A Total War Saga: TROY - Amazons

I've spent enough time with Total War's Bronze Age sandbox to know that the base TROY roster, while historically flavourful, can start to blur together after a few campaigns. The Amazons DLC sharpens that blur considerably by introducing two factions that play nothing like anyone else on the map. That mechanical contrast is the whole pitch here, and it mostly delivers. Hippolyta's campaign is the more settled of the two. You anchor around sacred regions, accumulating Amazon Treasures that feed into the Amazon Kingdom progression system, unlocking milestones that buff diplomacy, rank up units, and let you fire off Royal Decrees ahead of schedule. Her roster leans into horse archers and heavy sword infantry working in concert: archers circle and peck while the heavier line holds the centre. The Initiation Rites mechanic, shared across both factions, replaces straightforward unit recruitment with a training pipeline that asks you to invest turns into transforming raw initiates into specialised warriors. It's a resource management layer that rewards patience and punishes the sort of panic-recruiting that gets you through other Total War campaigns on autopilot. Penthesilea plays closer to a Hunnic or Attila-era horde, which is a wild thing to say about a Bronze Age title. Her Blood Oath and Horde mechanics mean you are perpetually on the move, harvesting War Spoils from captured settlements rather than sitting inside a tax base. Penthesilea's unit pool skews toward two-handed axe infantry softened up by skirmishers, then finished with cavalry charges. Units like the Daughters of Ares, Labrys Infantry, and Hippomachoi give her lines a distinct identity on the battlefield that feels genuinely different from any Achaean or Trojan roster. Players in the community consistently flag Penthesilea as a fast, army-focused play that scratches an itch closer to Total War: Attila than to a standard TROY campaign. What holds this DLC back from being an easy recommendation for everyone is context: you absolutely need the base game, and TROY itself sits at a comfortable but not spectacular 72 percent positive on Steam. The Amazons content does not fix the base game's AI inconsistencies or the occasional mid-campaign diplomatic absurdity, and the Horde style can feel punishing if you are not already comfortable with the economic juggling TROY demands. The Steam Workshop does have active overhaul mods, notably the Agony overhaul, that expand faction diversity across the board, and the Amazons factions integrate well into those mod environments if you want a deeper sandbox. For existing TROY players who have already exhausted the base faction list, this is a clean purchase. Two genuinely differentiated campaign styles, three distinct faction mechanics, and a roster identity that does not overlap with anything already in the game. Newcomers should start with the base game first and return here once the turn-based empire layer feels natural.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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