The DLC will release on September 3rd, 2020.

This new DLC is focused on the southern portion of the map, an area that was severely underpopulated in terms of characters, compared to northern China.

4 new playable factions each with their own unique mechanics, with 19 new factions overall populating southern China

25+ new units including exciting and formidable animal units

New ferocious character artwork

New Nanman-specific tech tree with keystone technologies requiring missions to be completed

A completely new character progression style, with feats, used to unlock traits

Unique missions and narrative events bespoke for the Nanman culture

One goal to ‘Unite the Tribes’, but how will you achieve it, through diplomacy or conquest?

Playable in 190 and 194 start dates

from Steam

The campaign will feature the jungles of Southern China. With the new campaign focusing on the unification of the Nanman tribes under one of the new four Legendary Lords.

The four new lords will be: Meng Huo, King Mulu, Lady Zhurong, and King Shamoke.

Each will have their own unique mechanics and special units(From Steam):

Meng Huo

Having risen through the ranks of the Nanman tribes, Meng Huo has gained repute for his fierce but stubborn leadership. Loyal to his friends but merciless when it comes to his enemies, his tenacity garners him as much trouble as it does success. With one goal in mind – becoming the king of the Nanman – Meng Huo must look to his neighbors to help spread the flames of his rule.

King of Kings

When Meng Huo takes control over another Nanman faction, either by making an alliance or destroying them, he gains certain temporary bonuses. These bonuses can also be stacked, creating a rolling momentum that will surely bring Meng Huo the kingship he desires.

Unique Units:

• Nanzhong Champions: A cut above your usual shield-wielding infantry – perfect for holding your frontline steady as a rock in the face of incoming missiles
• Nanzhong Elephants: Drummers sit atop these mighty elephant units, playing rhythms that provide passive buffs to your nearby units. Use them to wreak havoc on the frontline or pull them back to provide support for your units
• Nanzhong Spearmen: The eye-catching rattan armour these spearmen wear provides defense against any errant darts headed their way, leaving them free to focus on any incoming mounted foes

Lady Zhurong

A descendent of the god of fire, sparks fly when Lady Zhurong enters the battlefield. With a hot temper and an iron will, she seeks to expand her lands, and remove any obstacles in her way. Her passion seems impossible to rival, but there may just be allies closer than she thinks.

Goddess of Fire

Across the seasons, Lady Zhurong accumulates points toward her Goddess of Fire mechanic. Once enough points have been gathered, players have the ability to activate her Wild Fire bonus; this formidable bonus makes her units near unbeatable in battle. The bonus changes according to the season it is activated within, and these powerful effects last across a series of turns. Once Wild Fire has burned out, Lady Zhurong is vulnerable for a short period and will need to recover before she can fight again without weakness, so time your expansion wisely.

Unique Units:

• Tiger Warriors: These axe-wielding warriors have an ace up their sleeve – their tiger companions. Use these tigers to give your opponents a scare before going in for the kill
• Followers of the Flame: What’s better than a two-handed mace? A two-handed mace that’s on fire. Engage this fiery unit in as many frontline battles as possible and watch as their damage-over-time effect causes chaos
• Tiger Slingers: While tigers disrupt your opponent’s line, these slingers will pick off any stragglers who manage to escape

King Mulu

In the undergrowth of the Southern jungle roams King Mulu, a friend to the animal kingdom, but a stranger to man. Spending time in the animal world has gained him many advantages, not least, the mighty elephants that walk by his side. Now Mulu must face his brethren, but will his pride get in the way of future partnerships?

Pride & Ritual

You know what they say, ‘Pride always comes before a Ritual’, quite literally in the case of Mulu. During his campaign he will accumulate Pride, his faction’s pooled resource, according to the rank of characters he defeats in battle. Your faction will gain lucrative bonuses to animal units, such as an increase in unit capacity and even a decrease in recruitment cost, in line with the amount of Pride you have reached. Periodically, Mulu will take part in spiritual rituals, invoking the elements to grant additional distinct bonuses for his faction.

Unique Units:

• Southern Elephants: A small band of elephants that pack a mighty punch to frontlines, accompanied by some handy slingers on their backs
• War Elephants: A more heavily armored elephant unit used best to charge into enemies, also accompanied by slingers
• Ravine Warriors: These frontline warriors are ready to clean up after any elephant-related carnage with a weapon in each hand

King Shamoke

Shamoke’s origins may be as murky as the dense jungle he controls, but his drive for power is all Nanman. As the ruler of the five valleys, several tribes have pledged their allegiance to him, but many remain wary of the leader. The Han’s interest in him has only deepened this suspicion. With both sides in opposition, Shamoke must choose where his loyalty truly lies, and neither choice is without cost.

Unification Mandate

Shamoke’s chief concern is uniting the Nanman under his rule, and so, his faction mechanic gives him bonuses according to what unification technique the player chooses to employ. Whether you conquer, subjugate or reform, power is yours for the taking and you will be rewarded for the followers you bring to your side.

