Bright and early at eight o’clock this morning, The Creative Assembly launched A Total War Saga: Thrones Of Britannia. Perhaps you began ordering troopers round whereas dipping troopers in your eggie. Swelled your coffers whereas sipping espresso. Had your forces unfold like butter in your crumpet. Ordered a full retreat whereas gulping tea. Burnt your toast like Alfred and them truffles, then razed Winchester for good measure. Breakfast jokes. No matter what you’re consuming, the primary sport in Total War’s new line of targeted ‘Sagas’ is now out, travelling again to Britain within the 12 months 878 to see who will get their face on the cash.
Thrones Of Britannia sees ten factions from 5 cultures–the Anglo-Saxons, Welsh Kingdoms, Gaels, Great Viking Army, and Viking Sea Kings–scrapping over the lands that will at some point turn into Poundland. The level of Sagas is to focus intently on explicit areas and instances, a bit like Shogun 2’s Fall Of The Samurai expansion, so it’s a dense and detailed little land.
Nic Rueben wrote our A Total War Saga: Thrones Of Britannia review and was notably taken with the siege fight:
“Major settlements are distinct and memorable, displaying the identical density and element as the remainder of the map. Moats, islands, bridges, and vast metropolis streets means plotting and executing multi-tiered grasp plans is endlessly satisfying. War drums echo like thunder, pipes make pipe noises, and siege engines tear up soil in a shocking iteration of the venerable sequence’ trademark spectacle.
“Coming down from these moments, however, the cracks can sometimes show themselves. Abstracted systems are a necessary albatross in strategy of this scale, but after the dynamism of the tactical battles, things like automatic trade routes and simple tech trees can feel like poor representations of the political and social machinations they aim to simulate. After a few stretches hitting the ‘end turn’ button after not doing very much of anything, it becomes apparent that Thrones of Britannia’s streamlining may have come at the cost of some of the series’ intrigue.”
A Total War Saga: Thrones Of Britannia is out now for Windows, with Mac and Linux variations attributable to observe “shortly after”. It prices £30/€40/$40 on Steam.
