Video: 5 new things coming to Thrones of Britannia

[Hooahguy]

• Character system: you can tailor your generals and governors as you see fit (though this seems like its not a really new system at all. Perhaps a new design for it but not a new concept).
• Tech tree: the tree is split into military and civic areas, and each new tech (which you must unlock by meeting prerequisite conditions, essentially giving you new objectives throughout the game) unlocks new buildings and units and give bonuses. But it doesnt seem to be a progression system like before where you have to research a host of unwanted techs to get the one you want.
• War fervor: there is a war fervor scale, so you will get penalties or bonuses when the war fervor scale tips one way or another. When your faction is war-weary it seems like you will get major penalties to the economy, public order, and unit moral and replenishment.
• Unit recruitment: this is a big change- it seems like you can recruit a unit anywhere in your territory, but you wont get the full unit upon recruitment. Instead, you will have to replenish the unit numbers over time to get them to full strength. The rate of replenishment can be improved by upgrading certain buildings in each province. This makes wars of attrition much more viable since now a faction cant just recruit a big new army in a couple of turns.
• Province system: like previous TW games, each province will have a large settlement and several villages. Some settlements can be specialized, like focusing on religion or military. The villages are usually focused on economic stuff like farms, mines, other resources and whatnot. This gives an alternative to besieging settlements since you can go and sack those villages to cut the enemy off from food and gold, which of course is needed to wage war.

A lot of this sounds really good, except the province system. I am kinda afraid that its just going to turn into chasing around small armies since you cant possibly protect all these villages. Though its not exactly a new issue for TW games.

I do also really like the art style.

[Hooahguy]

Here is a more in depth article about the changes from PC Gamer.

[Crandar]

The province system seems in the right direction, to be honest, although I would prefer a larger scale. I hate the trait system, though, as I sorely miss the days when traits and retinue were determined by luck, buildings, battles and meetings, not RPG development. Finally, I think it's a bit over-priced, 40 dollars is too much for something that looks like an upgraded Charlemagne.

[Hooahguy]

The province system seems in the right direction, to be honest, although I would prefer a larger scale. I hate the trait system, though, as I sorely miss the days when traits and retinue were determined by luck, buildings, battles and meetings, not RPG development. Finally, I think it's a bit over-priced, 40 dollars is too much for something that looks like an upgraded Charlemagne.

I liked how R2 did it, where some traits could be picked like an ability to fight night battles but other traits would randomly appear. But I did really like the pure chance system like R1 had, gave a really authentic feel to everything.

[hoom]

So Provinces are like Empire rather than Rome2?
I never really got very far into Empire campaigns but I really liked the idea, yet those small villages were a big PITA to defend in practice.
Maybe will work out better with relatively more actual Provinces?
Empire gameplay was awkward for having few, huge Provinces like all of France as 1 Province.

Note the Campaign Map revealed in vid & screens
Attachment 20561

Like zomg its the British isles but it shows each major Faction will have several Provinces.


Unit Training sounds interesting, the initial reduced strength can represent either time to train-up new troops (all actually present but just being raw they are effectively 1/4 strength of trained troops) or time for recruits to travel from around the place.
Without AI adjustments I forsee its going to result in AI sending in 1/4 strength army after army in a really annoying way though.

I like the sound of a faction population pool, I kinda liked the Rome1/Med2 population per-town but in some ways it was pretty dumb.
Much will depend on how they balance the size of the pool, hopefully linked to number of Provinces or something in a way that provides a bit of tension about what you do with them as the game progresses.

Recruit from Fortify is also good I think, should limit ability to just hire a bunch of units & march straight into battle.


I like the idea of Tech/Upgrades being linked to gameplay, it was a good thing about some of the Rome1 mods like EB.


War fervor stuff I'm wary of because most of the time its not my choice to be at War or Peace with other factions, basically entirely dependant on the level of insanity of the AI.
So it's likely to result in massive penalties because AI factions refuse to make peace no matter how dire their situation.

[edyzmedieval]

To be fair, I really like the campaign map design of this. It looks authentic and it's quite missing from more general TW titles because it gets replaced with scope. S2TW/FOTS had this, ToB has this too.

[Hooahguy]

Here is a 30 minute video on various features of the game:



I havent watched it yet but I will soon and perhaps summarize it. But on the video itself it has an index of sorts which is good for finding specific answers to questions.

[hoom]

Just started watching now but interesting couple of books behind Lusted
Rise & Fall of Ancient Egypt & Dividing the Spoils is about the Successors, hints of future Sagas?

[edyzmedieval]

It's quite interesting how they evolved the character system - from just given random household items to choosing what you want exactly.

[Maggot]

The character system has only gotten more tedious as time went on in my opinion. Especially when you have lots of land and spend 10 minutes picking 5% bonuses for your general, his troops, your tech tree, and buildings. Vices and Virtues with titles or the ancillary system was better but I will still probably get this on a sale to co-op with friends.

[edyzmedieval]

[hoom]

Not the most useful trailer... I guess its an intro video?

This gameplay one is better I think

also

[Hooahguy]

No agents? Im not 100% sure about this but I think its a good thing since I would get really annoyed with agent spam in previous games.

Do really like the idea of automatic trade agreements. Got very annoying in other games when a faction wouldnt accept my trade agreement even though we were allies.

The overall immersion factor seems to be there plus the art style is very appealing. Which is why I pre-ordered it.

[Hooahguy]

Article on the tech tree.

Looks pretty interesting to me, I think I will like the change in how tech is done.

[hoom]

Campaign map article is pretty neat https://www.totalwar.com/blog/throne...ign-map-reveal
factions (warning big)

settlements (warning big)


Here's another preview vid

[hoom]

Some more CA blog updates

Endgame https://www.totalwar.com/blog/throne...timate-victory
Can't say I'm totally thrilled by the sound of that, I really hate the way CA tends to just make all the AI factions hate you when you get big, regardless of how you've treated them or how vastly you may overpower them.

Settlement pic from above


Viking Sea Kings faction https://www.totalwar.com/blog/thrones-viking-sea-kings


More Vikings https://www.totalwar.com/blog/thrones-great-viking-army

[Hooahguy]

Well the endgame mechanic seems to be more like a massive foreign invasion than a realm divide situation.

[Demetrius]

The devotion detail returns in Britannia, yet there are better approaches to oversee traitorous characters. When you take a territory you gain a gathering of bequests that you would dole be able to out to upstart saints. "Some folks will be horrendously faithful, some will be dicks," says Al Bickham.

[assh]

The endgame mechanic, though, looks to be more akin to a major foreign invasion than a circumstance where there is a realm division.

[DragonRider]

Well the endgame mechanic seems to be more like a massive foreign invasion than a realm divide situation.

How about a spoiler alert?
How about deleting this unnecessary comment altogether.
Are there any new Hollywood movies that you would like to tell us how they end too?