The Total War games have offered quasi historically inspired real-time strategy games that reach all throughout history and geography from the peak of the Napoleon wars, to feudal Japan, to the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Of course, Total War has its deviation and has explored the Warhammer universe as well. Last year, Creative Assembly and Sega announced the latest iteration in the ongoing franchise.
Total War Saga: Troy will be out for Epic Games Store first on Thursday, August 13 2020 as a timed exclusive. The game will be out on Steam a year later. To sweeten the deal, Total War Saga: Troy will be free on launch day for the first twenty-four hours and will be a permanent addition to players’ library whether it was claimed for free or not.
Thanks to Epic, we’re able to offer a Total War title for free on its launch day. It’s a hugely exciting thing for us to be able to do for our player.
Total War Saga: Troy will still feature real-time strategy battles married with the turned based grand strategy gameplay drawing influence from Rome 2, although naval combat will be missing. Also Total War Saga: Troy is the oldest game in terms of historical setting with it being 1260 b.c.e. to 1180 b.c.e. being set so far back into history, the unit will have a noticeable difference in class archetypes. Most notably, all cavalry classes are gone and replaced with chariots. There is archaeological and historical reasoning for this, as ancient horses in this era would be as large as a modern pony and the earliest recorded evidence for mounting horses for cavalry warfare is around 400 b.c.e. in Macedon and China as independent innovations. Chariots in Total War Saga: Troy will offer quick and mobile units to perform flanking and harassing attacks but the majority of combat will be infantry based and thus many units will take over the flanking and shock attack methods from traditional cavalry troops.
The game will be drawing inspiration from Homer’s epic poem the Illiad, and the game will feature some mythology and mythical creatures. Players will need to juggle their relationships with the gods of Olympus as they will be influencing the events of the war. Some mythical creatures will be in the game that can be recruited as a hero. Although, this may be in name only as the Minotaur is a human wielding an ax while wearing a bull’s head and the centaur is an archer riding a horse, both of which is a far fetch from the mythical physiology of the creatures. Famous heroes of the Trojan war can be recruited as hero units like in Three Kingdoms, for example, Odysseus and Achilles can be recruited for the Achaeans and Hector is on the Trojan side.
Unlike the Illiad, the game will take over the course of the whole war instead of a couple of weeks. Instead of featuring only Troy and some of the Ionian coastal villages in the Illiad, the sandbox map will cover the whole Aegean Sea, Anatolia, Greek mainland including Chalkidiki and the Peloponnese peninsulas, allowing the player shape the direction of the war in a sandbox just as big on the largest map in Rome 2. The economy is getting a rework for Total War Saga: Troy and will feature more resources to juggle such as wood and bronze in addition to gold.
Answering more questions around the game, Total War Saga: Troy will be using the DRM service Denuvo. Crossplay between Steam and Epic Games Store will not be supported and modding will be unavailable. There will be DLC released a launch with the game, Amazon, as it is called will bring the fictional all-female tribe into the game. It is yet to be disclosed if they will be a playable faction and if they will be free at launch as well or what the asking price will be.