After the colorful features and political conspiracy of “Total War: Three Kingdoms”, the legend of “Troy: Total War” initially felt like a step backward. To be precise, it was a thousand years back. Troy sounds like a wonderful setting for the “Total War” game-after all, “Iliad” is the font that all other war stories drink. However, the longer the full-scale war has been studied in depth, the less time it will take to cooperate with it, and the deployment of hordes of soldiers and throwers on the cliffs of history will not make the most exciting military encounters happen.
Then I recruited my first Minotaur, which changed everything. Not just because he can smash a spearman like a cannonball on a cake. This is how Troy introduced him. Look, the Minotaur of Troy is not the person Theseus met in the maze-half man, half cow, always lost. Instead, he was just a big axe, who had a soft spot for cattle.
Troy provided us with the first fabulous “Total War” (Total War), but the purpose of this is to reduce poetry, reduce evidence, and try to find the facts behind the novel. Therefore, you may have spearmen fighting centaur in your army, and throwers lined up next to the harp. However, the harp appears as a fleet foot decorated with feathers in their combat uniforms, and women throwing spears, while your centaur is a painted tribe that is good at fighting on horseback.
These legendary units are extraordinary warriors, but ultimately humans. It is this unusual nuance that makes Troy another smaller Total War game. Troy is a lot like the Three Kingdoms and has delved into its pseudo-historical themes. The characters, creatures and customs of the Iliad and wider Greek mythology. It was not that successful, but the final system was fascinating.
This approach starts with strong personalities, who became the driving force of the Trojan conflict. For the battle, you can choose from several leaders on both sides of the war, and each leader has created a unique game style around his own role. For example, play as the legendary fighter Achilles, your campaign will be driven by the emotions of a roller coaster and the desire for glory. Winning victory and achieving great achievements in the Battle of Achilles means cheaper troops and greater political influence. However, Achilles was still a good moody idea. His turbulent temperament made him an unreliable politician, and his economic and military strength changed with his mood.
At the same time, King Agamemnon’s campaign all involved power politics. Agamemnon’s favorite trick is to vassalize enemies and then consume their resources in the form of tributes, while the heroes in his army also serve as court politicians and provide bonuses to his factions when placed. Strangely, one of the most interesting heroes is Paris, the man responsible for the entire war. The lover boy performed best when he approached Helen. Helen is essentially a portable upgrade that can provide important data for the army in Paris and any city where she lives. But Helen could also be captured by an enemy country, which plunged Paris into a heavy depression and affected his entire faction.
No matter which role you decide to play, the ultimate goal of capturing or defending Troy remains the same. To achieve these two goals, you must first bring half of the ancient world into the boundaries, merge or ally with other Greek or Trojan city states, and accumulate enough power to launch ships into the Aegean Sea and overtake the enemy.
Although experienced Total War players will be familiar with the ultimatum of fighting and building cities, Troy has made important changes in some areas of the battle. Resources and transactions have been redesigned to better reflect the economic conditions of the original historical world of Troy. There are five resources-food, wood, stone, bronze and gold. These are produced by remote settlements surrounding major cities, and each city will specialize in a resource.
Ideally, you want to control the number of each solution in order to see the healthy inflow of each resource. However, the distribution of settlements makes it difficult to achieve this goal. You are more likely to have one resource and lack another. Fortunately, you can exchange supplies with other factions and provide them with extra wood as extra food.
Compared with the more abstract trade routes in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Troy’s system has pleasing clarity, and I use it more than other Total War games. Troy emphasized that there is a downside to bargaining, which is that other factions often trouble you with embarrassingly favorable trade deals. This is not only annoying, but also continuous, so that eventually you no longer pay attention to the operation of AI. Once, I accidentally handed over 10,000 servings of food to a competitor in exchange for military access that I didn’t need because I rejected AI intellectually.
Religion also plays an important role in Troy. Building altars and temples for specific gods will increase your reputation for worship of that god. At lower levels, this provides a small amount of statistical bonuses, while at higher levels, you can recruit legendary units such as the Minotaur (Cheers Zeus!). Therefore, dedicating yourself to a specific cult is a great way to unlock powerful troops in the early game. However, in the true Greek style, the gods are fickle bastards and will flood your crops as soon as possible, because you will get free gifts.
There is another way to enter mythical units, and that is to conquer settlements that can produce mythical units. Combined with the unique resources generated by the solution, this increases the difficulty of choosing the next strategic goal in the first half of the game. Are you heading to Euboea where the giants roam, or exploring the Cyclades while looking for Serens and Habis? Maybe you shouldn’t do this, but instead focus on purchasing some extra bronze to better support the troops you can already recruit.
On the battlefield, Troy started slowly, but improved as he progressed. The most technologically advanced object you will see is a tank (which is great when tearing the army away from the rear). Unless you play Pythia, the cavalry is a rare scene. The besieged city is a simple case. Assuming that the settlement starts with a wall, you can zoom the wall directly or hit the wall along the gate. Even the weather has not changed much. Most of the battles I have fought were conducted under the sun of the Aegean Sea, which makes the game look beautiful, but not very interesting from a tactical point of view.
In other words, the rugged terrain of Greece and Anatolia constitutes an excellent battle map. You can use all the cliffs, cliffs and rock pillars to create a large number of bottlenecks, natural fortifications and amazing altitude. At the same time, the semi-fabulous unit makes up for the lack of technical diversity. Not only did they create much-needed spectacles, but they also added layers to the infantry-based combat in the game. For example, the weight measurement of the unit is different, lighter units such as javelin throwers can move faster, while heavier units can be used to break the wire while charging.
If Troy is insufficient in one aspect, it is the relationship between characters and factions. Although Troy’s faction leaders have distinct personalities, Troy failed to conceal the core sentiments of the Iliad War. In the battle of revenge between Achilles and Hector, Menelaus’ hatred of Paris, everyone generally opposed Agamemnon, who was eager for power. The Trojan Horse War is an ideal environment for personal politics, and the exploration of the three kingdoms is so outstanding. But Troy does not have these systems. At the same time, alliances are a key element of the Trojan game, but apart from the new trading system, diplomacy is one of the most immature areas in the game. You will not be unfamiliar with the friendship between Greece or Trojan horses. All this is very stable and practical, which is really regrettable.
I am not sure whether Creative Assembly will make the most of these “legendary” games as experimental opportunities. I will be happy to provide them with a smaller and wilder experience instead of trying to match the glory of the mainline game. Nevertheless, there is undoubtedly an improvement compared to the dullness of the British Throne. Troy may not be as enthusiastic as the character it represents, but its unique faction, thematic system and the nuances of mythology still inspire people’s imagination.