Total War: PHARAOH Guide#

Total War: PHARAOH is a historical entry in the Total War series developed by Creative Assembly and published by SEGA, released on PC (Steam and Epic Games Store) on October 26, 2023. Gameplay layers historical real-time battles on top of turn-based empire management, set in the late Bronze Age — officially pitched as Egypt’s New Kingdom period around 1200 BC. You lead one faction as it manoeuvres between the Egyptian, Canaanite, and Hittite cultures, with the end goal of becoming the “last pharaoh standing”.

Everything in this section is compiled from officially published information. Wherever official or verifiable material says nothing, the entry is explicitly marked as “not covered” or “defer to the in-game explanation” — no guesswork.

Key Facts at a Glance#

The Eight Launch Faction Leaders#

Eight faction leaders are playable at launch, spread across three cultures. The list below is confirmed by the official announcement:

The Canaanite leaders rule lands in the southern Levant, an area that was never a single unified state in history — picking a Canaanite faction means controlling that faction, not a polity governing the whole region. Worth keeping in mind when you choose your starting leader.

The Three Officially Announced Features#

Campaign Customisation#

A series-first set of campaign options. The official announcement lists three adjustable settings:

• Randomise the starting positions of all factions — every power’s starting point is scrambled before the war begins;
• Adjust resource settings — changes how the economic environment is configured;
• Raise the probability of natural disasters — calamities intervene in the war effort more often.

The practical takeaway: the “standard opening” is no longer fixed in this entry. Once starting positions are randomised, any opening plan hard-wired to traditional map positions can fall apart, so every campaign should start by scouting your surroundings before committing to a strategy.

Dynamic Battlefield Weather#

The official description of the weather system makes two points:

• Thunderstorms, sandstorms, and other weather directly reshape the surrounding terrain;
• Fire can burn down forests and damage the foundations of enemy settlements.

In other words, weather here is not a visual effect — it is a variable that physically changes the battlefield. Checking current weather and terrain before you march or engage is a habit that pays off across an entire campaign.

Eight Distinct Faction Leaders#

The official line groups the 8 leaders into three playstyle routes: diplomatic power-brokers, front-line commanders, and blunt warlords. The routes emphasise different approaches, but per-leader mechanical differences were not itemised in official materials, so this guide does not speculate.

Two-Player Multiplayer#

The game supports both two-player co-op and versus play, and Steam and Epic players can match up with each other cross-platform.

Historical Setting: The Bronze Age Collapse#

The stage is the historical Late Bronze Age Collapse: the maritime trade networks that had bound together the Near Eastern civilisations broke down, triggering cascading upheaval, and several great powers declined and fell during this period. Your faction must survive that upheaval — and fight for the title of the last pharaoh.

According to the historical record, several launch leaders are documented figures: Ramesses and Seti were real Egyptian pharaohs; Tausret was Tutankhamun’s queen and served as regent; Amenmesse was a figure from the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty; and the Hittite Suppiluliuma was a real monarch who was defeated by Ramesses II at the Battle of Kadesh. One caveat: the game is a blend of historical adaptation and fiction, so its specific battles, events, and character relationships should not be read as one-to-one history.

A full breakdown of this backdrop and its cast is covered in the lore sub-guide, available in Chinese on NTGame (see Full Guides below).

Section Navigation#

The pages below were written from officially verified material:

The remaining legacy pages — faction overviews, the battle system, strategy and tactics, units, economic development, the campaign guide, diplomacy, achievements, practical tips, challenges, version updates, and the gallery — are earlier drafts currently being re-verified against official material page by page. Until that review is complete, treat this hub and the table above as the source of truth for specific data.

What This Guide Does Not Cover#

To avoid passing on rumours, the following topics stay out of this section until verifiable official or hands-on data exists:

• Exact resource lists: the announcement only mentions “adjustable resource settings” under campaign customisation without itemising resources; the various resource lists circulating online are unverified — defer to the in-game explanations.
• Religion/deity bonus systems: no verifiable system description appears in official announcements.
• Per-leader mechanical details: only the three-route summary is official; nothing has been itemised.
• Achievement lists, DLC plans, difficulty tier values, specific hotkeys: none collected.

Related Games#

• Total War: Attila — another historical-era Total War entry, likewise built around the survival of a civilisation
• Civilization VII — a turn-based 4X strategy that offers another lens on the rise and fall of civilisations
• Dune: Awakening — an open-world survival game where factions contest territory and scarce resources, echoing the same struggle for dominance

Related Rankings#

Best Co-Op Games · Most Anticipated Games of 2026

Full Guides#

In-depth sub-guides — a beginner’s primer, controls and settings, lore and the real history behind it, the economy system, a campaign walkthrough, an FAQ, faction overviews, and practical tips — are available in Chinese on NTGame’s Total War: PHARAOH section.