So, you want to know about Total War Access? Well, to give you the cliff notes; it’s a unified login for all Total War games. It involves a mailing list (which you can opt out of) and a range of freebies which have included everything from in-game content, to money off deals, even ebooks.
Beyond that, it’s likely an experiment by Creative Assembly to unify their users under one umbrella so that they can engage with the fanbase in one place, perhaps even one day creating some kind of loyalty program. The freebies given away so far have been interesting but not ground breaking, the most exciting perhaps being the free Regiments of Renown released for Total War: Warhammer races, as well as the Gotrek and Felix DLC for Warhammer II.
This latter DLC was originally only available as an exclusive via the September 2019 issue of White Dwarf, but after that was made available for all Total War Access members. Total War Access itself is free, so you don’t need to pay or subscribe to gain access to the freebies. You also remain eligible for free goodies even if you opt out of all of the marketing communication that goes out via the platform.
Total War Access – how to sign up
If you want to register for Total War Access, you can do so here. It’s pretty easy to do, and then you access the service via the main dashboard.
It’s worth noting that while Total War Access isn’t strictly speaking compulsory, in the past certain things have been tied to the service. For example 2016’s Total War Battles: KINGDOM required an account, and there was a minor kerfuffle regarding early access to the Bretonnia faction in Total War: Warhammer .