Total War: Rome 2’s Pirates & Raiders want to pillage your purse

Oh crap, the AI finally figured out how to disembark from boats.

Following the free Getae update earlier in the week, Creative Assembly has now released the paid DLC Pirates & Raiders. This one will set you back $8.00 USD and adds three cultures who are quite keen on raiding shorelines from their ships.

Those three piratical factions are: the Ardiaei of Illyria, the Thracian tribes of Tylis and the Odrysian Kingdom. There’s nothing these guys love more than a good war, so you’ll find that provinces are actually happier when you’re in conflict with as many neighbouring states as possible. Each faction has its own trait too, so the Illyrians love a bit of piracy, the Odrysian Kingdom has excellent archers and Tylis concentrate on infantry.

All three primarily use the ‘Barbarian’ unit roster, but will bring a few new ones of their own to Rome 2:

Ardiaei:
• Illyrian Marines: Highly trained, medium-armoured spear infantry.
• Illyrian Raiders: Fast-moving, axe-wielding stealth infantry.
• Illyrian Noble Hoplites: Well-drilled, very heavily armoured infantry.
• Raiding Hemiola: Fast boarding-craft manned by Illyrian Raiders.
• Assault Hexeres: Huge assault-barge manned by Illyrian Raiders.
• Assault Tetreres: Large assault-barge manned by Illyrian Raiders.

Odrysian Kingdom:
• Thracian Horsemen: Fast-moving, spear-armed medium cavalry.

Tylis:
• Gallo-Thracian Warriors: Fast-moving, hard-hitting sword infantry.
• Tribal Warriors: well-armoured medium swordsmen, great in defence.
• Raiding Horsemen: Noble multirole, armed with javelin and sword.

Here’s a related launch trailer, featuring lots of pirates jumping off boats and shouting “Rarr.”