Thrones of Britannia

£34.99/$39.99

Requirements macos 10.13.4 or later • Intel Core i3 1.80 GHZ processor • 11.21GB Learn more feralinteractive.com

A standalone game in the Total War saga, Thrones of Britannia challenges you to reshape the British Isles during a very volatile time in its history. The year is 878 AD and English king Alfred the Great has just mounted a heroic defence at the Battle of Edington to thwart a Viking invasion, but now the country resides in a fragile state of peace as ten playable factions, including the Anglo-saxons, Gaelic clans, Welsh tribes and Viking settlers, plot to make their move for the throne.

In a new saga development, you recruit your armies from a global pool that refills semi-randomly over time. The result is that you may not have your most effective units available at the time you want to mount an attack, forcing you to make tactical decisions on where to deploy your troops

Available from Mac App Store

to effectively hurt your rivals rather than just steamrolling them with your strongest units. Sadly, this was the only element of the game that really worked. Most other stuff, like the War Fervour stat, that gauges your army’s appetite for battle, is too easy to maintain, and the food needed to keep your troops well nourished is straightforward to come by making it all feel a bit simple. We also found it strange that every turn you take equates to three months, regardless of the actual action you are performing – meaning it can take years to march from one end of Blighty to the other!

There is much here to enjoy though. The map is excellently realised and the skirmishes themselves can be exhilarating, but you never really feel a sense of reward as it is all a little too easy.