So Total War Arena's Closed Beta has gone semi open, with them handing out keys like candy, the NDA being lifted, and anyone who signs up from the UK (or merely says they are from it) getting a steam key. Currently it's still very basic, with only a handful of maps and two factions (Rome and Greece), but so far it's looking promising. It's very much in the World of Tanks / Warthunder style of level progression for units, thankfully more on the WOT side than WT side as far as intuitiveness (I may love WTs gameplay, but hell if their leveling system isn't an eldritch abomonation), and each general also has skills they unlock. Each team consists of 10 players bringing 3 units of 100 someodd men (thus keeping the battles to the Total war standard 3000 v 3000 with margin of error). Currently every battle is a capture the base mode where your army must either destroy all opposing fighters, or capture the enemy base. The maps so far are excellent, owing to the fact they're all handcrafted and designed to support the fact that a single player wont be managing every unit, so there can be much more complexity.
Each army has 2 free generals and one behind a modest silver paywall (silver and gold are the exact same concepts as in WoT) that you can get after a few good matches. The economic and XP balance seems like they are already experimenting with it instead of going into hyperdrive like other games do in Alpha, which frankly I feel is a good thing as it allows the low tiers to actually get good metrics and feedback. Currently looks like the big thing gold will be used for, besides memberships and the occasional (frankly unimpressive) premium unit, is cosmetic color schemes. No word on if there will be cosmetic changes beyond that, but it's unlikley as different helmets and shields and swords and all that are the WoT style part upgrades for units.
Now the one big change is free xp isn't what it normally is in these games. Instead there's unit XP and commander XP. Unit XP can only be spent on the unit type that earned it (all upgrades are unified to same type units. Buy a new sword for Italian Noble Infantry, and all Italian Noble Infantry you recruit will have it forever), while commander XP can be spent on either commander upgrades, or to shore the gap on a unit upgrade much like free xp in other similar games.
Now onto the commanders. As I said each army has three commanders, one of which requires a modest silver fee to unlock. They are much like the tanks in WOT, namely they are bound to a battle till it finishes, even if they are resoundingly defeated early on in the battle. Because of this you're going to want to spread the commander xp love around, as a commander can only field units up to his level. The commander also will take a spot in the 1st unit slot, so if say you have decided to roll 2 spears and a bow & arrow as your army, it may be wise to put the bow and arrow in slot 1 so your commander doesn't get stabbed to death and drop your army's morale.
Anyway if you wish to sign up and are in the UK or other select European nations you can get a non-region locked steam key pretty much instantly now.
https://playarena.totalwar.com/
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Topic: Total War Arena: Kinda Semi Open But Not Officially Really Open Alpha (Read 1157 times)