Creative Assembly's Aegean Total War spin-off, Troy: A Total War Saga, is set to receive another helping of paid DLC later this month, this time in the form of the Ajax & Diomedes Faction Pack, which comes to the Epic Games Store on 28th January.

Ajax & Diomedes, as its name very much implies, enlivens Troy's core strategy action by introducing the two titular Iliad heroes, alongside new campaign mechanics, new era-inspired warriors, veteran Paragon units, and more.

Ajax the Great, described as the "shield that protects the Achaean Host", is supported by slow but heavily equipped defensive infantry units and powerful missile units, while Diomedes - the King of Argos - specialises in "crushing attacks with well-rounded axe and sword infantry, combined with quick flanking units from surprising locations."

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A photo mode is finally coming to A Total War Saga: Troy later this week.

"Troy's powerful new Photo Mode brings you more than 20 different options to customise your in-game shots with, whether they're of epic clashes between huge armies, nerve-wracking Hero duels, or simply a serene landscape," said an update on the game's official blog earlier this week, which confirms the feature will be available from 22nd October, 2020.

Photo Mode's options are split into four main categories: Scene, Camera, Filters, and Frames.

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A Total War Saga: Troy's free launch on the Epic Games Store is a huge success - the game has been claimed by 7.5m players in just 24 hours.

This limited-time free giveaway on the Epic Game Store for Creative Assembly's strategy game exceeded the developer's expectations.

"We were optimistic but we couldn't have predicted this level of excitement," Rob Bartholomew, chief product officer said.

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The Bronze Age, it turns out, is not an easy period to turn into a historically accurate, highly detailed video game like Total War. But it does sound fascinating. There are huge gaps in important places, unusual changes to how armies are proportioned, and the small matter of Homer's Iliad sprinkling myth and magic over everything.

Playing it, I think there's room for a little more of the mythical stuff - but talking to Total War Saga: Troy's game director Maya Georgieva and senior game designer Milcho Vasilev, I'm also confident there's a good deal more to come.

"We wanted to take a direction that has not been taken by any Total War before," Georgieva told me, "this period of history, which is ancient history, the Bronze Age... I mean no Total War has gone there before us, and there's a good reason for that! It's not been missed by accident, it's really tough for a Total War game to go into this era because the sources that we need to make an on-par experience with the titles that you love are missing, or are scarce in that period.

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Developer The Creative Assembly's Total War spin-off A Total War Saga: Troy will be free to download and keep when it launches as an Epic Games Store exclusive on 13th August.

Total War Saga: Troy is The Creative Assembly's second entry in its strategy spin-off series - following on from 2018's decent Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia - and, like its predecessor, is designed to offer a shorter, more focused take on the core series' blend of turn-based empire management and real-time tactics.

While Thrones of Britannica set its strategic action in the British Isles of 878 AD, Troy heads to the Mediterranean of the Bronze Age - the earliest period the Total War series has tackled so far - focusing on the battle between Troy and Mycenaean Greece, better known as the Trojan War.

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Sega has now officially announced A Total War Saga: Troy, the next in its line of strategy games focused on a specific place and point in time. In this case, its the setting of Homer's Illiad, featuring the Trojan war between Troy and Greece.

Due to launch on PC in 2020, it's the first game in the series to have its development led by Creative Assembly's team in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Its existence has been something of an open secret, after popping up in a trademark listing last month.

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The next Total War Saga game is Troy, according to a trademark filing.

Over on the Total War subreddit, user zhxws posted a link to the listing on the UK's Intellectual Property Office website. Total War Saga: Troy is the name of the game, and the trademark is owned by developer The Creative Assembly.

Total War Saga titles are like the main Total War strategy games, but focused on a particular time period as opposed to an era. The first Total War Saga title, Thrones of Britannia, came out in May 2018, and was set in the British Isles, 878 AD, with 10 playable factions.

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The year is 878AD and the Vikings have already invaded. A brief truce has now settled across the British Isles, but there's too much bad blood here for the Norsemen to coexist with those they've so recently conquered. This isn't peace, it's half-time.

And that's where Thrones of Britannia begins, as you decide which side of this conflict you want to lead: will you be at the head of an English Kingdom or the Great Viking Army? Or perhaps neither. Perhaps you'd prefer a smaller faction; one that can benefit from all this chaos. To some, the Vikings aren't a threat, they're a potential ally. It's an interesting setup for a campaign: the big invasion has already happened. What comes next?

As the first of the Total War 'Sagas', Thrones of Britannia looks to hone in on a much smaller timeframe than we're used to seeing from this series, with a typical campaign lasting just a few decades.

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UPDATE 21/3/18 3.15pm: Total War: Thrones of Britannia is being delayed by a fortnight, Sega and Creative Assembly have announced.

Previously set for 19th April, the game will now launch on 3rd May.

"As we move closer to launch we'd like to buy ourselves a bit more time for the final push to incorporate changes we wouldn't otherwise be able to implement," Creative Assembly said. "It's never easy delaying a launch, not least because it means a longer wait for our fans. But we strongly feel the game will be better for it, so do please bear with us as we get things finished up!"

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