Total War: Pharaoh completely shifts gears after the series’ fantasy phase

As it turns out, I got pretty attached to archers on an eagle.

2016, Total War: Warhammer marked a sharp turn for the long-running strategy series. For 16 years, developer Creative Assembly had jumped between historical settings, offering a general perspective on Japan’s Sengoku period, the rise (and fall) of the Roman Empire, and aggressive 18th-century imperialism. Total War: WarhammerIn keeping with the fantasy setting of Games Workshop’s tabletop universe, it introduced magic, dragons, vampires, orcs, and the explosive types of combat all of those things imply. It led to a trilogy that is now both about spectacle and strategy.

Total War: Pharaoh, which Creative Assembly announced last week, feels like a response to that shift. Based on the three scenarios I played in the Bronze Age Egypt setting, the combat is not only slower, but also more thoughtful than that of the Warhammer trilogy. I don’t have mages to melt large groups of enemy troops, and I can’t deploy rat boogeymen or giant polar bears as one-size-fits-all solutions. I once made a tactical decision Pharaoh – to advance my left flank in the hope of pushing the enemy into a swamp, for example – I had to live with it. The results played out over a matter of excruciating minutes as I obsessed over each unit’s dwindling health and morale. In several cases I did not 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 you have fewer choices, but more impact,” Creative Assembly Sofia game director Todor Nikolov told Polygon during a video call. “We wanted to reduce the amount of micromanagement because of how overwhelming it can be for the player. You have to plan a bit more, taking into account the composition of the army, terrain types, height differences and the weather.”

It is also important to note that, in keeping with the time period, there are no cavalry units present Pharaoh – chariots only. This extends the life of each battle even more, since flanking takes more time with foot soldiers, and chariots, at least in the battles I played, weren’t plentiful.

Pharaoh will feature three factions at launch, with eight playable leaders divided among them: four for Egypt and two for the Hittites and Canaanites each. In every scenario I played, I took control of the Egyptian forces as Ramses III, the famous monarch defeated the mysterious Sea Peoples in the years during the sharp decline of Egypt’s power. These three encounters give me a glimpse of Pharaoh‘s biggest change to the Total War series combat system: weather effects.

The first battle was a simple affair (a skirmish against the Egyptian forces of Seti, on a vast desert with palm groves on either side of the map) until a sandstorm hit, rendering my archers useless just as my forces were about to destroy the enemy. The second battle took place on a thin patch of sand next to a stinking swamp. Changing the attitude of my units (a series feature greatly expanded here), I ordered my left flank of Medjay swordsmen to push the opposing flank of Šuppiluliuma’s Hittites back into the swamp. The enemy’s heavily armored troopers were virtually immobilized by their own weight.

The final battle was a bit more complicated. Forced to defend Memphis against the aforementioned Sea Peoples, I lined the city walls with swordsmen (a tactic that, while ineffective in Total War: Warhammer 3, actually worked quite well here) to prevent enemy combatants from scaling the fortifications. I also placed my own defenders of a large ax behind four sets of gates, anticipating the enemy’s breakthrough. Then I placed my archers between the houses, shops, and religious structures of the city, to better repel intruders once they got over the walls.

This turned out to be a mistake. Enemy archers switched to firing ammunition not long into battle, and their flaming projectiles set parts of the city ablaze. My archers, horrified at the sight of their own houses burning only yards away, retreated to the depths of the city. By the time they regained their composure, the Sea Peoples had nearly breached the gates and claimed the walls. Despite my best intentions, a simple ammunition swap had changed the course of the battle. When I replayed the battle, I reacted in turn: my archers, closer to the walls and farther from any fires the enemy might ignite, sent their flares into the dry brush scattered by the hostile forces. Fires spread and the confusion gave my soldiers enough time to gain control of the rest of the battle.

“Often a single decisive maneuver is needed to determine the outcome of a battle,” Nikolov said. “When this happens, it feels like things have gone in my favor just because of my clever tactics. This is the kind of thing we try to capture with Pharaoh.”

As a Total War game, combat is only half of it PharaohComparison: I haven’t seen any changes or improvements to the turn-based campaign map yet. Cunning diplomacy and wise economic decisions can turn the tide of a playthrough as easily as a well-fought battle. And the Bronze Age, in the last years of Egypt’s New Kingdom period, offers plenty of opportunities to create a legal system as nuanced as that of Total War: Three Kingdomsor as in-depth county government layer as Total War: Attila‘s.

So far, though, I’m intrigued. Pharaoh‘s fights are less visually exciting than those in war hammer 3, but just as intense. It’s harrowing to know, as my finger hovers over my mouse button, that the outcome of an entire battle depends on my next tactical decision, no matter what fixes I try to make in the aftermath. I thought I’d miss the giants, trolls and tree folk of war hammer 3but the Bronze Age may just be the return to reality I need in October.