Or there's the 'let's make a deal' diplomacy that requires tending almost every turn, as factions spam each other with offers of gold for food or bronze for stone with a military alliance on the side.

Ergo, to get a good agent, you have to run them around the map giving them missions you don't even necessarily need, just so they can level up to a point where they can knock-out other enemy agents or maybe, maybe hinder an enemy army or commander at a useful moment in the campaign. They gain experience by doing missions, and each mission is effectively a roll of the dice. Finally, the best laid-battle plans can be thrown into chaos when a hero's rage builds to the point that they become the embodiment of arete and basically go berserk in ways that can turn a battle on its head.Д«ut then there is the return of agents, the non-combat spy and caster units who were mercifully removed from Three Kingdoms because managing them was always far more trouble than it is worth. Troy tries to be 'historical' rather than mythological, so you won't see Poseidon actually sinking your ships or Apollo firing plague-arrows into you armies, but honoring the Gods does provide passive buffs and bonuses that put some extra spirit and power into your forces. The Gods are fickle and require their own steady trickle of bribes and honors, so that your forces can enjoy the buffs and blessings that come with their favor.

To its credit, Troy succeeds at evoking a lot of the stories around the Trojan War: your commanders are, almost to a man, temperamental assholes whose capabilities wax and wane with their 'motivation.' You're fighting a war between divided nations, and so much of the game is spent shoring up the coalitions and alliances you need to take the fight across the Aegean and bring the Trojan War to a close, which involves you in the politics of non-aligned factions and the ambitions of other Greek or Trojan warlords. That's certainly fitting for the subject matter: a war famous not for its battles but for an endless, stalemated siege and the vainglorious feuding of its commanders.

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