Total War: Pharaoh feels like a response to the series’ Warhammer phase

The eagle mounted archers are my favorite.

The Year 2016 Total War: Warhammer This marked a major change for the series. For 16 years, developer Creative Assembly had leapfrogged between historical settings, offering a general’s perspective on Sengoku-period Japan, the rise (and fall) of the Roman Empire, and aggressive 18th-century imperialism. Total War: Warhammer, in keeping with the fantasy setting of Games Workshop’s tabletop universe, introduced magic, dragons, vampires, orcs, and the explosive kinds of battles all of those things imply. It sparked a trilogy that’s now about spectacle as much as it is about strategy.

Total War: PharaohCreative Assembly released, last week. It feels like it is a reaction to the shift. Based on the three scenarios I played in the game’s Bronze Age Egypt setting, battles are not only slower paced, but more deliberate than those of the Warhammer trilogy. I don’t have any mages to melt large swaths of enemy troops, and I can’t deploy rat ogres or giant glacial bears as one-size-fits-all solutions. When I decided on a strategic decision Pharaoh — to advance my left flank in the hopes of pushing the enemy into a marsh, for one — I had to live with it. It was a series of painful minutes that I spent obsessing over every unit’s health bar and morale. In several instances, I didn’t realize that my strategy had allowed the enemy to slowly gain ground on the opposite flank until it was too late.

“We wanted to make a game where your choices are fewer, but more impactful,” Creative Assembly Sofia game director Todor Nikolov told Polygon on a video call. “We wanted to reduce the amount of micromanagement because of how overwhelming it can be for the player. You need to plan a bit more, taking into account army composition, terrain types, elevation, and weather.”

Creative Assembly Sofia/Sega

It’s also important to note that, in keeping with the time period, there are no cavalry units in Pharaoh — only chariots. This further extends the lifespan of each battle, since flanking takes more time with foot soldiers, and chariots, at least in the battles I played, weren’t abundant.

Pharaoh At launch, the game will feature three factions, each with four playable leaders: Egypt and Hittites, Canaanites, and Canaanites. In every scenario I played, I took control of Egyptian forces as Rameses III, the famed monarch who defeated the mysterious Sea Peoples in the years during Egypt’s steep decline in power. This three encounters gives me a peek at Pharaoh’s biggest change to the Total War series’ battle system: weather effects.

My archers were rendered useless by a sudden sandstorm, just as I was about defeat my enemy. Second battle was fought on a small patch of sand near a foul swamp. By changing my units’ stances (a series feature that’s been greatly expanded upon here), I commanded my left flank of Medjay swordsmen to push the opposing flank of Šuppiluliuma’s Hittites backward into the bog. The enemy’s heavily armored greatax troopers were all but immobilized by their own weight.

Creative Assembly Sofia/Sega

It was slightly more difficult in the last battle. To defend Memphis, against the Sea Peoples (as I mentioned earlier), I lined the city’s walls with swordsmen. Total War: Warhammer 3I used a. It worked well to stop enemy soldiers scaling the fortifications. In anticipation of the breach, I placed four greatax defenses in front of each set. My archers were then placed amongst the shops, houses and religious buildings of the city to help ward off any intruders that made their way over the wall.

The mistake was made. Not long after the start of the battle, enemy archers began firing ammunition and the flaming projectiles they fired caused patches of the town to catch fire. After seeing their homes on fire only yards away from them, my archers retreated deep into the city. When they recovered their composure the Sea Peoples were close to breaching the gates of the city and claiming the walls. Despite all my efforts, the result of a simple swap in ammunition had altered the entire battle. After replaying the fight, I decided to react in turn. My archers were closer to the wall and further from any fires that the enemy could start. They fired their fire-arrows at the dried brush strewn throughout the opposition forces. My soldiers were able to control the remaining battle because the fires had spread.

Creative Assembly Sofia/Sega

“Oftentimes, it takes a single decisive maneuver to decide the result of a battle,” Nikolov said. “When this happens, it feels like things have gone in my favor as a direct result of my clever tactics alone. This is the kind of thing we’re trying to capture with Pharaoh.”

In a Total War, the battles represent only half of what is possible. Pharaoh’s equation: I have yet to see any changes or improvements to the turn-based campaign map. A well-chosen economic strategy or sly diplomacy can change the course of playthroughs as much as a successful battle. And the Bronze Age setting, in the waning years of Egypt’s New Kingdom period, is rife with opportunities to make a court system as nuanced as that of Total War Three KingdomsOr a layer of province management as detailed as Total War Attila’s.

So far, though, I’m intrigued. Pharaoh’s battles are less visually exciting than those in Warhammer 3But it’s just as intense. It’s harrowing to know, while my finger hovers over my mouse button, that the outcome of an entire battle might hinge on my next tactical decision, no matter the repairs I try to make in the aftermath. The giants, treefolk, and trolls of Warhammer 3But the Bronze Age may be what I’m looking for to bring me back into reality in October.