FiringSquad: How will the single player campaign differ from previous Total War titles?

Bob Smith: I've already touched on what variety in gameplay the playable factions bring. Aside from this we've made some significant changes to the campaign game.

One of the biggest of these changes is that you'll now have to choose whether to develop each settlement on the campaign map as a castle or a city. Castles emphasize the military, and cities the economic. Build lots of castles, and your armies will be extremely potent. Build lots of cities, and you'll have to rely on dubious militias or mercenaries. On the other hand, you'll have the money to buy off your opponents. Castles will require less management than cities but as the game develops cities will become more important. Although you can switch between the two as the game progresses, redeveloping settlements will be costly and you could lose buildings as a result, so the transition will need to be carefully managed. As a result, there is a great deal more strategy involved as you expand your empire across the campaign map.

The campaign map itself will be busier with several new types of agents, including merchants, princesses and priests that offer increased interaction with rival factions and more options. For example, if you choose to develop a series of strong cities to provide financial stability, you can also recruit a number of merchants to venture into foreign lands to seize precious resources. You can even use merchants aggressively to takeover trade currently exploited by rival factions. Effectively, you can choose to dominate on the campaign map through a trade war.

Alternatively, you can enter into diplomacy to improve the experience and skill of your princesses and develop them as diplomatic weapons. Not only will they help you achieve an upper hand in negotiations, they can also be used to marry into opposing factions in order to snatch key members of their family tree away from them. Using a princess to take away a key general from a soon-to-be enemy is a new strategy you'll be able to explore in the campaign game.

Aside from this, later in the campaign the Americas will be unlocked. Initially these will be hidden from the players and the squares of the Atlantic Ocean will be impassible. Late in the game, players will be able to develop the technology to cross the ocean, discover America, and battle with the Aztecs. What the Aztecs lack in military technology they more than make up for in bravery and sheer numbers so while the Americas are there to be conquered, the Aztecs aren't likely to welcome unwanted visitors.

The new world has many unique and lucrative resources, such as tobacco and chocolate, not to mention gold. Dominating America will do wonders for your treasury and converting all those pagans will impress the Pope. Being so far away, the faction that can defeat the Aztecs and establish a base there will have a huge advantage defending it against other factions. The economic advantages that come from having a monopoly here will give that faction a huge boost dealing with the other old world factions. This single event will transform the latter part of the campaign and see players fighting in new environments against a very different opponent than they've been used to.