Desert Kingdoms Culture Pack

[edyzmedieval]

Empires of Sand, for R2TW!

[KLAssurbanipal]

Steam info: http://store.steampowered.com/app/79..._Culture_Pack/

[hoom]

Well thats a nice surprise
I thought they were done with Rome2 adding the Empire Divided Campaign & Patch.

Bunch of factions that have been fairly sorely missing so far, will help fill out the South edge of the map.

Also Kush roster https://www.totalwar.com/blog/kush-roster-reveal

Edit: and according to https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-...esert-kingdoms
we're getting a Free Female Leaders upgrade

Female Leaders – Free LC

Following in Zenobia’s footsteps, Cleopatra and Teuta are now fully playable as faction leaders and generals, along with custom visuals and voice-over.
Important female characters have been added to all campaigns and across all factions. In some cultures, like Rome and Greek – women can only serve a social/political role while in other women can be generals and fight alongside men.
For cultures where women can’t hold public offices there is a special “Cursus Honorum” path that follows the increase in “behind-the-stage” political influence of women.
There are special events (dilemmas) that portray the trials and tribulations associated with women coming to power in ancient times. Usually, there are traditions and prejudice standing in the way. Such events allow the player to recruit a female leader or gain some other bonuses from parties that would oppose such a decision.
Faction leaders of opposite gender can now marry as a diplomatic action, significantly strengthening the relations between the two factions.
The basic marriage action now has political implications.

[edyzmedieval]

It's basically Empires of Sand, and given that this was well received for A:TW, it made sense to do it for R2TW as well. Empire Divided didn't get a proper reception from the fans so they're making amends with some requested factions.

+ an upgrade too.

[hoom]

So its out, anyone played the factions?

I like the idea of playing Nabatea, though the idea of going out conquering with them seems odd since they weren't known for military expansion
Also not sure I like the idea of starting out wedged between powerful Seleukid & Ptolemies
I guess main plan would be to expand South, secure Arabia & then cross over into Southern Nile/Persia

Patchnotes (& hotfix today) https://www.totalwar.com/blog/desert...ms-patch-notes
Whole lot of nice bits of gameplay/quality of life improvement there
Feels like a bunch of what should have been in the earlier patch.

Am I the only one who finds it a bit odd that so many of the female characters are sequels?
Like Ptolemies have Berenice III, Cleopatra II & Berenice IV, like shouldn't there be Berenice I & II as well?

Edit: So I've been doing some reading & Nabataeans did do a fair bit of fighting, defeating Successors & Judean forces a number of times, apparently did some piracy in the Red Sea (smacked down by Ptolomies) and did expand quite a bit bigger than I'd previously understood.