Total War: Arena kicked off with a massive battle and how risking some money can take it to the next level

By Johan Larsson, Head of Content for PrimeGaming

On Saturday (23.05.15) was the first livestreamed gameplay event of Total War: Arena from Creative Assembly and Sega. (You can watch the entire event on Twitch) It is a 10v10 strategy game where two massive armies of 1500 warriors each battle to what can be only hoped for as the bitter end. In three words, it was mind-bogglingly mad.

The high-strategy, total-tactic fighting game is loosely based on historical events and references that weigh in on the scoring. The ultimate goal is of course to defeat the opposing army, but casualties and moral play a part as well. Each player is in charge of three units, 500-strong each - a very challenging feat to pull for the player, and the team as a whole. Once the fighting commenced, the nature of the game became apparent - multiple battles between battalions of infantry, cavalry, archers and artillery happening simultaneously all over the fighting grounds in a blinding rate. It was, indeed, a total war.

The first of three battles kicked off with team Germanicus charging ahead their infantries in a true 300 fashion, swords at hand and blood in their eyes. It didn’t pan out as they hoped. They suffered a hell of a shelling from team Leonidas’ artillery divisions that cost them many more than 300 lives. Team Germanicus failed at this point to draw comprehensive conclusions and continued their infantry and cavalry attacks only to take more and more beatings from the highly effective artillery of team Leonidas. The all-eggs-in-one-basket tactic of Germanicus cost them the first battle.

Battle 2 was revenge time for team Germanicus. They forged on multiple grounds, shocking the Leonidas armies with the breadth of their all-fronts attack. What started as a very tight fight of the two teams soon took a turn to a total bloodbath of Leonidas soldiers. The weight of the battle titled more and more to Germanicus favor. Leonidas put up a hell of fight, even when only 56 of them were left, but at the end their entire army was annihilated.

When the third battle began it was obvious that both teams assimilated the events of the two previous battles. This one was a work of high tactics and conniving maneuvering all over the massive grounds. It was mesmerizing to watch as the battle unfolded and the two teams played one for the books. The battle peaked in a face-to-face action inside the camp. With 40 seconds to go, team Germanicus had a 200-person lead that it wasn’t about to let go; they clocked in a decisive victory.

Total War: Arena was highly engaging to watch. But while I did, I couldn’t escape the feeling that a little something at stake would make the experience so much more exciting. Yes, I’m talking about putting some coins at risk, and then rooting for a team is taken to a whole new level. I don’t know if Sega intends to go this way, but other eSports brands proved that engagement-by-betting is where things are at right now.

Don’t take my word for it. 134 million people around the globe are currently locked and loaded on fantasy leagues and it is believed that by 2020 it will be a $250 million a year industry. The money is already rolling in. Unikrn, a network of communities for eSports betting with a focus on League Of Legends, has recently raised over $3 million from investors. AlphaDraft, a daily fantasy game just closed a $4.2 million seed round. And Vulcun, another betting arena for eSports specializing in League of Legends and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, has raised a whooping $13.4 million; it had paid out over $1.1 million in prizes to 117,000 fans in its first three months.

Numbers don’t lie, especially when they got a dollar sign in front of them. The combination of competitive team games and betting has proved itself in the offline world for decades. The evolvement into the online sphere is a natural and begged one. I should know. In the last 11 years I live and breath online betting; pulling virtual handles of slot machines and virtually scraping scratch cards without a coin. This is my job. Very different from eSports, but the core components or engagement are there all the same: playing online slot games is super fun, but betting on it is completely more exciting. 

In my field the betting is done on a small scale, and I believe that’s exactly the way it should be. As part of my work I’ve been to numerous casinos all around the world and I witnessed high rollers bet on fantastically large sums of money. Good on them. But that’s not how I roll. There is a tipping-point between betting plain crazy and firing-up your excitement glands. The same       should be told in regards to eSports - small scale betting gives an added value to the watching and playing experience that is hard to achieve otherwise. You don’t want to be stressed out and scared that you might lose your entire savings, that’s just not fun, but putting at risk an amount that you can bare to lose well, now you’re cooking with gas.

Whether Total War: Arena will take that path is yet to be seen. I would say, why the hell not? In the last year or so I’ve been finding my way through betting on eSports and it’s been rocking. Didn’t win anything major, but I don’t care. I don’t expect to get rich from it, that’s beside the point. It is so much fun to sit on the edge of my seat and see my team plowing their way to another small win, or lost, for me. I get so freaking happy when my bet proves right and I’ve been known to utter a few four-letter words when I lose. This is the nature of the game, and the industry, and the entire Germanicus army wouldn’t be able to change my mind about that.

Keep on betting in the online world and prosper!

You can register for the Total War: Arena Closed Alpha here .