Total War: Pharaoh video explains how its factions work and fight
Pharaoh 'nuff
Every Total War is about a big bunch of bastards vying to be king of the bastards, and Total War: Pharaoh looks no different. It's got eight wannabe King B's to choose from, and a new 14-minute video from developers Creative Assembly explains how four of these play differently depending on their particular skills for combat, production and diplomacy.
I like how each faction leader is introduced by swaggering towards the camera, like an Anchorman rumble:
Ramesses is a military leader with hardy fighters, as well as being fast and able to perform two court actions per turn rather than the default one. Tausret isn't a military force, but she has skills in diplomacy, as well as in producing armour, gold and other commodities that can cause her power to snowball. Seti begins with a large army and is garbo at court machinations, but strong in war. Lastly, Amenmesse, who begins with existing political power, has increased standing with non-Egyptian factions and a boost in all resources.
All of the faction leaders begin the campaign in a different part of the map and with pre-existing affinities for one another. Tausret begins with improved diplomatic relations with Seti, for example, so the warmonger shouldn't stop you before you've got production pipelines up and running. Seti, meanwhile, begins near all five resource settlement types, meaning he can get a leg-up if he uses his battle skills to capture each of those locations.
Total War: Pharaoh is apparently not only concerned with the Egyptians, but also the Hittites and the Canannites, and will feature two leaders from each of those empires for a total of eight. It's also aiming to depict the collapse of the Bronze Age more generally. That's what developers at Creative Assembly Sofia told us when we spoke to them last month.
There are plenty more details about each faction and what makes them different, and lots of footage of tiny men doing war in sandy places, in the full video above.