YMMV / Thrones of Britannia: A Total War Saga

• Anti-Climax Boss: The end-game Norman/Norse invasions are rather anemic, comprising only a small handful of invading armies. Their unit compositions are also rather varied: while some units like the Norman Knights and Jomsvikings are more than a match for anything found in Britain in this time period, a good fraction of their overall numbers is made up by low to mid-range levy infantry that are handily outclassed by your own late-game units. Depending on where they land, you could even defeat the whole invasion force before they reach your territory. In addition, if your faction's economy has been built up and optimized, and/or you have built extensive alliances with the other factions, you can just grind the invasions down with attrition.
• Awesome Art/Awesome Music: The game features some of the best art direction in the whole Total War franchise, with a beautifully immersive soundtrack and highly stylised cutscenes and UI◊ drawn to evoke Anglo-Saxon metalwork and stained glass. The details extend to the 3D game world, with birds flying off the treeline at the sound of approaching armies, troops chanting out in battle and warning each other of imminent dangers, and even little touches on the campaign map, such as herds of cows roaming across Ireland in a Shout-Out to the Táin Bó Cúailnge, and the Loch Ness monster emerging out of the waterways of Scotland.
• Broken Base: As with all Total War releases, this one has earned a few points of contention in the community. Most notable being the total removal of army stances and campaign-map agents, both of which have groups in favor of and opposed to them. The community generally seems lean toward the removal of agents being acceptable (if disappointing), but the removal of army stances has been met with serious contention, especially after Creative Assembly defended the change by stating that ambush stance was hardly ever used and there was little actual historical evidence of large-scale ambushes occurring in the setting. This even extends to its critical reception, as while it has received generally positive reviews there remains a rather large divide in the community centered around the game's changes and the game itself is quite divisive.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Factions, particularly rich ones, are very likely to start researching Military techs first, as their requirements can be met in a single turn if the recruitment pool allows for it. In contrast, Civic techs have mandatory construction times for the buildings involved. Since there are no catch-up mechanics for research, the player might as well research something rather than let all those turns go to waste.
  • Grabbing settlements with ports is a priority, as ports allow smooth transition between land and sea, and trade between factions whose capitals are not linked via settlements. Port settlements also always have 2 constituents: the actual port itself (either a fishing or a trade port), and another settlement.
• Contested Sequel: Is quickly gaining a very divisive reputation among the fanbase. Even more so, since it comes after the surprisingly good Total War: Attila and the beloved Total War: Warhammer trilogy. While the aesthetics and some of the new mechanics (primarily the character, recruitment and settlement systems) have received substantial praise, the way the latter were implemented resulted in an unexpectedly easy game for many players. The removal of mechanics compared to recent entries in the series is regarded by some as dumbing down the game.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The announcement of Flann Sinna resulted in a plethora of jokes on how his name is very similarly-pronounced to John Cena.
  • "Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia, set in 878 AD." ^Explanation In a 2024 interview, British media personality Gregg Wallace mentioned enjoying the game and that it was specifically appealing to him because of its authentic depiction of 9th century Britain. Unfortunately, during the same interview, he mentioned that he spent more time playing it than being a father to his autistic son and also that he hadn't really wanted to have the child in the first place. The callousness of his tone when talking about his son resulted in a wave of memes where people expressed their desire to be playing Thrones of Britannia instead of doing important tasks or spending time with their friends and families.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Creative Assembly's decision to blacklist a popular Total War Youtuber, the highly controversial Legend of Total War, just before the game was released has caused a minor backlash on its own, and the forums are often filled with people discussing that instead of the actual game.
• Spiritual Licensee: Thrones of Britannia is one of two video game adaptations of Vikings and The Last Kingdom alongside Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. There even exist a mod for the game that's based on the latter show.

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