StrategyFront Gaming

Everything We Know So Far

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.