Shogun: Total War

Shogun: Total War is focused on samurai warfare in the Sengoku period of Japanese history, which lasted from the mid-15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The game puts the player in the position of a Japanese daimyō with the objective of conquering Japan through military might, diplomacy, espionage, trade, and religion—thereby taking the position of shōgun. Shogun incorporates two main areas of play: The turn-based campaign map is where the player moves their armies, conducts diplomacy, builds the infrastructure of their provinces and performs various other tasks necessary to run their faction. The real-time element of the game allows the player to assume command of one of their armies and personally direct the course of any battles that take place.

The game consists of seven factions which the player can choose to play as each one of Japan's historical clans. The island of Kyūshū and the southwestern end of Honshū incorporates the Shimazu, Mōri and Takeda clans, while the Oda and Imagawa clans control the central parts of Honshū. The northern parts of Honshū are home to the Uesugi and Hōjō clans. While each clan has access to the same broad units and technology and begins the game with roughly the same amount of land, each clan has a specific advantage in a particular area.

Shogun: Total War was announced in early 1999, developed by The Creative Assembly under Electronic Arts. The Creative Assembly had previously been involved with Electronic Arts, producing games for the EA Sports brand. Development was led by Michael Simpson, a former microchip designer who had joined the company three years prior. According to Simpson, Shogun was conceived when the Creative Assembly established a secondary development team from their EA Sports designers to develop an alternate, low business risk product for the company.

At the time, Command & Conquer had risen to success, inspiring the creation of a number of similar real-time strategy games. Simpson's development team therefore initially planned to create a "B-title RTS game".

Shogun: Total War received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Jason Samuel of NextGen said, "Once you figure out the realtime interface, this is a thoroughly enjoyable experience that has a lot of replay value. Shogun is only the first of a proposed Total War series. We're sure looking forward to more."

In December 2002, the game received a "Silver" award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating lifetime sales of at least 100,000 units in the UK. The ELSPA ultimately raised it to "Gold" status, indicating sales of at least 200,000 units. The game achieved sales between 100,000 and 390,000 units in the U.S. by August 2006, but was outsold by its successor Rome: Total War. The Creative Assembly's Tim Ansell later said that "it didn't set the world alight in terms of sales, but it was still up there with the big guns."