In a recent studio update, Creative Assembly confirmed that a new Total War Saga is in development and will be announced later in the year. The Sofia studio is once again at the helm, though it's also working on other projects. Details are slim, but it's apparently passed its first milestone. 

Sagas are, in concept, pretty neat. They're focused Total Wars that cover a briefer time and smaller place, such as Alfred the Great's wars against the Danes in Thrones of Britannia. It's something Creative Assembly experimented with back in expansions like Napoleon and Fall of the Samurai, both of which were series high points, though the first saga left something to be desired. 

Thrones of Britannia ended up being bold and fast-paced at the start, but quickly found itself in a lull with boring adversaries and a rapidly shrinking list of threats. It reconsidered a lot of Total War mainstays, however, so I'm still looking forward to what future sagas change. 

Elsewhere in the update, Three Kingdoms' new auto resolve option is unveiled. It's completely predictive now. If you saunter up to a general, start a fight and get told you'll win a decisive victory, you are guaranteed that decisive victory if you hit auto resolve. 

A new Lord Pack DLC for Warhammer 2 is also in the works, along with some unique features for the original Warhammer races, which you'll be able to take advantage of in both Warhammer 1 and Mortal Empires. 

The fantasy team's in pre-production for its next project—I assume Warhammer 3—and mocap performances are being recorded. The time between the first and second Warhammer games was just over a year, but it looks like the gap between the second and third will be a bit longer. 

Thrones of Britannia makes significant changes to the Total War formula, said Tom earlier this year. But these adjustments have upset some players—which is something its latest Allegiance update aims to address.  

Game director Jack Lusted admits Thrones' reviews weren't as universally positive as he'd hoped, but says he appreciates how much it shakes up Total War as we otherwise know it.  

"The Total War player base is extremely broad in their tastes, they disagree often and with impressive passion," Lusted tells us. "Our games are big and with all the various features, systems and facets, we know no one game is going to be all things to all players. But with Thrones, we were confident that a strong majority would enjoy it and see the value in the changes we’d made."

Lusted says to see the game accrue a "mixed response" at launch was tough, mostly because this label has negative connotations despite the game's positive attributes. Lusted adds that while he and his team stand by a number of the core changes Thrones makes to the Total War blueprint, the balance patch rolled out in May was a step towards getting players back onside—and that deeper changes resulted in the Allegiance update.

"The Allegiance update represents us taking another shot at helping Thrones to reach its full potential as a game that more of our players love and want to continue playing for years to come," says Lusted. "It addresses much of what some felt was lacking with the game, adding in some new features as well as expanding and improving on other areas of the game to enhance the overall experience. 

"Now it’s released, along with the Blood, Sweat & Spears DLC, we’ll turn again to player feedback to see what next steps we may want to take. From what we’ve seen so far, the update has created a lot of positivity which is really encouraging."

Lusted describes the Saga series as "another string to our bow", and says its players "really support the idea" behind it. Sagas hold "huge potential" to steer Total War in new directions, says Lusted, and, as the Allegiance mechanic is based on the culture mechanic from Rome 2 and the religion mechanic from Attila, Thrones now pushes the envelope beyond what we're used to.  

As for the future, Lusted remains positive about growing the Saga series while continually listening to and adapting following player feedback. He says: "We fully intend to provide ongoing support for Thrones but our first step is analysing how players have responded to the update before settling on what we do next."

Additional reporting by Samuel Roberts. 

Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia is a strong, streamlined strategy romp let down by a weak late game—so said Fraser in his review. Some AI niggles, odd victory conditions and abundant resources gifted him easy wins, and in one case he earned two victories before turn 30. It got so bad that he had to manufacture his own problems, adopting a noble that he knew would cause trouble. Creative Assembly wants to address those issues in an update next week, which is designed to make the game more difficult in general.

"Some of you are finding campaigns too short, food and money too abundant, battles too easy," game director Jack Lusted said in a blog post. "Thrones isn’t giving you enough of a challenge for you want to keep you playing. This is something we can address quickly since it is in large part down to balancing."

The patch, which will enter a public beta on Tuesday, will adjust victory conditions, increase food consumption, bump up building costs, reduce the amount of gold in the late game and dampen certain tech bonuses. "We hope [it] will improve the difficulty level and serve up more challenge," Lusted said.

