Total War: Medieval 3 reveals its first six playable factions and they're absolutely stacked

Creative Assembly has officially confirmed the first six playable factions coming to Total War: Medieval 3, and the lineup is already shaping up to be a delicious buffet of political backstabbing, feudal muscle-flexing, and empire-building chaos. According to Rock Paper Shotgun, the studio also gave fans a peek behind the curtain on how they actually go about selecting which factions make the cut.

Think of it like a character select screen in a fighting game - except instead of picking your main, Creative Assembly is essentially deciding which medieval superpowers get to rumble on the world stage. The confirmed factions reportedly represent a mix of feudal heavyweights and scrappy emerging empires, giving players the classic Total War choice between playing the big dog or the hungry underdog grinding through the campaign on hard mode.

So who made the starting roster?

While the full breakdown of all six factions is still being rolled out, what's clear is that Creative Assembly is going for variety - the kind of roster that makes you boot up the game six different times because you simply cannot commit to one playstyle. It's essentially the Dark Souls of decision paralysis, except instead of dying to a tutorial boss, you spend 45 minutes on the faction select screen.

Creative Assembly also shared some insight into their faction selection process, which - as Rock Paper Shotgun cheekily pointed out - would ideally involve designers jousting in full heraldic regalia while rival spymasters poison each other's goblets. Sadly, it sounds like the actual process was slightly more spreadsheet-based than that.

Why this matters for strategy fans

The original Medieval 2 Total War has been running on nostalgia fumes and community mods for nearly two decades, so the announcement of a proper successor is basically a server-crashing event for the grand strategy crowd. Getting the starting factions right is crucial - it sets the tone for the entire game and determines whether the campaign map feels like a living, breathing medieval world or just a reskinned checkerboard.

If Creative Assembly sticks the landing here, Medieval 3 could absolutely reclaim the throne as the king of historical strategy. And if they don't? Well, the modding community will fix it in six months anyway. They always do.