"They were made for a Total War setting" - Aleksandar Georgiev and Teodor Kozhukov discuss Total War: Pharaoh

After playtesting battles in Total War: Pharaoh back in May, I had the pleasure of playing as Rameses III last month. With 50 turns at my disposal, I could either carve my wave through opposing factions or fall alongside the Bronze Age Collapse. Although the game is still a work in progress, things are looking amazing thus far.

In an exclusive conversation with Sportskeeda Gaming's Matthew Wilkins, Lead Campaign Designer Aleksandar Georgiev and Principal Designer Teodor Kozhukov spoke about their vision behind Total War: Pharaoh.

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Total War: Pharaoh - Ancient Egypt in the making

Q: I know this question has been asked many times over, but why set the backdrop of Total War: Pharaoh against the Bronze Age Collapse? Why this particular time period?

Given that there were so many to choose from, such as the Old Kingdom or perhaps the Middle Kingdom - was it thought that this era would represent a Total War game the best?

Aleksandar Georgiev: Thank you for this question. We know Egypt has thousands of years of history. There are many periods we can choose for a Total War setting, but the Bronze Age collapse, we believe, was a very good choice. Not only because of the enormity of this disastrous event, which is the Bronze Age Collapse, but also due to the political background that’s present.

This goes for Egypt and for the Hittites as well. We saw this as an opportunity to represent the struggle, which is the political struggle of a civil war in one empire, and also this additional struggle that comes with the Bronze Age Collapse. It seems like they were made for a Total War setting.

Teodor Kozhukov: Yeah, very much so. Both ruling kings at the starting point of the game - both are capable but have a lot on their plate. Merneptah is a capable Pharaoh, but before him was Ramesses II - who was the most amazing for the time. Merneptah became Pharaoh at supposedly around 60. He had seen so much of life, and now he gets to rule, but he’s old and nearly decrepit.

Suppiluliuma, on the other hand, gets to rule an empire that is crumbling. It’s going down fast, and he has enemies on all sides. With all of this difficulty, it’s very easy to place enemies both within the empires, between as well, and on the coast of Canaan.

To add to that, the global enemy of the civilized world is the Sea People. They are coming and then need somewhere to settle. They come not out of malice but out of necessity, and it’s just a lot of sides pitted against each other - which is perfect for a Total War game.

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Q: Who was your favorite Total War: Pharaoh faction to work on and design? What made them stand out from the rest, according to you?

Teodor Kozhukov: You’re asking a difficult one here because it’s like asking parents to pick their favorite child. A lot of care went into all of the factions, but I will try and play a bit of favoritism here. I liked the challenge of portraying The Canaanites because they are the little guys in Total War: Pharaoh.

[They are] stuck between two large empires, both of which want to claim the coast of Canaan as their own. But in a way, they can’t because they are in each other’s way. With the two Canaanite factions, we wanted to portray basically two ways of looking at the world.

We have Bay, who is very fond of Egyptian culture, and he wants to jump into it, even where there is the barrier of birth at the time. He’s not born Egyptian, and jumping into that world will be very difficult for him, but not impossible. This is something we tried to portray inside of the game.

On the other side, we had Irsu who just embodies the classic Total War faction - he’s a warlord, he’s there to pillage, plunder, and have a good time. They are within the same culture, but they are diametrically opposed. They are very different while both being Canaanite.

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Q. I’m absolutely fascinated by the concept of Outposts in Total War: Pharaoh. It adds an entirely new dynamic layer to the map and is rather interesting. Walk me through the concept and ideation behind this new mechanic.

Aleksandar Georgiev: Outposts are a system that we very much like in Total War: Pharaoh. We find that it has a very interesting gameplay potential and allows the player to experience a deeper strategic choice.

When we were envisioning the Outpost system, we were thinking of it as well as Settlements as two parts of one thing that, when put together, will allow the player to proceed and succeed.

So far, all the economic activities and development of a province have been concentrated in a Settlement, where, of course, there are gameplay challenges that pertain to developing a Settlement in an appropriate manner.