It's not the only change that Creative Assembly plans to make: some fans think that Thrones chops off too many of the features that they're used to from a Total War game, and streamlines others too liberally. "We need to look at the mechanics, especially culture and faction mechanics, and decide what may be possible to change to address this," Lusted added.

Fraser was generally on board with the streamlining, saying that getting rid of needless features made it feel "slicker and more cohesive than any of its predecessors". He did say that certain changes "make some parts of the game feel perfunctory", so let's see what the team come up with before passing judgement.

If you want to provide feedback, Creative Assembly is welcoming it through the Total War forums.

Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia marches into battle today, and tasks players with conquering the British Isles. In doing so, perhaps you'll side with Alfred the Great and overthrow with force. Perhaps you'll strategise with a Gaelic warlord. Perhaps you'll force divorce upon untrustworthy allies before murdering them while their sulking backs are turned. Each to their own, I guess. 

To mark the occasion, Thrones has a launch trailer. Chaaaarge: 

"Thrones of Britannia plunges players into a defining moment of the British Isles’ history and the turbulent times following Alfred the Great’s victory over the Viking invaders at the Battle of Edington in 878 AD," says publisher Sega of the above. "Playing as the Vikings, Gaelic clans, Welsh tribes or Anglo-Saxons, players will embark on Great British campaigns of empire-building and conquest across the most detailed Total War map to date."

For more on how it plays, check out Fraser's review which suggests Thrones boasts a "brilliant early game" whose "bold experiments almost make up for the AI niggles and the boring march to the final battle."

Tom's tragic tale of treachery, on the other hand, will never not make me smile. He's raging, as is quite clear there, but the "lying bastard nobles" that strive to overturn his crumbling kingdom are a humorous reminder that no one can be trusted in the war series' first spin-off. 

If you fancy rewriting history on your own terms, Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia is out now for PC via Steam and the Humble Store.  

Thrones of Britannia, Total War’s first Saga spin-off, might not be as sprawling as its main series cousins, but it’s still full of complications and new wrinkles that you’ll want to wrap your head around before setting off to conquer Britain. Whether you’re planning on leading pesky Vikings on coastal raids or uniting squabbling English kingdoms with words and wars, these tips will make your reign more successful.

Groom an heir

One of the first things any king needs to do is to prepare for their inevitable death. Thrones of Britannia sees the return of mortal faction leaders, and while they can become extremely powerful generals and governors, they’re still fleshy and vulnerable. If old age doesn’t get them, then sickness, assassination or decapitation might. You will have to end up playing as the heir, so if your eldest son is a drunk dimwit, it might be time for a change.

Desirable traits aren’t the only thing you need to look out for, though. If your heir is unpopular then nobles might decide to revolt the moment the heir takes over. If you can’t find anyone competent in your own family, you can always adopt a noble. But remember that adopting a large, bearded general is for life, not just for Christmas. You could do a lot worse than adding an experienced leader to your family tree, but that doesn’t mean you should be going out and getting new sons on a whim.

Dole out estates

There’s one thing in particular that’s guaranteed to make you more than a few enemies within your own kingdom: estates. When you swallow up a bunch of territory, you’ll notice once-loyal nobles spitting at you in the street, not taking your calls and conveniently forgetting to tell you about group activities. It’s not immediately apparent why, until you hit up the estates screen.

When you add an area that contains an estate to your realm, it’s immediately added to your own personal collection of estates and nobles start to get jealous. You want to start handing them out to your best buds—or the ones most at risk of rescinding your invitation to their birthday party—the moment you get them. Try to keep a few for yourself, however, because they can also be given as gifts to nobles who are pissed off with you for an entirely different reason.

Control leader traits

You can directly control a leader’s development by choosing what followers they receive whenever they level up. They also develop separate traits over time with or without your input. You can influence what traits they get, however, both directly and indirectly. Generals can earn some traits immediately when you complete specific objectives—like surviving a siege or fighting when at over 50 years of age. You can encourage other traits gradually over time.

