Creative Assembly and SEGA have unveiled their latest entry to the Total War franchise. But what makes it special is that this new title is also the first in their newly established series of Total War Saga spin-off titles. But what exactly does that mean?
First, let's talk about the game itself. Thrones of Britannia: A Total War Saga is a Total War title that takes place in the British Isles around 878AD. This is right after the invasion of the Great Heathen Army and will feature an all-new "highly detailed" campaign map with ten new playable factions and new mechanics. Not all the factions have been revealed, but we do know Viking settlers, Anglo-Saxons and other "certain Gaelic clans" will be counted among them.
But again, what is this "Total War Saga" spin-off series? In an FAQ from Creative Assembly from earlier in the year, they describe a Total War Saga game being bigger than a previous game's Campaign Pack while also not being quite different enough to be a new era-spanning Total War game. It shouldn't be surprising that world history has a lot of sources to pull from. Instead of cramming campaign packs into older titles and trying to retrofit new mechanics into an old engine for the sake of creative a new story based on history, the Saga series seems to aim to create a half-step that makes development easier while freeing up the work on a true sequel to the main series to focus on itself.
With that said, Thrones of Britannia will be based on the Total War: Atilla engine, but is standalone, not requiring Atilla to run the game. There's no price or date for the game as of yet, aside from the 2018 window. It will release on Windows PC.
