The latest entry in Creative Assembly’s long-running and storied strategy series is 2023’s Total War: Pharaoh, and unfortunately, things went a little wrong. Pharoah itself is a pretty good gamebut it wasn’t a huge step forward for the series, and came at a time when fans were losing patience with the prices and value of the countless expansions, culminating with Pharaoh and a DLC called Shadows of Change for Total War: Warhammer 3.
The release of the latter in particular sparked a veritable explosion among players and led to a sustained campaign of review bombing and complaints that got ugly around the edges, with some players crossing the line and harassing CA developers. The Total War subreddit, Discord and forums were flooded with the controversy for weeks, ending with Creative Assembly apologizesand promises to improve the DLC for players with additional content, committing to “better meet your expectations in the future” and “providing full transparency about the content before you see the Buy Now buttons.”
Total War: Pharaoh was also part of this lawsuit, as it was argued that it was a smaller part of the series that launched at the full price of $60/£50. CA accepted this complaint by reducing the price by $20/£30, refunding the difference to anyone who bought it at the original price, and removing all higher-priced special editions of the game.
Since then, the studio has been on a mission to improve its relationship with Total War players, which has mostly meant offering a lot of content for free. In addition to the price cut, CA has also committed to offering Pharaoh’s paid DLC as a free update, and has now announced that Total War: Pharaoh’s Dynasties will launch on July 25.
This will be the last official expansion for the game, but it’s a huge one. The revamped and expanded map is a Bronze Age celebration, covering the Aegean and Mesopotamia, adding Assyria, Babylon, Mycenae and Troy as playable cultures with around 150 new units in total. It doubles the number of factions in the game from 95 to 189, while there are now 349 provinces, and CA estimates that the expansion “makes the world roughly 1.8 times larger than the current map, giving players a huge area to conquer and explore.”
Now you’re speaking my language. Some of this might sound familiar to players of Total War: Troy (you can even play “the Aeolians led by the fabled Achilles”), but there’s clearly a lot more going on on a much grander scale. The change with the most potential is what the expansion is named after, a new dynasty system “to ensure your empire stands the test of time.” Creative Assembly’s description makes it sound a bit like Crusader Kings light: “Rule the tides of mortality and succession, navigating strategic marriages, heroic deaths on the battlefield, assassinations and the looming mortality of old age to leave a legacy that will last for eternity.”
I like to think about the looming mortality of old age as I drive my enemies before me. Another interesting addition is a new modifier called “Lethality,” which is designed to make virtual battles more realistic by making everything, well, much more deadly.
“From the beginning of our design journey on Total War: Pharaoh, our vision was to deliver a large-scale recreation of the tumultuous collapse of the Bronze Age; a recreation full of historical intrigue, authentic depictions of iconic civilizations, and a sandbox theater where you can rewrite the course of human history,” said Game Director Todor Nikolov. “We are very proud of what we have achieved, and while this will be our last content expansion, we hope it serves as a love letter expressing our ongoing passion for this wonderful age.”
It’s also the latest stop on the Total War apology tour, and fans should perhaps acknowledge how CA has behaved since late last year. The studio hasn’t just talked the talk, it’s directly and meaningfully addressed players’ complaints, taken responsibility for its mistakes, and now appears to be over-delivering with free content for a game it’s already issued partial refunds for. Players will no doubt feel it was justified in declaring total war on Total War: but perhaps it’s time to call back the hounds.