If you’ve got a governor who you wish was a little sharper, for instance, you might want to build a library in the province they’re running. You can also find them a wife, whose traits then affect the leader. That’s more risky, though. It costs money to find a wife in medieval Britain, it seems, whether it’s for the faction leader or a random noble. Also, beware: not all traits are positive.

Make farms a priority

Marching up and down Britain with occasional breaks for bloody and gruelling battles burns a lot of calories, so armies need to be well-fed. At first, you’ll be limited to a single army thanks to low food, but you’ll have enough money to build and upgrade some farms, allowing you to expand your forces in a few turns. 

Resource buildings like farms and mines are no longer constructed inside settlements and are instead represented by small villages that don’t have any garrisons. This makes them a lot more vulnerable to attack, and it also means you don’t have to besiege a settlement if you only want more farmland. Once you’ve upgraded your own farms, then you start looking for ones to pinch.

You can never have too many shields

Shields are still incredibly important in Thrones of Britannia. This is the age of the shield wall in Britain, where warriors snuggle up close together behind a wall of wood and metal, waiting for screaming horses and men to smash into them. Every unit has a role, but it’s the shield-bearing infantry that are in the spotlight this time.

Plenty of shields means that you can dig in and make a mini-fortress out of men; one that can handle even terrifying cavalry charges. While most infantry units have shields, the size and accompanying weapon matter. Spearmen can make squares, giving them more defence against cavalry, while elite swordsmen can make shield castles to shrug off even more arrows.

Skip naval battles

After a break from them in Warhammer, manual naval battles are back in Thrones of Britannia, and they are still best avoided. This is tricky however, because Vikings are quite fond of attacking from the high seas.

Most warriors aren’t experienced seafarers, so whenever they’re on the water, they’re seasick, making them rubbish in a scrap. Vikings have stronger stomachs, however, giving them a distinct advantage at sea. They love hunting down boats and going on raids, so you’ll inevitably be thrust into a sea battle. They’re ponderous and messy, so my advice is to just auto-resolve them. If you’re playing as a less nautical faction, that means you might have to swallow extra losses, but it’s a small price to pay for staying dry.

Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia recently teased the uglier side of battle, but today showcases the prettiest. Named 'Land of Hope', the war series spin-off's latest cinematic looks at pre-invasion England—moments before Viking longboats breech its shores. 

On St. George's Day, Thrones "pays homage to its English heritage", so reads a statement. Twitter also reliably informs me Kate Middleton has given birth to another sprog. Topical celebrations all round.

"It was under Alfred the Great and his immediate successors that a unified Anglo-Saxon kingdom was first forged," says game director Jack Lusted. "As the only major kingdom left standing after the Viking Invasion, it was under the banner of Wessex that the lands the Great Viking Army had conquered, known as the Danelaw, were retaken. The name of this kingdom changed from Wessex to England."

Creative Assembly teased the King of Wessex in action earlier this year. Lusted adds that the reconquest of Danelaw "led to an adoption of many elements of Viking culture," some of which are still prevalent today. 

Lusted adds: "A number of towns across Northern England bear Viking names for instance, and there are well over a hundred common English terms that can be traced back to Nordic origins. This new English kingdom would go on to be seized by William the Conqueror in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings."

Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia is due May 3, 2018. Before then, check out its system requirements—and read Tom's tragic but humorous tale of betrayal and collapsing kingdoms. 

Thrones of Britannia makes significant changes to the Total War formula, said Tom of the war series' first Saga spin-off earlier this year. As showcased in its latest feature spotlight, Thrones also lets you arrange the divorce of an untrustworthy ally before moving in for the kill. My goodness, wartime in 9th century Britain was dark.  

Hosted by Creative Assembly content producer Jordan Wright, the following video, named 'Politics and Intrigue', explores "the dark arts of politics". Accessed via the game's new Intrigue panel, Wright's quest for partisan loyalty takes some questionable turns—by way of bribes, botched assassinations, marriage meddling and more.

"Assuming the role of the English, the Gaels, the Welsh, the Great Viking Army or the Viking Sea-Kings, players of Thrones of Britannia must master the dark arts of politics, employing every method from the arrangement of marriages and the gifting of estates to bribery and—in extreme cases—assassination," says publisher Sega in a statement. "The [above] video delves into some of the machinations which may occur as you maintain rule in the fractured and fragile British Isles." 

