TW Kingdoms Preview 1

The Big News

The Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms expansion is something completely new to the Total War universe. It isn't just one expansion. It's actually four expansions for the price of one as it has four brand new campaigns. Those campaigns are:

Brittania

- play the kingdoms of the British Isles in the early middle ages. You can chose from five factions: English, Scots, Welsh, Irish and the awesome Vikings who are named Norway in this campaign. The campaign starts in 1258

The Crusades

- the campaign I've been hoping for. This is an amazing period of history and we'll get to re-create the battles that were fought over the holy land. Who knows? Maybe the realm of the Crusaders might be able to flourish this time round. There are five playable factions in this game: Kingdom of Jerusalem, Principality of Antioch, Egypt, Turks, Byzantium. The action kicks off in 1174 with the two Christian kingdoms united against the Muslim and Byzantine enemies but for how long!

The Teutonic Wars

- with all the excitement over the better remembered crusades in the holy lands, it's easy to forget about battles like Tannenburg. This was epoch-defining stuff and the units & factions should be very interesting to play with. The six playable factions are: Teutonic Order, Lithuania, Denmark, Novgorod, Poland and the Holy Roman Empire. Religion will play a typically important role in this campaign as the factions are either Christian or Pagan and the action kicks off in 1250.

The Americas

- this campaign will satisfy those who wanted to play the Aztecs in the standard campaign of M2TW. There are seven playable factions to choose from: Spain, The Aztecs, Mayans, Apachean Tribes, Chichimeca, Tlaxcalans and Tarascans. This campaign kicks off in 1519 as Cortez lands with a small but elite force.

Other Information

There's acres of coverage at the Official TW Kingdoms webpage on www.totalwar.com
They also have a press release giving more information and a trailer to view, which looks awesome.

We can look forward to 23 playable factions (13 of which are completely new) and over 150 new units including the potentially awesome Greek Flamethrower. It looks like CA are adding new stuff to the game like controlling multiple armies and reinforcements in battle. The new hero character element will be an interesting addition and the fans will be very impatient to see how this works out. Permanent forts will be like mini-cities and in mountainous areas, you will virtually be able to block off all access to the enemy. The mission system will be further expanded which is great news as these have been very popular in M2TW. There will also be 6 New Multiplayer scenarios and 20 new Custom Battle maps.

As if all of that wasn't enough, CA have said that the expansion will be compatible with the new Hotseat multiplayer mode. Could this be the holy grail of the multiplayer campaign? Keep checking M2TWH for all the latest news! You can talk all about it in our forums too. We can't wait for this to come out!