Hello, Total War community!
Welcome to the first of our dedicated design blogs for the free update coming to Total War: PHARAOH later this year. We’re excited to once again dive into the ancient world as we unveil details on the expanded campaign map, alongside some commentary on the learnings that underpin our design direction. Let's get into it!
EXPANDING THE ANCIENT WORLD
Following the release of the game, our team paid close attention to your feedback – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and one major thing was clear; you wanted to see the addition of Babylon, Assyria, Mycenae and Troy as playable cultures for the experience to truly feel like a Bronze-Age epic. We revealed it in the previous blog, but in case you missed the news, these highly requested cultures will be added for free alongside a plethora of new content including new historical leaders, over 150 new and reworked units, and all-new campaign mechanics, so make sure you get caught up on the early details.
Truth be told, portraying these iconic civilisations had always been in our plans, but your feedback was instrumental in helping us implement them in a more informed way. Other feedback included your appreciation for the level of detail and visual splendour within the campaign map, so we’ve chosen a way forward that seems the most logical and natural in terms of implementing these new regions – through the expansion of the current map. This means there will be two major changes when jumping into a campaign:
- To the east you’ll see the lands of Mesopotamia, a region known as the cradle of civilisation due to its significant contribution to human history. The main geographic characteristics of these lands are its hilly steppes and arable river lands, and the climate is dry but not desert-like.
- To the west you’ll see the addition of the Aegean region and Troy, two regions known for the legendary Trojan War that was sparked by a single impulsive act. Much like our depiction of this most epic landscape in A Total War Saga: TROY, the main geographic characteristics of these lands are the Greek islands and the many high mountains on the continent, whilst its climate is dry and hot.
With the introduction of these landmasses and their associated cultures, we’re introducing four major civilisations from the Bronze Age Collapse, meaning history is yours to rewrite. You could strive to become the King of the Universe (a title of immeasurable modesty) over the Royal Tradition in Mesopotamia and unite Babylon and Assyria along with any squabbling petty kingdoms and warlike Elamites. Or you can sit on the throne of Mycenae and raid the seas around your capital with the city of Troy a particular and coveted prize. You can even reenact a version of the world where the Trojan war goes either way or even an unlikely alliance is forged to counter a looming threat. The opportunities are endless.
THE MAP SCALE
We know you love to hear about the micro-details, so let's talk scale. The expanded map size has increased to 2048 x 1648 hexes, a significant leap from the previous dimensions of 1134 x 1648 hexes. This expansion renders the world approximately 1.8 times larger than the current map, offering players a vast expanse to conquer and explore.
Additionally, we've added 168 settlements, significantly boosting the total count from 181 to 349. This means players will encounter more diverse landscapes and cultures as they build, conquer, and manage their empires. An important note here is that we’ve remained conscious of the amount of distance between settlements so that you can experience a variety of land battles, rather than having to descend into a medley of sieges from turn to turn.
Perhaps most exciting of all is the expansion in the number of factions looking to conquer this ancient world. With the addition of 94 additional factions, the total now stands at 189, doubling the previous count of 95. You will find yourselves thrust into a world of political intrigue, alliances, and betrayals as you navigate the complex web of relationships between rival powers.
You’re also likely wondering how well we’re going to optimise performance to handle such an increase in content, and while we can’t give you the exact specifics at this point in development, we’re aiming for them to fall in line with the expectations set by past games.
| | ORIGINAL MAP | EXPANDED MAP |
| SIZE | 1134x1648 | 2048x1648 |
| SETTLEMENTS | 181 | 349 |
| FACTIONS | 95 | 189* |
Note: *Figures might change as development progresses.
TRAVERSING THE ANCIENT WORLD
As we started designing the expanded map, we discovered (once again) that Planet Earth hasn’t been designed in a way in which military conquest is made easy. With such a significant portion of the Mediterranean Sea sitting right in the middle of our theatre of war, we knew we had to offer some way of facilitating fast-travel to incentivise continent-spanning warfare such as the Mycenaeans sailing fourth to torch Canaan, or the Egyptians enforcing their might over Troy. We’ll achieve this via the “Sea Travel Lanes” feature whereby any army (human or AI) can move into the lane to benefit from a movement speed increase. These high-sea highways roughly simulate the naval trading routes near the Bronze-Age coastline, so they are flowing near many wealthy settlements, ripe for plunder!
Beyond the sea, we’ve also been conscious of including additional ways of traversing the world. For instance, rivers such as the Tigris and Euphrates within Mesopotamia will provide strategic value as armies navigate along their banks to attack key settlements, akin to the Nile within Egypt.
OTHER NOTABLE CURIOSITIES:
For those of you who take pleasure in some sightseeing whilst your armies maraud around the campaign map, you’ll notice that the map is intricately detailed and features several iconic landmarks for both expanded areas. In Mesopotamia, these include the White Temple of Anu, the Great Ziggurat of Ur, Chogha Zanbil, the Ziggurat of Enlil, and the Great City of Babylon, a significant major settlement awaiting conquest. Whilst within the Aegean you can expect to spot Mount Olympus, the Meteora, the Ancient Statue of Cybele and the Lemnos Necropolis.
And finally, while expanding the campaign map appears to be a ‘stitch and fit’ addition, it has of course taken a great degree of technicality to implement, particularly with regards to its interactions with already existing systems. Therefore, several features will be updated, such as victory objectives to accommodate the increase in conquerable territory, the tutorial system to ensure better onboarding across the map, and the Sea People’s will be re-taught in the way of pillaging to ensure they’re better equipped to ravage this expanded world, as well as to address some of the feedback we’ve seen about them. All these examples are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the improved or additional content you’ll come to experience within the update, and a future Campaign layer blog will detail exactly what you’ll see from features such as the new Royal Traditions, Gods, Ancient Legacies etc, so stay tuned to future updates.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON DISCORD:
And that concludes the Map Update blog for Total War: PHARAOH. We hope that it covered all the details you wanted to know, but if you still have some burning questions that you’re desperate to have answered, we encourage you to join our Discord Q&A on the 16th May where you can speak directly to our developers.
In the next blog post, we'll provide more information about the new cultures and factions, offering an immersive glimpse into the diverse tapestry of civilizations awaiting exploration with this expansive free update. Once more, we express our gratitude for your ongoing support and for the valuable feedback you’ve been providing, and we are looking forward to sharing more with you soon.
– The Total War: PHARAOH team
