Barbarian Invasion, the expansion for last year’s hit Rome: Total War is now available for download at Filefront. The demo has the original game’s tutorial done with new units and two “historical” battles – one with a pseudo-historical King Arthur (following the Artorius hypothesis popularized in last year’s movie) and the other the crucial Battle of Chalons, where the forces of the Western Empire faced down the Scourge of God, Attila and his Hunnic hordes.

The demo will sway no one. If you love Rome, the new units, night battle and new formations will do nothing to change your impression of the game. If you were unimpressed by Rome, the demo shows nothing that will fix your opinion.

Strangely enough, I have neither of the expansions for the first two Total War games. I can get both cheap now, and probably should fix this oversight, but neither the Mongols nor the Vikings really grabbed me. To be honest, the late Roman Empire is not one of my favorite periods either. I love Rome with a passion that neither Shogun nor Medieval instilled in me, though, so I will certainly get Barbarian Invasion.

It’s only a few hundred megabytes, so it’s worth a look I guess. But don’t expect any revelations.