Unique Units:

• Might of the Valley: Fast two-handed axe infantry that gain large bonuses when fighting near death – watch as they flank and charge enemies into submission
• Wuling Slingers: These light-footed short-range units are able to side-step potential terrain penalties – ideal for skirmishing in dense jungle where they can quickly evade and wear down enemy units
• Wuling Fighters: Offensive-minded warriors with a health pool hardy enough to take the mightiest of blows. These fighters do best pitted against the strongest heroes

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The mod takes place after the fall of the Galactic Republic depicted in Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith.

The mod certainly looks promising and I have a feeling I’m going to be playing this for a long time.

Star Wars: Fallen Republic releases on August 19th, 2020.

Announcement Trailer:

The post Star Wars: Fallen Republic Mod Release Date Announced appeared first on StrategyFront Gaming.

The game will receive a free DLC adding an entirely new faction to the game: The Amazons.

The Amazons DLC will release in December 2020 along with mod support for the game.

Adding these mythical warrior women goes hand-in-hand with their “truth behind the myth” tagline for the game.

The Amazons feature more cavalry than most factions in the base game, which will be interesting for a game where infantry play a dominate role.

Fast and manoeuvrable, Amazons’ cavalry units unlock a plethora of tactical options. Treasure your warriors and they will grant you victory on the battlefield!

The two Amazon heroes will be the sisters Penthesilea and Hippolyta.

Each sister with have their own faction with their own goals:

As Hippolyta, capture sacred regions to gather Amazon Treasures and rank up your units, improve diplomatic deals and complete Royal Decrees.

As Penthesilea, roam the world and capture new settlements with a Horde army at your side, granting you unique War Spoils to boost your campaign.

Read more on the Total War Troy Site.

The post The Amazons come to Total War Saga: Troy – New DLC appeared first on StrategyFront Gaming.

The Total War Saga series is getting its next entry into its ranks, Total War Saga: Troy. The series plans to focus on smaller-scale conflicts than the main series. So what do we know so far about this game?

The idea of the series is to replicate the smaller-scale DLC campaigns. These DLC campaigns were generally well-received. Especially the Age of Charlemagne for Total War: Attila, and Fall of the Samurai for Total War: Shogun 2. These were two great DLCs that built on the vanilla experience. While changing up the formula enough to keep it interesting.  

The previous entry, Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia, received a generally mixed reception. It did bring some interesting ideas in terms of mechanics, the recruitment system especially made its way into Three Kingdoms. 

But the experience was hampered by its lack of unit balance, challenge, and all armies feeling far too similar. Hopefully, Troy will fix these problems. 

How does Total War Saga: Troy shape up?

Troy looks to remedy these missteps by following Total War: Three Kingdoms, and the Total War: Warhammer Titles. The game will mix hero units and mythological units with the historical reality of Bronze-Age Greece. 

From gameplay shown so far the game looks like a solid Total War title with an infantry focus. Cavalry was less prominent during this period, instead of focusing on lines of spearmen clashing while heroes fight epic duels. 

The graphics are more stylized than historical Total War titles tend to be. While this is a nice departure from the drab browns and grays of Thrones of Brittania. I would like to see them add a bit more of the grounded grittiness. Like that which was present in Total War: Shogun 2. A game that mixed the stylized and grounded aspects of its art style into a coherent whole. 

The game draws heavily from our main source on the period, The Iliad. The Homeric epic details the grueling 10-year long conflict between the aggrieved Greeks and the Trojans. Started over the Trojan prince Paris’ stealing of the Greek Queen Helen. 

Will It Just be One Big Siege?

Let’s go into some historical background here, Troy was a city-state located in what’s today north-eastern coast of Turkey. 

Scholars debate whether the Trojan War actually happened or whether it bore any resemblance to the Homeric Epic. So this whole period is still up for debate. Though it is confirmed Troy was a real city that archeologists found was burned to the ground several times.

In the Iliad, Paris, a Trojan Prince, steals Helen, who’s already married to Menelaus, the king of Sparta. They return to Troy and when Menelaus finds out his wife is gone, he’s understandably pissed. 

To bring his revenge on the Trojans, Menelaus calls in his brother and King of Mycenae, Agamemnon, to help him attack Troy. Note, that back then Mycenae was the most powerful of the Greek kingdoms. 

The brothers built a coalition of Greek Kingdoms to bring their wrath down on the Trojans. For both their disrespect of Menelaus and because they’d get to remove a potential rival power in the Aegean.

The Greeks besieged Troy for 10 years but were unable to take it until the hero Odysseus came up with a plan to build a giant wooden horse. The Trojan Horse as it would come to be known, and use that to infiltrate the city. 

The characters of The Iliad have become famous, especially Achilles, the greatest warrior of the Greeks. And Odysseus, a cunning strategist, who got his own spin-off sequel series The Odyssey. 

The campaign will not directly mirror the events of The Iliad. As a 10-year long single siege would get incredibly boring for players based on the Total War mechanics. Instead, the game will create a sandbox of the Aegean World allowing players to create their own heroic epics.

It’s likely that to ensure the Greeks aren’t able to just sack Troy at the beginning of the game. Troy will have a good amount of allies. While the Greeks will have to work to build the alliance that will eventually be able to overrun their enemies. 

