total War: Empire in line with later games in the series, reducing micromanagement while losing none of the strategy.
The most significant changes to Total War: Empire’s mechanics can be toggled off when starting a campaign. However, most smaller changes cannot be reversed.
Total War: Empire is another fantastic port from Feral Interactive
Despite the cramped and awkward experience on phones, Total War: Empire for Android and iOS is another fantastic port from Feral. While die-hard fans of the original game may be turned off by some of the major changes to the game, the redesigned mechanics massively reduce micromanagement while also making the game more accessible for new players.
Total War: Empire is available to download from the Play Store and App Store for $19.99 from November 21.
