Total War Pharaoh best leaders and factions to play

Want to play the Total War Pharaoh best leaders? With three different factions and a whole lot of leaders to play, it can sometimes be difficult deciding who to choose for a game of Creative Assembly’s newest strategy title. That’s a dilemma we’re aiming to resolve with this guide.

Here, we’re going to give you our suggestions for the Total War Pharaoh best leaders, as well as the best faction to play. Keep in mind that this is based on our experiences from our playthroughs reflected in our Total War Pharaoh review. There’s more setup to consider beyond just your leader though. If you want a full breakdown of how to start a campaign, which includes an explanation of all the campaign settings, we can help you out.

Best leaders for each faction in Total War Pharaoh

Here are our picks for the best leader for each of the three factions in Total War Pharaoh.

• Egyptians – Ramses 3rd
• Canaanites – Bay
• Hittites – Suppiluliuma

Let’s go through and explain each of these choices quickly.

Best Egyptian leader: Ramses 3rd

This is a particularly strange one at first glance. Ramses doesn’t have the limitless gold mines of Kush, nor the fertile banks of the Nile delta, so why did we pick him? The answer is actually pretty simple: neighbours. Ramses is surrounded on all sides by smaller powers and weaker neighbours, covering the entire peninsula. What this means is that a skilled hand and fast action can allow you to rapidly expand your territory in the early stages of the game, subsuming your weaker rivals. Once you’ve doubled or even tripled the size of your territory, you’ll find yourself with net positive incomes for most resources, the capacity to scale up your armies, and the groundwork laid out to quickly conquer most of Upper Egypt and its Pillars of Civilisation come the next civil war.

This is further supported through unique buildings open to Ramses. The Necropolis of The Honoured Dead is an exceptionally powerful building, greatly boosting influence and happiness within both a settlement and province. Meanwhile, the Military Academy and Medjay Headquarters offer substantial recruitment bonuses, giving your armies a considerable edge over your enemies, especially in the early and mid game.

Best Canaanite leader: Bay

You’ve got quite a disparity in your two initial leader choices for this faction. While Irsu is undoubtedly the greater fighter, Bay is in a position perfectly aligned for rapid and massive economic and political growth.

Bay is situated near the coast, with cities providing excellent grain supplies from the beginning of the game, ensuring food security. You’ll also start off in a war against a neighbouring but not particularly strong power, granting a quick path to early expansion. As another bonus, your territory will border the city of Gubla, Cult Centre city of immense value. With powerful units at your disposal like the Canaanite Vanguard, you’ll be well positioned to establish yourself as a regional power in little to no time.

What makes Bay a particularly excellent choice is the unique buildings he has access to. His Smuggler’s Bay is a substantially more powerful version of the standard one available to some other leaders, which gives him a great potential advantage later into the game as crisis and collapse ensue. The Regional Fair provides a massive 20% production boost to all resources in a province, for only 3 influence cost. This can be directly balanced out by the Singing Competition, which also provides happiness to the province its built in and adjacent provinces in droves. Finally, the Chief Scribe’s Headquarters grants legitimacy score, resource production bonuses, and influence points per non-aggression pact, giving you a theoretical path to maxing out influence in every province as long as you can get along with your neighbours.

Best Hittite leader: Suppiluliuma

One of the hardest starts in the game, mastering Suppiluliuma can pay off in some major ways. This leader will start off in the heart of Anatolia, surrounded by opponents on all sides, but if you’re able to overcome your enemies and expand, you’ll position yourself as one of the strongest factions in the game in no time.

Suppiluliuma is supported by a versatile array of native units, from Heavy Anatolian Chariots to Phygerian Skirmishers, you have the unit diversity to build extremely effective armies with fewer numbers. Bolstering this are some powerful buildings. The Army Supply Centre reduced unit upkeep for an army by 20% and boosts morale by 10 – huge utility bonuses that drastically ease the maintenance of an effective fighting force. The Royal Garrison Palace is one of the best defensive structures in the game, and can easily give powerful cities the means to hold out from all but the strongest foes with minimal support. This is even further improved with a second defensive building, the Garrison Outpost. Lastly the Safe Haven, while not spectacular, is pretty useful if you need to quickly grow your workforce.

What all this effectively means is that although stuck in one of the most challenging starting scenarios, Suppiluliuma has the potential to dominate during the late game. He’s far enough away from the coast to mitigate the impact of the Sea Peoples early on, he’s got a wealth of defensive capabilities that make him a nightmare to invade, and this affords him space to focus on economic and political growth, bringing him towards a point of dominion over the land.

Best faction to play in Total War Pharaoh

It’s difficult to really pick one best faction for Total War Pharaoh. Each faction, their leaders, and their territories have benefits and drawbacks, meaning no faction is truly superior to the rest.

If we had to pick, we’d go with the Egyptians. Spanning vast lands with huge amounts of gold, food and stone, Egypt is well-suited to a variety of playstyles, from economic to warfare. They also boast plenty of different units and mixed enough terrain to make invading a challenging prospect. Their pantheon is also the largest, granting access to a massive number of different deities with different effects. Lastly, the Pharaoh and their associated powers just have a slight edge in terms of versatility.

That covers the Total War Pharaoh best leaders and factions. Still getting to grips with the game? If you want a walkthrough of some of the best tips and tricks, some advice on how to win battles, or a guide explaining Total War Pharaoh multiplayer, we have you covered.

How many factions are there in Total War Pharaoh?

There are three distinct factions in Total War Pharaoh, with leaders in each that players can choose from.

How many leaders are there in Total War Pharaoh?

There are currently eight distinct leaders that players can play as in Total War Pharaoh.

Are there going to be more leaders in Total War Pharaoh?

Creative Assembly have confirmed that more leaders will be added to Total War Pharaoh through DLC and expansion packs.