Total War: Pharaoh bends history to give us an up-close view of ancient Egypt’s downfall

When the Egyptian empire fell, no civilisation escaped unscathed. The latest in Creative Assembly's series of grand strategy games tries to make sense of a confusing period

In recent years, Creative Assembly has pushed its grand strategy games - in which you raise armies and direct them over a world map that looks a little like the board game Risk - in more fantastical directions, giving you control of Greek and Trojan heroes in Total War: Troy, Chinese folk legends in a retelling of the epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms era, and even mythical monsters in its take on the tabletop miniatures game, Warhammer. But Total War: Pharaoh is firmly grounded in historical sources.

The action happens in the years leading up to the bronze age collapse, a period of sudden turmoil in the 12th century BC that saw many centuries-old Mediterranean civilisations simply cease to exist. We are representing a specific historical period," game director Todor Nikolov says. There are no legends about the bronze age collapse in Egypt, so we went fully historical to try to recreate what could have happened."

Total War: Pharoah will be out in October 2023 on PC and Mac