Going for broke


"It basically means that you can go bankrupt in more than one way," says Nikolov. "You need to keep all these things in mind. Sometimes you might even be fine to just endure several turns of food bankruptcy, because a certain situation demands it, but it's a lot more to take care of, and the whole economic gameplay on the campaign map is going to be a bit more complex."

Troy introduces more types of specialised minor settlements that you'll want to conquer and upgrade to fill your stores, and you'll need to be quick about it. Some resources can be depleted, so you have to be the first to exploit the resource to get every last drop. The competition over minor settlements is probably going to be pretty fierce in the early game, but there are also some other ways to meet your war machine's production needs, including trading with other factions, trading with ships that have come from more distant lands and good old fashioned raiding.

The campaign map itself is definitely in the running for Total War's most striking warzone. It's around the size of Rome 2, though the scale is smaller, dominated by the Aegean Sea in its centre. Despite the prevalence of the sea, ship combat doesn't really fit with the setting—and has never been great—so you won't be duking it out on boats. The colours are more vivid, the ocean is brighter and it generally has the look of a fantasy map, especially when you hover over imposing Mount Olympus. Even the skybox is a treat, with illustrations of clouds and mountains designed to look like classical Greek pottery.

Total War Sagas focus on historical flashpoints, but they also seem like a good place for Creative Assembly to experiment and try out new ideas. Getting rid of cavalry is a pretty bold move, and one I don't think we'd see outside of these spin-offs. So, while the Trojan War isn't really historical, it's the source of some intriguing tweaks to the Total War formula and great fodder for a game that's about truly epic battle.