The campaign map itself looks beautiful, it’s far more detailed than the Total War: Rome II DLC Wrath of Sparta. Which covers the same area but with far less granularity. 

“Instead of amassing loads of cash, you’ll need to procure a variety of resources to keep your empire ticking. Wood is needed for buildings, and eventually stone, and if you start running a deficit, don’t expect buildings to stay standing. Soldiers, on the other hand, need food and bronze. The rarest and most valuable resource is gold, which can be used to barter with other factions or from visiting foreign traders.”

“A larger number of specialised settlements will help you keep your stores full, though other factions will also be eyeing them up. Some sources can also be depleted, so you’ll need to be the first to exploit them if you want all the gold or wood. “

A Total War Saga: Troy won’t have ship battles, but it will have agents.

Total War has yet to make ship battles compelling and, while they did appear in Thrones of Britannia. They won’t be returning for this Saga. While ships are heavily involved, what with the Aegean taking up so much space, they’re largely for transportation.

Troy will feature agents, however, despite them being missing for a few years. Warhammer, Thrones, and Three Kingdoms all found ways to replace them, largely by giving more abilities to leaders and heroes.

They’re the usual suspects, like spies and priests, and while they won’t fight in battles. Instead, they can be sent to infiltrate cities or make the gods happy. 

“The Truth Behind the Myth” – Heroes

In creating Total War Saga: Troy the CA team had a few choices in the route they wanted to go. They could go full mythical, throwing in Cyclops, Centaurs, and Minotaurs. While allowing for the Gods to intervene in the affairs of mortals. 

Or they could go full historical. Attempting to create a realistic depiction of Bronze-Age Greece with the limited but extremely compelling archaeological evidence we have. 

They instead chose to take a mixed approach similar to that of Three Kingdoms. Heroes will be present as single-entities. With the ability to dish out death to entire regiments of infantry. While monsters like the Minotaur will be portrayed as guys cosplaying as the real monster.

These “monsters” are still beasts on the battlefield, being able to break enemy formations, but they will not be strictly “mythical”.

This follows the game’s tagline “The Truth Behind the Myth” which attempts to reconcile the historically plausible scenarios with the mythological nature of our sources.

In a recent dev diary, they state:

“In Troy we’ve created a backstory for our Minotaur that reconciles the timelines and the fact that Homeric Crete was dominated by the Mycenaeans and not the Minoans for at least two centuries after the fall of the latter… We think of our Minotaur as a rebel or bandit king who invokes the symbols of the past to make his claim for power – he uses the bull mask and the double axe as means to connect to the Minoan heritage and incite followers.”

“In the game, the Minotaur can be found and recruited in specific locations – including, of course, Crete. Thanks to his size and martial skill, the Minotaur is a daunting opponent to face on the battlefields of the ancient Mediterranean.”

Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed they didn’t make the setting one way or the other.

But I understand this “best of both worlds” approach which allows them to attract fans of the fantasy Warhammer titles and the historical titles.

But having centaurs just be cavalry and a cyclops be a naked barbarian with a club is underwhelming. We’ll just have to wait and see how well it works.

Gods will be represented in the bonuses they give to your armies and settlements. They won’t be chucking thunderbolts or sinking ships which makes sense for the half-and-half approach CA is taking here. 

How do the Quests Look?

Heroes will be able to undertake their own epic quests beyond the campaign goals.

Odysseus, for instance, gets to go on his infamous Odyssey. Taking him to Troy and back as he fights off his wife’s suitors.

Completing these quests will net heroes with legendary weapons and other benefits. Like Odysseus’ son joining the fray as a new hero. 

Units will have flanking and anti-flanking abilities. Soldiers can switch between different weapons or stances, and the environment now throws more obstacles in their way. Including muddy ground that slows them down.

Maybe your troops will get stuck in the mud, making them an easy target. But then you order them to switch from two-handed spears to a spear and shield stance. Offering them more protection at the cost of some damage.

Total War Saga: Troy = Free

The game will release as an Epic Game Store Exclusive for the first year and in a bit of shocking news:

Total War Saga: Troy will be absolutely free for the first 24 hours after release. 

This news has caused quite a stir among the Total War community with some saying that this is a move by CA to salvage a title they think will commercially flop. While others think its less cynical and more CA trying out a different platform.

From Epic Games’ point of view, this is a great move in their campaign to dislodge Steam from being the premier gaming platform on PC.

Compelling users to join their platform through a completely free offer of a game is a great way to showcase their product to people who may not have given it a look. 

That being said, I’m personally not thrilled about the Epic Game Store Exclusivity for the first year, which means Total War Saga: Troy won’t benefit from the Steam Workshop for modding.

It also re-creates the problem Steam seemed to have solved in the industry, namely, the confusion of having to log-in to multiple platforms for games or keep them all downloaded on your computer. 

While Origins and GOG have both carved certain niches for themselves in the PC platform market, we will wait and see how Epic Game store continues to try and dislodge Steam from its top spot and how it affects the reception of Total War Saga: Troy.

Total War Saga: Troy releases August 13, 2020

Also Check out our the latest news for Total War Saga: Troy DLC Here.

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