Now, by adding Outposts, we feel that we not only add three-dimensional depth in terms of strategy because now you have constructions out there in the region that are beneficial for the player, but they also come with certain weaknesses.

They are not well defended, and with this three-dimensional strategic element of using and smartly combining the Outpost with buildings in the Settlement, the player will be able to make more impactful strategic choices on a fundamental level.

Teodor Kozhukov: Also, I think, historically, the moment we started circling around the idea of Outposts for Total War: Pharaoh was when we took into consideration historical records of Pharaohs who, when going to war, would build forward forts.

They would then station an army there, and when the army was built up within the fort, they could control the surrounding area while conquering and then take the army and go.

I think this was the first point when we decided that we were going to do this with Outposts. The other thing we could represent for the Bronze Age world was how to have Settlements in the desert. We have the Western desert, and we need to have something in it. We can’t just have a big blob of sand with nothing to do there.

We first started with oases, which were trade routes, and as it grew, small Settlements got established around the biggest bodies of water. So, to portray civilization reaching out into the desert and trying to conquer it, Outposts represent this expansion in a good way.

There’s also a very practical thing we figured out with Forts, which were the first Outposts we tried to do. They allow you to store units, keep them there when ready, and then use them to defeat any enemies that show up.

Stashing units this way turned out to be surprisingly fun. We did not expect how cool it would be just to have a pocket full of units.

Aleksandar Georgiev: If I can add something more, we used Outposts to also connect other systems to it and just incorporate a lot of moving parts. The monument within the Outpost is something we can easily imagine and was something that was happening in ancient Egypt.

We use monuments to gain legitimacy, which is a way for the player to become the Pharaoh - by propagating their name across the land in Total War: Pharaoh.

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Q: Talking about mechanics, which are the new ones that you are hoping veteran players will absolutely love in Total War: Pharaoh? On the same note, which mechanics are you hoping new players will fall in love with?

Teodor Kozhukov: The one I’m most excited about and also probably the one I was most frightened of during development all the time is the Courts in Total War: Pharaoh.

The attempt to portray this Bronze Age world of administration, big structures being put on top of each other, building the empire up and up, stacking responsibilities onto each other, and creating overseers and managers - we wanted to portray that, but in a manageable way and not to drown the player in thousands of little mangers.

The goal was to try and show them that there is an aspect of ruling and not just managing cities or fighting in wars. The Court in Total War: Pharaoh allows factions within the same culture to interact with each other in spite of world events.

Within the Court, you can have a faction with whom you are at war or with whom you are friends or greatest allies. And even your greatest ally can still stab you in the back within the Court system.

They can try and claim your position for themselves. This is an aspect of real life that we wanted to portray. It was very exciting and very frightening to try and create the steps of power.

The Court allows you to force-interact with a position, take a little bit of their ability and take it for yourself, become king, and start filling positions one by one. It also allows the player to balance their game on a knife’s edge.

We very recently realized a very cool thing that happened with the Court in Total War: Pharaoh. Do you enter the Court? Where you have power, and power sees you as well. Factions can now target you. I realized that all of this sounds really cool, and it can look daunting for a new player who is learning Total War for the first time.

Because at some point, the Court will also touch their doorstep in-game, and they will have to learn how to use this system. Butt we tried, not just with the Court but other systems as well, to show them to the player in little increments.

Like I said, within the Court, you can find a position you like the most, start interaction, start using intrigues, and then by using requests, take a little bit of their power - you know, try their power out.

If you feel the Court is too overwhelming, just stay out of the Court. It’s up to you to use it as much or as little as you want. We’ve tried this approach with many other systems, such as Outputs and Deities as well.

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Q. Another very interesting concept in Total War: Pharaoh is Competencies. I feel it’s simplified the way in which a General’s stats are increased. And I love the fact that it's tied in with Titles.

Could you shed some light on the idea of this new system and how it came to be?

Aleksandar Georgiev: We have many different systems, and we wanted to make sure that every one of them has their own place. We wanted players to interact and turn their intentions toward them during a turn. Competencies are part of this larger system that we call character management in Total War: Pharaoh.

