Total War: ROME II - Black Sea Colonies

Black Sea Colonies DLC was developed by Creative Assembly, published by SEGA and released 20 November 2014.

About the Game

The Black Sea Colonies Culture Pack introduces three new playable factions into the ROME II Grand Campaign: Cimmeria, Pergamon and Colchis.

Originally citizens of the Greek States, these pioneering peoples have settled far from home, intermingling their customs with those of far-flung societies to create unique cultures of their own. The Black Sea Colonies bring a rich new gameplay flavour to ROME II through their unique traits, battlefield units and buildings, and hybrid unit-rosters.

Black Sea Colonies added the new playable factions to the Rome II Grand Campaign Map, Pergamon, Colchis, and Cimmeria. Each faction worked as a hybrid between the Greek culture and their neighbouring regions.

Each of these factions brings along their own sets of traits, as well as unique units and buildings. Cimmeria fights with spear and shield units, while gaining wealth from agricultural buildings and boosting multiculturalism. Pergamon can hold front lines with elite defenders, while entering the game with reduced building costs and town growth boosts. Finally, Colchis has heavily-armored units, while also boasting a trade income boost.

Skills and Experience

Black Sea Colonies was developed alongside Wrath of Sparta, we attempted to split our design effort across both products. This was an experiment, to see if we could use our improved efficiency (which the team had gained over previous projects) to increase our output. Ultimately this wasn't effective as both Wrath of Sparta and Black Sea Colonies were weaker as a result. Although we released them in quick succession, the quality suffered.