Publisher Paradox Interactive has announced a new strategy title to add to its hefty slate, called Millennia. It’s a turn-based strategy game that seems to be taking a clear shot at the historical 4X (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) space dominated by Civilization from Firaxis Games, with competitors such as Sega’s Humankind. The game is currently slated for a 2024 release.
Development is being handled by a new US-based studio called C Prompt Games, founded by Rob Fermier, Ian Fischer and Brian Sousa. According to their website, the developers have worked on games like System Shock 2, Age of Mythology, Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings, Orcs Must Die, StarCraft, Diablo, and WarCraft.
A press release announcing the title purports that Millennia will pair “familiar comforts of the genre” with “fresh new gameplay.” It does not appear to base its factions around actual human history like Civilization at this point, but rather takes a more flexible approach, as Humankind tried to do.
Mechanics detailed at this early stage include “National Spirits,”, which you are able to select in order to shape your civilisation’s history and traits, and “Alternate History” phases for each of the game’s ten historical ages, which will alter the trajectory of the game with unique rules, units, and buildings for each.
“Domains” serve as the specialties for each civilisation, including warfare, engineering, arts, exploration, and government, but it seems like you’ll start at a base level in each game, with your actions determining which area you will specialise in, and the bonuses you’ll get.
Millenia also promises deeper economic and combat systems, where smaller systems actively feed into larger ones, as well as familiar genre ideas like world wonders, barbarians, and the space race. However, “alien visitors” and “underwater cities” are also mentioned, which should add some interesting twists.
It’s an ambitious-sounding game to be sure, and hopefully the twists Millennia is promoting will be enough to meaningfully distance it from Civilization, enough for it to stand on its own merit.
You can wishlist Millennia on Steam.
Here’s the official rundown of its features, courtesy of Paradox Entertainment:
Features of Millennia include:
– History and Alternate History: Lead your people through ten historical ages, steer your timeline into the uncharted alternate history of a Variant Age or the danger and opportunity of a Crisis Age. Each Age involves unique rules, units, buildings, goods, and challenges, which can alter the path of history.
– National Spirits: Decide what your Nation is famous for by selecting National Spirits and using the bonuses they provide to achieve your goals. Combine multiple National Spirits as you progress through history to craft a unique civilization in every game.
– Domains: Invest in six different Domains that influence the focus of your Nation – Exploration, Government, Warfare, Diplomacy, Engineering, and Arts. The better you provide for each, the more your Nation can make use of unique Domain Powers. Everything from claiming territory, to adopting new governments, to spreading religion, to reinforcing Armies flows from mastery of the Domains.
– Deep Economy: Design your economy to support your strategy. Gather raw materials, then build Improvements to refine basic Goods like logs or iron into lumber, paper, books, ingots, tools, or weapons – specialized products that allow you to improve and adjust your economic engine to suit whatever history sends your way.
– Army-Based Combat: Customize your approach to war by combining individual Units into powerful Armies. Each Unit influences the capabilities of its Army, allowing you to employ a vast number of varied strategies. Once in conflict, watch the action unfold through the Combat Viewer, where battles play out and provide details on how different Armies perform.
– And more: discover natural landmarks, build the Pyramids, compete in the space race, finance expeditions, survive plagues, use diplomacy to your advantage, defeat barbarians, unleash innovations, deal with alien visitors, govern underwater cities, manage air combat, and master a host of other historical-themed content.
