Define Your Destiny with Campaign Customisation

Looking for a helping hand? Or the ultimate challenge? Campaign Customisation gives you the freedom to play however you like.

It was the 18th US President Ulysses S. Grant who famously said that “War never changes”. But that’s not quite the case in Total War: PHARAOH.

That’s because when fighting for the mantle of Pharaoh, no two battles need ever be the same. Do you think you’d be getting a fairer crack of the whip if you had more resources? Or if the AI had different personalities? Or if your starting positions had been different? With Total War: PHARAOH’s Campaign Customisation features, all of these elements and more are yours to dictate.

We reached out to some of your favourite Total War creators to see how they would change their campaigns if given this power!

The first to take a stab at crafting a unique campaign was Arkcard, creating an economy that would impress Mansa Musa!

Using these settings, the high Resource Deposits setting allows you to swiftly build up your armies and settlements. As lands are then conquered, you’ll quickly be able to field several large armies, and with Character Movement set to high your reach will be rapidly extended with each passing turn, especially when each army is led by Fully Equipped and Levelled Generals!

Not that it’s all plain sailing, however. With Attrition Intensity set to high, your large numbers will nonetheless rapidly fall – although feel absolutely free to ease the pain a bit by also setting Unit Replenishment to high!

But please choose your battles carefully, as if we end up in a scrap there is no backing out thanks to both Auto-Resolve and Retreating being turned off completely!

It isn’t just the battlefield where things are getting spicy. With the thresholds for Public Order and Rebellion set to low, you’re going to need armies at home as well as on the front lines!

To ensure every campaign is unique, Random Starting Positions has also been turned on while Shroud has been turned off, allowing you to see the entire world and who starts where from the off. That should be handy for forming some early alliances, right? Perhaps, had AI Aggression not been cranked right up…

Do you think Arkcard’s setup looked a bit frenzied? Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet! Zerkovich cooked up a campaign designed purely for all out, top-tier warfare.

It includes High Starting Budgets, High Resources and a High Research Rate, guaranteeing Tier 4 or 5 units in next to no time. 

Along with this there’s also High Recruitment Capacity, Fully Equipped and Levelled Up General, as well as the toggling off of Rebellions. Expansion is the name of the game, and attrition is not going to be a problem as armies speed through the deserts and mountains toward their next target.

Also on the menu is lots of melee combat. There will be no Retreat From Battle, and the Missile Unit Ammunition of our archers is set to low, forcing all ranged units to get in and amongst it. Is it really a fight if you can’t see the whites of your enemies’ eyes?

Upping the lunacy, the Starting Positions and Enemy AI have been shuffled, so perhaps we’ll see an Irsu starting in the Egyptian deserts who wants nothing more than to sit down with a nice cuppa and gossip about the latest barrack romances?

There’s also plenty of scope for getting creative with your Campaign Customisation.

An interesting combo is High Movement coupled with the Disabling of Diplomatic Penalties for Trespassing. The pairing of Disable Battle Auto-Resolve with High Ammunition Capacity for ranged units paves the way for an absolute snipe-fest!

How about a selection of settings designed purely to spark turmoil? With Random Faction Personalities and Random Faction Starting Positions the world is scrambled from the off. Then we give every faction Lots of Money and set Pretenders to the Throne to high, meaning everyone and their mothers are going to present themselves as the rightful heir to the Kingdom.

The backdrop to all this political upheaval is equal disquiet at home, thanks in no small part to the maximised effects of Disasters. Plus, those pesky Sea Peoples are going to be a far bigger endgame problem, meaning it’s imperative that our place on the throne and land fortification are secured to an almost absurd degree before they roll into town.

All of which is just a taster of the options available to players through Campaign Customisation.

Maybe you want to go hard and extreme with a brutal campaign that will test your battle and diplomacy skills like nothing before? Or perhaps you’re after a relaxing stroll to the throne, commanding a stacked army that’s equipped to steamroll all wannabe conquerors?

Instead you may want to keep the game mostly at default, but with just a few tweaks to the aspects you enjoy the most? Or the least?

Total War: PHARAOH will hit (digital) shelves on October 11th 2023 at 15:00 BST / 10:00 EDT / 22:00 CST. You can pre-order it here.