For further Thrones of Britannia reading, I recommend Tom's tale of betrayal while clutching on to a collapsing kingdom. Here's a tone-setting extract. Poor guy:  

I am the king of nowhere. My lying bastard nobles have spent years tearing me down with a prolonged campaign of extortion, and now they rebel in unison, turning my provinces to their cause and sending armies to claim my head. All I wanted was to turn the northeast of England into a Viking paradise. I crushed rebels and repelled aggression from the north for them, and now they betray me?

Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia is due May 3, 2018. 

After a few hours with the game I've learned to watch my back in Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia. You have to work hard to earn the loyalty of your supporters, armies take several turns to muster, and dilemmas can throw a campaign in unpredictable directions. Thrones also takes place on a much denser map than other Total War games. The British Isles and Ireland are split into intricate arrays of interlocking provinces, and different regions can greatly affect the types of building available to you.

That's a lot of important changes, so we asked game director Jack Lusted about the ideas behind these reforms, and his intention to create a Total War that produces emergent stories in a fractious era. But first, an origin story.

How did you get into game design and how did you start working for The Creative Assembly? 

Lusted: So, long story, which I have to start with PC Gamer with. I got into Total War back in 2002. At that time I got PC Gamer every month. I read a few articles about the first Medieval, thought 'ooh that sounds quite interesting', then the copy of the review came out. I remember it was by Kieron Gillen and it had the words 'I am the king of Spain!' at the start and I was going: 'I'm going to buy that.' 

From there I got into modding. I modded Rome 1 and Medieval 2, which got me a few contacts in the company. Then in summer 2007 I joined as a tester with a fast-track to design, because no games industry experience, no degree, they weren't about to let me loose on the games just yet.

From there I did design on Empire, unit design lead on Napoleon, Shogun 2, Rome 2, and then new content team, and game director! 

What kind of mods were you making to start with? 

My Rome 1 mods were compilation mods with a bit of gameplay tweaks. It was other people's skins and maps but I did my own gameplay tweaks on top of it. [Medieval] 2 was all about gameplay. It was trying to do a vanilla plus experience. I did different era start dates. I modded campaign AI and battle AI, which was used as a basis for that in other mods as well. 

In your first role as game director, what was it you wanted to change or refine about the Total War formula? 

For me I'm always interested in taking cues from board games, things like that. Total War has gotten really big in terms of systems. I'm interested in the ones where systems are, on their own, easy to understand, but there's a lot of complexity in how they interact with each other. That's at the heart of what we've done with characters where everything is now focused on attributes. It's easy to understand your choices and what traits you're getting when you can see 'ah this is +1 command, - governance' kind of stuff.   

It's about trying to get all these systems working with each other, which makes it hard to talk about individual features of Thrones because we've changed recruitment, which ties into generals and characters, which ties into food, which ties into buildings, which ties into governors and all that kind of stuff.

How do you want characters to work in this games. You don't really have agents in the same way, you've really focused in on generals and governors. 

The key thing for us is having two different things to characters, stuff you can't control, and stuff you can. Characters come with traits, and you have some control over traits, you can fight in battles and build buildings and stuff, but it should be largely organic and feel like as you're using your characters they're getting more and more interesting over time. Then the followers are the bits where you do have absolute control. It's really easy to see for the player, 'right, I want to do this with this character so here are the followers to put points into'. That allows players really easy choices. Do I want to go broad with my skill choices, do I really want to burrow down to do one or two specific things. It's quite cool watching people's responses to a video we put out on characters and going 'oh these combinations sound really broken together'. Yeah, if you have a level 10 general, sure, you can do that, but then you're sacrificing other stuff. 

It was a big decision to remove skill trees from characters. 

Skill trees work really well in a game like Warhammer where you have your game for a really long time, and where so much of the game in the campaign and in the battles is about the characters and how powerful they are. It makes sense to go for these choices. With Thrones being all about narrative and emergent story and stuff, having skill trees where you have to go through four or five different levels to get what you want feels like it's going against that. You're being forced down a path to get to what you need. With followers there's a flat level of eight of them and you can put points into whichever one you want. It felt much more in keeping with making choices that are based on the traits of the character and the situation you're in. 

