Seasons

Seasons are a gameplay mechanic in the Total War series.

Rome: Total War[]

In Rome: Total War, each turn is half a year, and each turn switches off between winter and summer seasons.

Medieval II: Total War[]

In Medieval II: Total War, each turn is two years (even though characters age at half a year per turn), and each turn switches off between winter and summer seasons.

Empire: Total War[]

In Empire: Total War, each turn is half a year, and each turn switches off between winter and summer seasons. Seasons can affect battlefield conditions: winter makes many regions snowing, increasing the rate at which most units tire out during battle (and giving cold-resistant units a stamina advantage).

Napoleon: Total War[]

In Napoleon: Total War, each turn is two weeks, so seasonal effects linger much longer: each season lasts a total of eight weeks. The way seasons impact gameplay varies depending on the campaign. In the Egypt Campaign, for example, seasons have no impact at all. For other campaigns, however, winter causes some regions to become snowy, giving units a stamina penalty.

Napoleon: Total War introduces Attrition to the Total War series, where units slowly lose men after each turn of facing extreme heat or cold. In the winter season, cold attrition takes its toll on many regions in most campaigns. There is functionally little to no difference among the summer, spring, or autumn seasons however.

Total War: Shogun 2[]

In Total War: Shogun 2 the turn of seasons corresponds to the turn of seasons in real life, with each turn being the spring, summer, fall or winter seasons.

Seasons affect the economy, with the Spring and Summer months providing a boost to income while winter causes the reverse to happen.

The Winter season challenges conquesting clans with Attrition again.

Dependent on both season and province, battlefield weather conditions chances can differ significantly, with a decent chance for fog in fall and nearly only dry weather in most regions in spring.

Fall of the Samurai[]

In Fall of the Samurai, each season lasts six turns. The spring season grants +1 happiness to all regions, summer increases unit replenishment by 5%, and winter reduces campaign map movement range by 5%.

The fact that each season lasts much longer than in Shogun 2 makes attrition a more serious issue. Movement range is also significantly worse relative to province size in Fall of the Samurai: while most provinces in Shogun 2 can be traversed within one or two turns, in Fall of the Samurai provinces can require half a dozen turns to move across, potentially exposing armies to several turns of attrition in a row. This makes invading and conquering large provinces in the winter complicated, and conversely makes defending against enemy invading armies and stalling them in the snow a potentially powerful tactic.

On the other hand, bonuses related to seasons also lasts much longer. The +1 happiness from spring reduces the need for garrison troops in unhappy regions for six turns, freeing up troops to placate other provinces or join in invading neighboring factions. Together with the Summer Son trait, a faction can have twelve turns in a row, from the beginning of spring to the end of summer, of +1 happiness to all regions.

Total War: Three Kingdoms[]

For more information, see Seasons (Total War: Three Kingdoms).