Total War’s Thrones of Britannia Saga will include Norman Knights and Viking invaders. In an interview with the game’s director, Jack Lusted, he told PCGamesN that the Norman invasion of 1066 inspired the game’s ultimate campaign victory.
Thrones of Britannia takes inspiration from Warhammer to revamp Total War.
The Ultimate victory in Thrones of Britannia is an event chain that triggers when you complete a victory condition of a ‘long’ campaign, whether through fame, conquest, or kingdom victories. Lusted says that “once you’ve completed one of the long victories, you get events talking about how people overseas are looking quite enviously on your kingdom.”
That envy quickly translates to something of a land-grab, in which “one or multiple invading armies can appear,” depending on where you are on the campaign map and your difficulty level. If you can repel the invaders, you’ll win your ultimate victory.
The three factions that can appear are the Norse, the Normans, and the Danes, or all three if you’re on legendary difficulty. While Lusted says that the decision to include these factions was inspired by the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066 (which was predated by battles with Norse factions just weeks earlier) Creative Assembly “didn’t want to force players into just doing 1066. We wanted it to be reflective of you, because it’s all about this role-playing, and this dynamic story stuff.”
While the Norse and Danes will be similar to factions you face during the campaign, the Normans will bring new units, including mounted knights, to the game. Lusted says that these “aren’t high Medieval knights with lances,” though – “they’ll still run up to a shieldwall and poke at it and go: ‘ohhh, better not try that.’”
A Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia will release next month, and is available for pre-order now.