These factions, together with several other factions appearing at the start of the campaign, are unavailable to the player in the main campaign. Several factions, such as the Golden Horde, emerge during the course of play at their historical time. The factions themselves represent many of the major nations at the time, including the Byzantine Empire, France, England, the Holy Roman Empire and the Turks.

The initial extent of each major faction's territory, and the factions available, depends on the starting period of the game, Early (1087), High (1205) or Late (1321), reflecting the historical state of these factions over time. The strategic portion of the game divides the campaign map among twenty factions from the period, with a total of twelve being playable. As with the preceding Total War game, Shogun: Total War, the game consists of two broad areas of gameplay: a turn-based campaign map that allows the user to move armies across provinces, control agents, diplomacy, religion, and other tasks needed to run their faction, and a real-time battlefield, where the player directs the land battles and sieges that occur. It focuses on the warfare, religion and politics of the time to ultimately lead the player in conquest of the known world. Medieval: Total War is based upon the building of an empire across medieval Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The game was a commercial success, topping the British video game chart upon release. The depth and complexity of the strategy portion was also received well by reviewers, together with well integrated historical accuracy. The real-time battles were praised for their realism and the new feature of siege battles but also received some criticism for unit management. Medieval: Total War received acclaim from reviewers several critics commending it as a milestone in gaming. Gameplay is both strategic and tactical, with strategy played out in turn-based fashion on a province-by-province level, while military units of varying types and capabilities fight against each other in real time on a 3D battlefield. Originally announced in August 2001, the game was released in North America on 19 August 2002 and in Europe on 30 August for Microsoft Windows.ДЇollowing a similar form of play to Shogun: Total War, the player builds a dynastic empire in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, spanning the period of 1087 to 1453. Set in the Middle Ages, it is the second game in the Total War series, following on from the 2000 title Shogun: Total War. Medieval: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics computer game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Activision.

Medieval total war building tree