Sega and The Creative Assembly recently unveiled Kingdoms, the first expansion for RTS Medieval II: Total War, and today we're talking to designer and artist on the project Brendon Rogers.
The main part of Kingdoms' content consists of four new campaigns, with battle and strategy erupting in the Americas, Great Britain, Northern Europe and the Holy Land. The Creative Assembly giving these campaigns a tighter focus than the campaigns of the original game, and they concentrate on these specific regions and periods of history across the medieval world.
But there's actually a lot more to Kingdoms than just the new campaigns. We quizzed Brendon Rogers for more info...
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Kingdoms' four new campaigns are set in the Americas, Great Britain, Northern Europe and the Holy Land - what made those locations ideal for the expansion?
Brendan Rogers: For Britannia, Teutonic and Americas a major factor was the public demand as we are constantly bombarded with requests to make games covering the history of these particular lands in greater detail. The Crusades is the fourth campaign and it is included because it offers such an interesting game world.
During medieval times the Crusade in the Middle East was the place of hero's, professional soldiers, religious zealots, holy relics, wealth, and intense politics. It also gives us an opportunity to explore an end game that escalates to a climatic finish.
Why did you choose to revisit some of the themes and content (The Crusades) that were included in the core game?
Brendan Rogers: As mentioned previously The Crusades offers a very interesting game world that warrants more attention. Medieval 2 includes "Crusades" which can occur in the Middle East but doesn't explore the depths of what was exciting about this place and time. The Crusades campaign in the Kingdoms expansion certainly does however, and we're sure once you play it you will understand why we thought it deserved its own game.
What else can you tell us about the new campaigns at this stage?
Brendan Rogers: Each of the campaigns offers new factions, new units and new game mechanics so each one offers a unique challenge. We'll be revealing each campaign in detail over the months ahead but right now we can give you some details on Britannia.
In this campaign you can play as the English, a dominant force that has to cope with rebellion from conquered territories of Wales, Ireland and Scotland and also within their own ranks. Or you can play as one of these conquered, rebellious factions, rising up against the English King.
You can even seek to take command of the Norwegian invasion forces and look to sweep across the British Isles by the might of your Viking warriors.
The campaign plays at a great pace because there are no rebel provinces to provide a buffer between the factions, so the player will have to decide on their friends an enemies early on, use diplomacy to buy them some time and strike decisively.
Added to the mix is the Barons Alliance event - a rebellion from within the English ranks led by Simon de Montfort. This event effectively creates a sixth faction, an army of rebels that must be squashed if you're playing as the English.
If you're playing as one of the rebellious factions however, you can encourage the formation of the Barons Alliance by completing missions at the Barons request and create a new ally against the English. Britannia is a fast paced campaign that's been designed to promote large armies fighting it out for high stakes.
What additional hero characters are we going to see outside of Richard The Lionheart and Saladin?
Brendan Rogers: Outside of those two, the Byzantines have Emperor Manuel. He has an ability called "Byzantine Politics" which represents the rather cunning use of Byzantine agent's provocateur. Prior to any battle Manuel is involved in, he sends out agents to infiltrate enemy camps to find soldiers who may be open to bribery. These men are promised a great reward to cause a "distraction" during the battle.
When "Byzantine Politics" is activated it has a chance to cause any unit facing Manuel to begin infighting within their own ranks. This is a really nasty ability to use when an enemy is approaching Manuel in battle formation, as it could paralyse units moving in and break up the formation presenting vulnerabilities and flanking opportunities. Of course if you attack an infighting unit it will quickly put its squabble aside...
So what other new battlefield abilities are attached to these hero characters?
Brendan Rogers: Aside from Emperor Manuel's, Richard the Lionheart, Hero of Jerusalem, has the "Heart of the Lion" ability. This is a great ability to use when the chips are really down! It represents Richard's own great courage and the effect this has on his troops.
When used, Richard sends out a massive call to rally, which rallies all allied troops fleeing from the battlefield no matter how far away they may be and fills their hearts with courage for the continuing fight. This is a real battle turner as you can go from having half your army routing to turning around and flinging themselves back into the fight in moments.
Kingdoms introduces 13 new factions and over 150 new units - obviously we're not expecting you to list them all but which factions and units particularly stand out for you personally and why?
