The year is 878 AD, the embattled English king Alfred the Great has mounted a heroic defence at the battle of Edington, and the Viking Invasion of Britain is over. The Norse warlords are firmly established, but the ambitious kings of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales have aspirations of their own – not least the great King Alfred of Wessex. Britannia is a furnace of possibilities, from which the template for modern Britain will be forged, across the most detailed Total War campaign map ever made.

Chastened – but not yet broken – the Norse warlords have settled across Britain. For the first time in nearly 80 years, the land is in a fragile state of peace.

Throughout this sceptred isle, the kings of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales sense a time of change approaching; a time of opportunity. There will be treaties. There will be war. There will be turns of fortune that become the stuff of legend, in a saga that charts the ascent of one of history’s greatest nations.

Kings will rise. One will rule.

"It was under Alfred the Great and his immediate successors that a unified Anglo-Saxon kingdom was first forged." said Thrones of Britannia Game Director, Jack Lusted. "As the only major kingdom left standing after the Viking Invasion, it was under the banner of Wessex that the lands the Great Viking Army had conquered, known as the Danelaw, were retaken. The name of this kingdom changed from Wessex to England."

The Anglo-Saxons had conquered the land and united the people, mixing and merging cultures that originated in Germany, Scandinavia, and Europe.

"The reconquest of the Danelaw led to an adoption of many elements of Viking culture, some of which persist today. A number of towns across Northern England bear Viking names for instance, and there are well over a hundred common English terms that can be traced back to Nordic origins."

A Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia will be available for PC from May 3, 2018.