When you open the character management panel, Competencies not only connect to Titles but also provide an easy way of developing the character in small increments. We also see this system in Total War: Pharaoh as the representation of the person, the traits, which kind of add a bit of depth and color to each of the characters.

We wanted to make sure the player has the opportunity to develop the characters in a way they find useful but also adds to the character’s nuance and a bit of uniqueness by combining all of those elements.

Hopefully, it will make the player care more about the personality and character in Total War: Pharaoh, which is being developed in a very specific way. One can see how they grow over the course of the campaign.

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Q. Coming to individual units in Total War: Pharaoh, Stances is something that has blown me away. I don’t seem to get them right all the time in battle, but they are incredibly fun to use.

I wanted to know if it was a challenge to implement these minor tactical abilities into the game and if new players would be able to adjust to this new system.

Teodor Kozhukov: First and foremost, it’s all about giving players more tactical choices in battle in Total War: Pharaoh. Because in battles, sometimes in previous titles, you would figure out what you want to do, where you want to set up your units, the archers, and then you execute it - and you’re done.

You did the battle perfectly, good. With Stances, it’s one step forward in trying to make battles feel more dynamic. To make things change during battle.

Now, when lines are drawn, you can start making a hole in it or pushing forward or luring them in by backing off slowly. When it comes to new players, they will be introduced to this system slowly because not all units have Stance.

Not every unit in Total War: Pharaoh can advance or slowly retreat, and we’ve further built up on some of these Stances as well. Some units can perform a Reckless Advance.

This also affects the unit’s stats in Total War: Pharaoh. It gives them more attack when advancing, and we hope that a player will encounter these and slowly try to use Stances as well.

They are not very complicated and are fundamentally pretty simple, you know - go forward or go back. And it’s up to the player to figure out what they want to do with them.

As a Total War player, I had this experience the first time I played a game with any kind of gunpowder unit. I had to read up on the concept of chevrons. Setting up your units in a way where you can allow units to utilize their firepower better.

We hope a similar thing happens with unit Stances in Total War: Pharaoh. We think we know how to use unit Stances, but I hope to see players figure out stuff that we did not think about initially - to make their own way using Stances and to learn little by little.

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Q. With the introduction of armor in Total War: Pharaoh, battles are supposed to feel a bit more drawn out - slower paced, but for the most part, hammer and anvil tactics are still viable.

Will this change once the full version of the game is released, or will armor values be adjusted?

Teodor Kozhukov: Right now, we’re really focused on the release of Total War: Pharaoh, but we’re also very involved with gathering feedback. Looking at basically what we did not get perfect the first time around because no matter how much we balance internally or how much we try or how many battles we each play to check things - we will not get it perfect the first time.

It is impossible, and, in essence, perfect is impossible because that means that we stop developing. So we take feedback very much into consideration, and we’ll be keeping a watchful eye.

You know, still having hammer and anvil work, a familiar strategy that has worked throughout human history, I think is not a bad thing. But when every battle is only hammer and anvil, that’s when I think we will need to step in.

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Q. I love the fact that the Research Tree has been replaced with Royal Decrees in Total War: Pharaoh. I wanted to know if different factions will have different Royal Decrees that are completely unique to each other or similar with minor changes.

Aleksandar Georgiev: We wanted to make Royal Decrees in Total War: Pharaoh something that the player will recognize as part of their strategy to expand. We wanted to make sure the player would regularly be able to have a meaningful choice between several aspects of the game - one being military and the other being economical. However, there are several strategic choices as well that can be executed to change the flow of the game.

We wanted to make sure that mixing those elements together into roughly 50 Royal Decrees could be used as contributors to the progress of the player at the right time. We think we managed to do that. They are little pieces of additional support that kind of make the difference when it’s necessary.

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Q. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me today, and I hope Total War: Pharaoh's launch goes smoothly. Before leaving, would you like to say anything to fans and wellwishers about Pharaoh?

Aleksandar Georgiev: Thank you very much.

Teodor Kozhukov: Yeah, thank you for your passion and for enjoying the game.