The storytelling was definitely a strong part of what I've played so far. The loyalty system seems particularly important for driving story and creating dilemmas. I was playing as the viking faction. 

Northumbria, yes, their starting screen description is 'hard: disloyal characters.'

Was loyalty a particular focus as a dramatic device?

I think you need to in this era. Because the politics now are so focused around the faction leader and how good they are not just at being a king, but redistributing wealth and stuff, you've got to have that threat of characters there, otherwise you have a system where you're not worrying about consequences. If I'm a really bad king, people are going to rebel, there's going to civil war, there's going to be challenges to my throne.   

The estates system helps with that, because that gives you tangible things, I have these counters I can hand out to characters, but once I've handed them out I can't get them back without killing them or doing political actions which could further weaken my position. Again, it's all about those clear choices about what you do with it. 

We've done another change recently where we've capped the max loyalty characters spawn with, so you've really got to be thinking 'if I recruit a general, do I have enough stuff to give out to him to keep him happy?'

I quite enjoyed piling priests on people to keep them loyal as well. 

That's definitely one way to do it as well, but then you're sacrificing these bonuses for that. But I really like building these stories. Political events are a nice way to add to that. I'm not sure if you've had any of the events where you get the 'vengeful' trait on characters. 

Not yet, no. That sounds good, though. 

If you strip an estate from someone or you secure loyalty in a certain way they might agree, but they'll become vengeful, then they might have other events pop up based on them working against you now. Again, trying to give you the sense that there are choices, there are consequences as different events emerge as you play the campaign. 

I did have the chance to torture a guy, actually, but I decided to just pay him off instead. 

Ah, that's an interesting one because that trait, if you have that enforced loyalty. That will, over time, adapt. For a number of turns he will be loyal, and then afterwards, he will not be loyal. And he will remember that you tortured him. 

Things definitely come back to bite you. With the dilemmas in particular, they can have some significant effects. Recruitment is a huge change, I found, it does change the way I think about turns and planning ahead. What were your design aims changing recruitment to a big pool from which you muster? 

It's a lot more true to the era, and also I really wanted to try a Total War without recruitment buildings. So often discussions around building are about which ones are your military provinces. Let's remove that from the equation, make provinces all about what those provinces are and the bonuses they give and trying to customise your buildings to maximise that, and have the recruitment be much more true to the time period. 

You can raise as many troops as you want in a turn if you can afford it, if you've got the food, and then it's going to take time to be combat ready. Yeah, vikings come and raid you, and you need to raise an army on the back of your lines to protect you, probably a bit too late. You're going to lose some settlements, and you're going to have to take them back. 

It feeds in well with the war fervour system. I think that worked really well with Age of Charlemagne when we introduced that, adding a much more cyclical nature to the game. The recruitment system works with that. I want peace for X amount of turns while I build up my forces, to build back up my war fervour, then I can commit to the wars, and pause and rebuild again. You can sometimes in Total War get stuck in that cycle. You beat one enemy, the next person declares war on you, you fight them, then the next person... it's all about trying to give more breaks and different flows to the game, more of a chance to think.

There's more of a point to peace, I suppose, rather than just trading and pooling wealth.

It's about remustering your troops. It's about building up your war fervour so people aren't too annoyed when you get dragged into another fight. 

From what I've played of the game it feels like I'm reacting more to circumstance in the game rather than just expanding and spreading across the map.

The game is there for there to be something interesting going on each turn. You're having to consider and factor into your plans. Not necessarily having you go 'ugh I have to react to this and that', it's about choices that feel meaningful to the player that factor in nicely with the way you're playing the game. 

Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia in out on May 3.

This article was originally published in PC Gamer issue 316. For more quality articles about all things PC gaming, you can subscribe now in the UK and the US.

I am the king of nowhere. My lying bastard nobles have spent years tearing me down with a prolonged campaign of extortion, and now they rebel in unison, turning my provinces to their cause and sending armies to claim my head. All I wanted was to turn the northeast of England into a Viking paradise. I crushed rebels and repelled aggression from the north for them, and now they betray me?

