Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion arrived on iPad back in 2017. A standalone expansion pack for the classic PC strategy title Rome: Total War, it takes place in 363AD when a Barbarian horde of warlike tribes fight back against Roman supremacy.

Players can act out the final years of the Empire as a Barbarian commander determined to bring it down. On the other side of the coin, they can play a Roman General looking to quash the rebellion for all.

Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion originally landed on PC back in 2005. A Mac OS X version followed several years later in February 2010. While the graphics have certainly dated a little bit in the past decade, it’s still a fantastically immersive title. Its combination of real-time battles and turn-based campaigns works incredibly well.

Optimized for iPhone

Managing to compress the entire experience onto a device the size of an iPhone is, frankly, kind of mind-boggling. About as far from the throwaway 5-minute time-wasters often seen on iOS as possible, this is a really immersive experience. It’s been optimized for iPhone with assorted touch controls in place of the mouse and keyboard needed for the desktop version.

You can download it for $4.99 from the App Store (if you’ve previously downloaded the iPad version, this one is free.) It costs $4.99 and will work on any iPhone 5s or newer. The iPad version has also received an update, tweaking the graphics and several other details.

Are you a Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion gaming veteran? Any tips for newbies to the franchise? Let us know in the comments below.