Here’s the scene, right. It’s 5pm on a midsummer’s evening, you’re sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and the aircon’s busted. You want everybody and everything to go up in a fireball inferno, but failing some conveniently apocalyptic cosmic event, you’re probably still stuck in this hell for at least another one or four hours.

So the next best option is Total War Battles on your phone, because a vicarious war is better than none at all, right? Exactly.

Or you could just play it whenever. It’s up to you, really.

The Total War mobile spin-off, first announced somewhat vaguely a week or so back, has now been confirmed for launch on iOS, along with some thrilling bullet-pointed blurbs:

• COMPETE FOR THE SUPREMACY OF MEDIEVAL JAPAN: Lead your clan to battle through more than 10 hours of story-driven campaign set in the world of Total War: SHOGUN 2; winner of “Best Strategy Game of 2011” awards from Gamespot, IGN, Gamespy and GameTrailers.

• BUILD YOUR ECONOMY: Deploy and manage your bases to generate resources and recruit units including samurai, archers, ninjas and cavalry. Each victory awards XP to spend on building and troop upgrades that could make a decisive difference to your future battles.

• A UNIQUE TAKE ON REAL-TIME BATTLES: Total War Battles introduces a new real-time battle system that feels both familiar and fresh. The hex battle maps allow for natural unit movements and deep strategy. However, as followers of the “Bushido” code of conduct, your units can never turn back – this twist to classic RTS gameplay adds tension and intensity to the action, making each victory even more rewarding.

• DESIGNED FOR TOUCHSCREENS: Introducing an interface designed specifically for touchscreens – drag and drop buildings and troops, swipe across the battle map with a flick, and pinch to zoom in and out.

• 1Vs1 LOCAL MULTIPLAYER: Play against a friend in real-time on a single device in three different multiplayer modes.

• STRATEGY FOR ALL: Total War fans will naturally enjoy the intense, deep and rewarding action-strategy gameplay, while more casual strategy fans will appreciate the Zen simplicity of the opening tutorial battles, scalable difficulty level and hint system that will soon make them a tactical master.

• UNIVERSAL APP: This iOS app is designed to scale its appearance for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, which means Total War Battles takes complete advantage of the iOS device that it’s installed on.

• NEW FEATURES COMING SOON: We will be improving and enriching the Total War Battles experience, so keep your eyes open for more content and new features coming soon!

So, basically, all the information except a release date.