Brendan Rogers: There certainly is a lot we could touch on here, but here are a handful of interesting new factions and units worth looking out for in Kingdoms.
The North American Indian factions in the Americas campaign certainly stand out. There are two North American factions available in the campaign, namely Apachean Tribes and Chichimeca. Both of these will start with only foot units but after a few encounters with Europeans they'll begin to seize and exploit the technology and strategies they encounter so they will gain access to units on horse back and gunpowder. Anybody who enjoys a good "Western" is going to have some fun with these guys.
In the Teutonic Wars campaign, Lithuania is an interesting and challenging faction to play as they are the primary target of the Teutonic Order. Although being pagan they will have access to unique pagan game mechanics, success is hard when there are so many Christian powers in the region.
For the first time a faction will be given an opportunity to convert religion and Lithuania will be given the chance to convert to Catholicism and ally with Christian factions to counter the Teutonic Order. Upon converting they gain access to more mainstream Western European technology and troops but lose access to the unique pagan ones they had. It's a hard choice but one that may need to be made.
As for units - you'll see a lot more of the new units included in Kingdoms on www.totalwar.com and in various movies we'll be releasing in the months ahead. Right now though, I've got to pick out the Greek Firethrower that is available to the Byzantines in the Crusades campaign.
"Cool" isn't the most appropriate way to describe these guys but they most certainly are! Predictably, they can be pretty devastating in battle too.
Are there any new structures that play a significant role?
Brendan Rogers: Permanent forts, some with moats, will figure significantly in your strategy in the campaigns. These forts are placed in provinces around the map that are of strategic importance. Troops can be garrisoned in these forts cheaply thus enabling factions to afford larger armies. Seizing and occupying a fort in an enemy territory meanwhile, causes great devastation to the province so control of these forts is vital to the upkeep of your armies and provinces.
New technology trees have been mentioned - can you tell us more about what the expansion's adding here and how they fit in with existing/new factions?
Brendan Rogers: There's a lot of detail to go into here because each campaign sets technology trees differently according to the faction and the technology they had available to them in that period. We'll reveal more on how these work when we reveal each campaign in detail.
However, as an example the Mesoamerican factions have new and very limited technology but are able to get improved units by stealing technology from their enemies. In the Teutonic campaign meanwhile, the Lithuanians have a new chain of temple buildings within their technology tree which unlock new units as they are explored plus, as discussed, they have the option to convert to Catholicism which unlocks completely new technologies for them.
What's the Hotseat multiplayer mode all about, and can you tell us more about the six new multiplayer scenarios?
Brendan Rogers: A Hotseat mode will be fully implemented in Kingdoms and each of the four campaigns is playable in this mode and has been balanced for Hotseat play. In Kingdoms, this mode will be fully supported with in-game UI and menus.
The way it works is pretty simple - two or more players can share a PC and play out the campaign on one machine as opposing factions in the campaigns.
There are actually eight multiplayer scenarios now for Kingdoms. We have created two scenarios for each campaign that utilise the new factions in a loosely based historical situation. These maps range from 1vs1 to 2vs2 scenario setups. These are quite different from the custom maps by having balanced armies and irregular deployment zones.
The maps are hand-crafted and there are different types of map setups such as capturing/defending a village or laying an ambush for an approaching player army. The deployment zones can be different for each army and often allow the player to choose multiple paths for their attack or defence.
Now that you've revisited the medieval age, can we expect a revisit to Shogun and feudal Japan, or would you rather explore a brand new age/era in the next full Total War game?
Brendan Rogers: Aha, that's the question isn't it - where to next? We're lucky in that Total War offers few limitations in terms of the settings we can consider. We're obviously not in a position to reveal our plans for the future right now but we can certainly say that there are big and exciting Total War plans afoot.
On a more general note, is cross-platform play between Xbox 360 and PC something that appeals? Can you see yourselves integrating that into the Total War series or is it just incompatible with console?
Brendan Rogers: As a games developer with an established series of games like Total War, then obviously the cross-platform potential appeals. We don't see any major incompatibility issues with strategy games on the console. However, bringing the Total War series to the console is not something that is on our radar right now.
