While Rome: Total War explored the rise of the Roman Empire, this expansion pack follows its fall, which comes at the hands of the "uncivilized" tribes of Northern Europe that eventually tore the overextended empire apart at its seams. Gameplay offers the amalgam of turn-based and real-time strategy established by earlier games in Creative Assembly's Total War series, and players can choose to lead what remains of the Roman Empire Proper, one of its rising former factions, or the invasive Barbarians themselves.