Two armies, all ordered into neat little rows, hold opposing ends of a battlefield. The sun's out—it's a nice day for a fight—and in the background sits a city, nestled behind stalwart walls. It's A Total War Saga: Troy's deployment phase, the calm before the storm, but any second now a man dressed up as a bull is going to smash into
Two armies, all ordered into neat little rows, hold opposing ends of a battlefield. The sun’s out—it’s a nice day for a fight—and in the background sits a city, nestled behind stalwart walls. It’s A Total War Saga: Troy’s deployment phase, the calm before the storm, but any second now a man dressed up as a bull is going to smash into my troops.
Luckily I’ve got Achilles on my team, all decked out in gold armour and hopefully sporting some reinforced sandals. Troy’s legendary leaders are extremely gifted in combat. They can shrug off being attacked by multiple units, have an array of special abilities and get to show off in duels. The echo of the fantastical stuff established in Warhammer and carried on through Three Kingdom’s Romance mode continues here, but it’s a lot more grounded.
« We felt that the Romance mode heroes were a little bit over the top, and we would like to have our own take, » game director Maya Georgieva tells me. « Even in mechanics, such as the challenges, the hero duels, we have our own takes on those, too; they’re not exactly the same as they play in Three Kingdoms. And we feel that our setting is even a little bit less fantastical than the Romance setting, in that regard at least. »
(Image credit: Sega)
While these heroic leaders aren’t quite as supernaturally gifted as their cousins in other Total Wars, they still sit at the heart of Troy. One of the trickiest tasks the team set itself was finding a way to present all the Hellenic and Trojan factions as distinct, and it settled on the heroes. Every faction uses its primary hero as a foundation, so Achilles’ Achaean armies are full of fast, aggressive units that have a penchant for charging. Hector’s Trojan troops, on the other hand, are heavily armoured and focused on defence, just like the prince.
This grounding of myth is most apparent in Troy’s treatment of powerful units like centaurs and special heroes like the Minotaur and Cyclops. The first two were present in the demo, and all of them are entirely human. The centaurs are just people who are very good at riding horses and also happen to wear hats with horns. The Minotaur, meanwhile, is bandit leader who wears a bull mask and is tough enough to smash down gates.
« Our design for the mythic creatures was to make sure that each of them gives different gameplay opportunities for the players, » explains senior gameplay designer Milcho Vasilev. « Like in an infantry-based battle, once you get access to the centaurs, which are a type of cavalry unit, you suddenly get that advantage of being able to very easily outflank your opponent, harass archers or chase off routing units.
