Clearly all that time spent playing Civilization wasn't quite the same as reading history books after all. The expansion's campaign is set on a new map that spans all of Greece and parts of Asia Minor, and it's really rather lovely looking - as you'd expect for anything built around the Aegean Sea, eh? Supposedly there will be wonders dotted about the map, no doubt including the Colossus of Rhodes, the Temple of Artemis and.
It was, in short, a horrible period of history, and is therefore perfect for a Total War game. Greek military tactics shifted away from a somewhat ritualised form and toward full-scale war, leaving entire cities devastated. It pretty much marked the end of the golden age of Greece, seeing an increasingly greedy imperial Athens entering into full-scale war with Sparta and the other remaining independent Greek city-states.
This time around The Creative Assembly are focusing on the Peloponnesian War, which - gags aside - is a really fascinating historical period. Then again, it would have wildly inaccurate to do so because Wrath of Sparta is set about sixty years after some well-oiled Greeks with CGI torsos fought off thirty million Persians, and as we all know video games rarely play fast and loose with historical facts. It's a shame that the promotional machinery of video games moves so rapidly these days, because it would have been Just Plain Charming had Sega been able to announce this Total War: Rome II campaign expansion two hundred and eighty-nine days ago.