Creative Assembly has revealed the new features and fixes that will arrive with the Desert Kingdoms update for Total War Rome 2. The Desert Kingdoms Culture Pack DLC is slated to release tomorrow on March 8th, 2018. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the game’s launch. First of all, playable female leaders and generals with custom visuals and voice-overs will be added to all campaigns and factions for the first time ever in a Total War game. The most prominent additions include Cleopatra as leader of Egypt in the Imperator Augustus campaign and Teuta as leader of Ardiaei in the Grand Campaign.
However, some women can only occupy social/political roles in cultures like Greek and Roman while other cultures may permit them to become generals as well. 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. A major addition to diplomacy in Total War Rome 2 will be the ability to marry factions leaders of the opposite gender to strengthen the relations between them. Basic marriage actions will now hold political implications. The update also introduces Spice as a Resource, giving a large bonus to tariff income from trade agreements.
Additionally, a new Merge Units button will be added. In battles, players will once again be able to put units into Guard Mode to keep them in position and prevent them from chasing down enemies. A new Mod Filter allows players disable all their mods after a new patch is applied to prevent them from breaking the game.
Several factions will be removed from the Grand Campaign, including Himyars, Blemys, and Himyar. They will be replaced by the Sabaean Kingdom and the Kingdom of Kush. However, those three factions can still appear in-game if their original regions are liberated.
Last but not least, some bug fixes for the main game and Empire Divided DLC expansion will be implemented in tomorrow’s update. Read the complete list of improvements here in the original blog post by Creative Assembly. Players can still receive a 10% discount off the full price of $8.99 if they pre-order Total War Rome 2‘s Desert Kingdoms Culture Pack on Steam before it officially releases tomorrow.
