This isn't the first time Creative Assembly has attempted to make a free-to-play version of Total War, that honor belongs to the somewhat mediocre Total War Battles: Shogun.

However, while Shogun was a massive departure from the classic Total War formula the upcoming Total War Battles: Kingdom looks to be a proper spin-off. Here's the trailer and a bit of information on what to expect from Kingdom:

The gameplay in Kingdom is separated in to two parts. In one you will need to manage your economy, grow your population and build up your city in a hex-bashed fashion somewhat similar to the system found in the Civilization series, while in the other you will engage in a downscaled version of the real time Total War battles against either the AI or other players.

Total War Battles: Kingdom is a free-to-play title, and its coming to mobile platforms, so expect to see some microtransactions. Whether they're going to be annoying or not, I don't know, but if you're looking to get your Total War fix while on the pooper or the bus, and ideally not when combining the two, it might just be the game for you.

Kingdom features a large focus on, well... building a kingdom

The expected release date is set for March 24th, and you can grab it for free on an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android devices, and even PC and Mac. The good news is that your progress is saved on the game's servers, so you can freely switch between platforms and continue where you left off. A small, but very welcome feature as far as I'm concerned, especially given the game's mobile nature.

If you want to try out Total War Battles: Kingdom ahead of its launch, you can do so on Steam as its currently in open beta. Whether its any good or not, however, is a hard question to answer given that the reviews are somewhat mixed and filled with wildly contrasting claims. I think this is going to be one of those games you need to try out yourself.