Creative Assembly has announced (via blog post) the Desert Kingdoms Culture Pack, a new DLC for Total War Rome 2. This year will the game’s fifth anniversary, after originally being released for the PC in 2013.
The Desert Kingdoms Culture Pack will introduce four new playable factions to Total War Rome 2. This includes the Kingdoms of Kush, Saba, and Nabatea, which falls under the African/Arabian subculture, as well as the Masaesyli, which has Numidian origins. These factions are native to the harsh and unforgiving deserts of Africa and Arabia, which has molded them into hardy warriors who use the shifting desert sands to their advantage during battle.
Each faction features unique military strengths and unit rosters, as well as new building chains and technology trees which reflect their different playstyles. They will each have individual Faction Traits while sharing several Cultural Traits such as Desert Warriors, which grant bonuses to morale during desert battles and bonus agricultural income, and Deep-rooted Traditions, which unfortunately gives a penalty to faction research rate.
Additionally, a free update will be coming alongside the Desert Kingdoms Culture Pack, which will add female leaders and generals to all campaign and factions. These include Cleopatra for Egypt and Teuta for Ardiaei. However, some women can only serve a social/political role or serve as generals according to their respective cultures like Roman or Greek. There will be a special “Cursus Honorum” path that follows the increase in “behind-the-stage” political influence of women for cultures where they cannot hold public offices.
This is not the first surprise DLC by Creative Assembly and Sega. In November 2017, they released the Empire Divided campaign pack DLC alongside a free update which improved the political system in the game. Total War Rome 2‘s Desert Kingdoms Culture Pack will be released on March 8th, 2018. Players can receive a 10% discount off its full price of $8.99 if they pre-order the game before it officially releases.