My kingly ego would rather overlook the fact that I failed to build any farms and presided over chronic food shortages. My decision to mint my own currency and put an imprint of my head on all the coins didn’t go down well with my Christian English subjects, who would rather see the Lord’s cross there. When one of the nobles started getting uppity, I should perhaps have taken the option to torture him rather than pay him off. In the following years the nobles came to me for bribes several times after that, and each time I caved my reputation collapsed further. As a result the reign of king Guthfrid of the Northymbre Vikings is short and violent, which is fitting considering the tensions surrounding that period. Maybe his son and heir will go on to do better, though with the name Cnut, I have my doubts. 

Thrones of Britannia is set in 878 AD, just after Alfred wins the battle of Edington and halts the Viking takeover of England. The proud factions of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland enter a febrile peace, the sort that just wants to implode the second a leader farts in the wrong direction. It’s an ideal setting for one of the most experimental Total War games to date, especially for a game that’s well suited to telling stories. At a glance this is still very much a Total War game—you build up your settlements and direct armies on a campaign map that encompasses England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and then direct your forces in real time strategy battles when armies clash. However this game is particularly interested in using streamlined politicking and narrative dilemmas to drive your campaign in unexpected directions. The ‘Saga’ moniker fits perfectly. 

“I like building stories,” game director Jack Lusted tells me. “Political events are certainly a nice way to add to that. If you strip an estate from someone or you secure loyalty in a certain way, they might agree, but they become vengeful, then they might have other events pop up based on them working against you now.”

Origin story

During our chat I learn that the publication you hold in your hands right now is partly responsible for Lusted’s love of Total War, his subsequent modding efforts, and a career at Creative Assembly that spans Empire, Napoleon, Shogun 2 and Rome II. “I got into Total War back in 2002. I got PC Gamer every month and read a few articles about the first Medieval and thought, ‘Ooh that sounds quite interesting,’ and then the copy with the review came out. I remember it was by Kieron Gillen and it had the words, ‘I am the king of Spain!’ at the start, and I thought, ‘I’m going to buy that!’” 

I tell Jack that I almost tortured one of my nobles and he laughs. Choosing to torture the noble would have given him the ‘Enforced Loyalty’ trait. “That will over time adapt. For a number of turns he will be loyal, and then afterwards he will not be loyal, and he will remember that you tortured him.” 

I enjoy the way Thrones of Britannia models these violent soap operas because they provide a deeper structure to the campaign than the traditional Total War sequence of ‘meet faction, build a few armies, crush faction, repeat’. You can appease disloyal governors and generals by gifting them one your limited number of estates – though choose carefully, if you later forcibly remove the estate, expect a tantrum. Alternatively, you can add priests to their retinue to keep them in check. If you’re sure a noble is about to rebel, or you’re just sick of them, you can always pay a lump sum to have them assassinated. 

Many of Thrones’ systems seem intended to force you to sit still every now and then to tend to your people. Over the course of a campaign your citizens slide up and down a ‘War Fervour’ axis. If you fight relentlessly for years, morale will slip away. Sit still too long and your people start itching for a fight. At higher difficulty levels your people will move more quickly along this axis, which forces you to read the room and indulge in efficient wars that sate your citizens’ bloodlust without wearing them out. If you wage a war in a high War Fervour state your units enjoy bonuses to their stats. 

“It’s all about trying to add more breaks and different flows to the game, more chance to think,” says Lusted. War Fervour first appeared in Total War: Attila’s Age of Charlemagne expansion but has been refined for Thrones of Britannia. “It adds a much more cyclical nature to the game if you’ve got periods of war and periods of peace. The recruitment system works with that, you’ve got that planning ahead.”

Recruitment works very differently in Thrones of Britannia. You no longer purchase units fully formed from military buildings in your settlements. Instead, armies pick units to muster from a regenerating faction-wide pool of units. The unit appears in your army at a fraction of its normal size and grows to full strength over a few turns. 

This is primarily designed to simulate the process of assembling an army more realistically—it takes time to train and equip new recruits—but the system serves a few other purposes. Units in the pool have a percentage chance of regenerating, and the chance is much lower for elite units. This means your Vikings are almost always going to have access to axe warriors but the truly elite guard are precious resources that you don’t want to lose. 

