“Against a darkening background”: dark Age mechanics in Total War: Attila

This article addresses the role of mechanics in facilitating time travel for players of strategy games, with a particular focus on games that address the Fall of Rome and a central case study around Total War: Attila. It argues that, while strategy game mechanics can provide a deep and complex account of historical forces, their representations of the past are often stymied by genre conventions that generally lead to a flat and narrow perspective of global history which fundamentally undermines their ability to transport their players into a different period or culture. Nevertheless, this article maintains that, through the alteration or rejection of typical genre conventions and mechanics, strategy games can provide a more thoughtful engagement with varied historical periods and cultures, and thus provide a more effective means of time travel.