Total War: Arena

Total War: Arena is a free to play, team-based, multiplayer real time strategy (RTS) game by Creative Assembly. It is currently in Closed Beta phase since 24th of September, 2015.

For now it only runs on Windows.

General Information

Engine

The game engine is based on Rome II's, however the way it works is different.

Gameplay

Total War: Arena is a new type of game for Total War, which is set in Antique Age, for now.

It is a team vs team battle game where teams consist of 10 players while each player has 3 units to control under the command of a iconic, historical commander. Battles are made on custom made battle maps, where team play, strategies, and tactics have a bigger role than classic Total War games.

Fog of War and Visibility

There is a FoW system in the game that limits the visibility range of both teams. It can be lowered by taking watch towers or moving units towards the boundaries of visibility range.

Each unit has its own visibility range bonus. Therefore more units will provide a better visibility.

However visibility range isn't permanent, so if all units leave an area, that area won't be inside of visibility range anymore.

Watch Towers

In every battle map there are few Watch towers that players can capture. They extend the visibility range of whole team, which makes them vital.

Terrain

There are many terrain types in Arena, as well as their effects. Also these effects differ from unit to unit. For example forests are friendly to light units, but they aren't friendly to heavy units.

Terrains don't only have effects for unit stats, they have effects for visibility range too. For example a large grass field can lower it by much while an open field doesn't effect it, at all.

Unit Types

Just like in all Total War games there are melee, missile and artillery units. And also every unit has its weight that causes some pros and cons.

For example while light units are the fastest, they won't be good at bracing and defending against higher weighted units.

Currently there are 3 different weight types; light, medium and heavy.

Unit Tree and Progression System

There is an extensive unit tree tier progression for each faction, where you can unlock new equipments or new units by either unit or commander experience. Maximum unit tier is 10.

Apart from progression system, there are few units that can be bought with gold (the in-game currency) which are called Premium units. They have some advantages as getting more resources from battles, but they are well balanced with other units, if not weaker. And as they aren't tied to unit tree, they can't unlock any new units.

Unit Orders and Consumables

Almost every unit have one or more unit orders that can be used when it's necessary. They are mostly active abilities but there are also some passive ones.

Apart from Unit orders all units can get 2 different types of consumables per battle. Just like unit orders some of them are active and some are passive. Also they can be deployable things like stakes, caltrops etc.

Commander Abilities

Each commander has 4 unique abilities, which also have their own progression system. So just like units; commanders, therefore their abilities gain experience and get better in time. Abilities capped with 10 level.

Premium

Players can choose to purchase one of the temporary Premium packs with in-game gold to get %50 more resources (silver, commander xp, unit xp) from battles.

Premium packs don't have anything to do with Premium units.

Factions

Currently there are 3 playable factions in the game.

• Roman Republic/Empire
• Greece (Hellenic)
• Barbarians

Commanders

Currently there are 7 playable commanders is in the game, while there is one Work in Progress (WIP).

TW: Arena Devs said that there will be more, they also said that there will be female commanders too.

Roman

Julius Caesar

His abilities are designed to make him a supporter and engineer General.

Germanicus

His abilities are designed to make him a heavy assault General.

Scipio Africanus

His abilities are designed to make him a cavalry assault General.

Greek

Alexander the Great

His abilities are designed to make him a cavalry assault General.

Leonidas

His abilities are designed to make him a heavy defensive General.

Miltiades

His abilities are designed to make him a disrupter assault General.

Barbarian

Arminius

His abilities are designed to make him a scouter assault General.

Vercingetorix (WIP)

To be decided.

Maps

Currently there are 5 maps in the game. Also there is one confirmed map that is WIP currently.

Battle map is chosen randomly by the game.

• Thermopylae
• Marathon
• Salernum
• Germania
• Rubicon
• Alps (WIP)

Downloadable Content

There isn't any DLC confirmed yet.

System Requirements

To be decided.