The new recruitment system has a big knock-on effect on settlement construction. “I really wanted to try a Total War without recruitment buildings,” says Lusted. “So often discussions about building is around which one is my military province. Let’s remove that from the equation, make provinces all about what those provinces are and the bonuses they give, and trying to customise your buildings to maximise that.” 

Each province features a walled major settlement and a scattering of tiny defenceless settlements built up around resource features. Farms and mines are essential for the upkeep of your armies and the overall happiness of your citizens, but they are easily sacked by roaming enemy forces. Burning enemy farms is a viable tactic in Thrones of Britannia because food shortages stop armies from recovering their losses.

I discover this first-hand when I counter-attack against northern invaders and run out of food stores. A desperate cluster of units, some only a dozen men strong, stumbled up the coast capturing undefended settlements as I ordered my citizens to farm harder and trade more to support the conflict. I like the way Thrones simulates some of the slog and attrition of drawn out wars, even while keeping the battles exciting. 

My Viking campaign would have ended much earlier if I had failed to secure an unassuming settlement called Dunholm. Sometimes in a Total War campaign one province or settlement becomes the battleground of an all-or-nothing stand on which the success of your campaign turns. The forces of Northleade lined up against my Vikings in the snow for a terrible showdown.

High command

I find Thrones of Britannia’s battles to be especially clear and readable. There seem to be fewer incrementally different troop variations, which makes it easy to assess what units are for. Clear tooltips and characterful but practical unit descriptions also help, and the game’s reliance on Attila’s codebase means it should run well on a larger range machines. 

At Dunholm my archers effectively used flaming arrows to deter enemy cavalry while my spearmen ‘castled up’ – a command that prompts them to form their shields into walls and a roof, turning the unit into a spiky armadillo. At a key moment my spearmen uncastled and surged forward to soak up an enemy infantry charge and I counter-charged with my long axemen. The double-handed axes cleaved through enemy armour and absolutely flattened the core of the Northleade force. After that all I had to do was chase down the general and mop up the enemy firing line. Though the game had predicted a close fight, my plan had worked flawlessly, and there was no way Northleade would be able to muster a new force quickly enough to stop my subsequent charge north.

I love these moments in Total War. Normally the campaign’s long term objectives are irrelevant to me, other than as a means to generate clutch battles and neat story twists. Thrones of Britannia could change that, however, with a new series of layered objectives, including some secret ‘ultimate’ late game objectives that emerge once you’ve truly dominated the map. 

There are straightforward conquest victories that challenge you to secure a certain number of provinces, but you can also win a fame victory by building famous landmarks and levelling up your generals and governors. There are ten playable factions belonging to five cultural groups: Anglo Saxons, Gaels, Welsh, Viking settlers and Viking Sea Kings, and each cultural group has its own path to victory based on unification. The Scots can secure the stone of destiny, the Welsh can secure sites of legendary historical status, Alfred can unite the English into one kingdom. Once you have achieved one victory condition you can keep playing to earn more, turning all of Britain and Ireland into one kingdom under your name. At that point, you’ve won at being king. What could be more Total War than that?

Thrones of Britannia is out on May 3.

Hot on the heels of Alfred the Great and Gaelic king Flann Sinna, Wales' King Anaraut enters the throes of Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia. 

Son of Rhodri the Great, Anaraut looks to grow his homeland into a new and prosperous kingdom that spans the entirety of the Welsh peninsula—in order to "win the pride of its people and cement his own place in history". 

Cue this lovely-looking, metaphor-inspiring, mountain-climbing cinematic:

Oh boy, boyo. 

"Players can emulate Anaraut’s vision by achieving the Fame Victory Condition," explains publisher Sega in a statement. "Which demands a powerful and prestigious Kingdom be built, measured via the metric of ‘Fame’ in the game’s Campaign mode. Fame can be increased through economic development, technological breakthroughs, wars, and a variety of event chains as players progress through their campaign."

Developer Creative Assembly provides more on all of that in this blog post. 

Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia is due April 19. Check out our prior coverage—not least Tom's hands-on impressions—in this direction.