Total War Saga: Troy – Hippolyta’s Amazons faction guide

Hippolyta’s Amazons is a new faction in A Total War Saga: Troy. She’s got one of the easiest campaigns around, although not as uniquely refreshing as a run with her sister Penthesilea. Regrettably, I did encounter a few glaring issues during my playthrough, which I’ll outline in this guide.

Note: For more information, check out our Total War Saga: Troy guides and features hub. Likewise, be reminded that this guide is for the veteran (very hard) difficulty.

Total War Saga: Troy – Hippolyta’s Amazons guide

Hippolyta’s Amazons faction won’t lead to a completely revamped playstyle since you’re not leading a horde. Instead, this will be akin to the other rulers you’ve played as in Total War Saga: Troy. The High Queen of the Amazons has the following Homeric Victory conditions:

Complete all 13 epic missions.
Unlock all five Amazon Kingdom milestones.
Control all six Sacred Settlements.
Ensure that the following factions are confederated or destroyed: Mycenae, Sparta, and Athina.
Control Athina directly or through vassals/military allies.

Let’s move along and check out how Hippolyta’s Amazons would fare in your Total War Saga: Troy campaign. Click on the pages below for the mechanics that you need help with:

Total War Saga: Troy – Hippolyta’s Amazons faction guide

As mentioned earlier, your Total War Saga: Troy campaign as Hippolyta’s Amazons won’t be far removed from the previous ones you’ve experienced before. The biggest differences, though, will come in the form of her unique mechanics such as the Amazon Kingdom milestones, Amazon Treasures, and Sacred Settlements.

Likewise, there’s the Initiation Rites system for unit promotion. It’s a feature that Hippolyta’s sister Penthesilea also has.

Initiation Rites

Similar to Penthesilea, Hippolyta’s Amazons can only recruit tier 1 units—ie Amazon Swordswomen, Amazon Chargers, Amazon Archers, etc. They need to level-up before they can be upgraded to tier 2 and tier 3 versions. You’re also required to construct military building chains to unlock upgrades:

Melee infantry (i.e., Warmaidens, Aristomachoi) – War Field chain
Cavalry (i.e., Horsewomen, Antianeirai, Hippotoxotai) – Warhorse Field chain
Ranged infantry (i.e., Hippolyta’s Chosen) – Training Range chain
Chariots (i.e., Amazon Archer Chariots, Amazon Champions) – Chariot Proving Grounds chain

Note: The upgrades are unlocked faction-wide. You only need one type of each building in your entire empire to upgrade units wherever your armies might be.

Keep in mind that there are various upgrade paths that you can take (as you can see in the image below). Still, in my opinion, you can’t go wrong with Warmaidens, Aristomachoi, Amazon Champions, and Followers of Artemis.

Amazon Treasures

Amazon Treasures (denoted by a white symbol next to your gold resource) are used for numerous boons and effects via the Amazon Kingdom panel (which I’ll talk about later). The resource is gained via the following means:

Special buildings in your settlements—ie Healer’s Tent chain and Amazon Burial Mounds.
The Artisanship promotions for your generals. As far as I know, only Warlord – Commander types can get this very early. Other archetypes don’t even have these perks/promotions. These let you obtain roughly 10 Amazon Treasures after being victorious in battles and sieges.
Sacred Settlements and Sacred Sites which have a special icon next to a location’s nameplate (seen below).

Sacred Settlements and Sacred Sites

Sacred Settlements grant roughly 10 Amazon Treasures each turn and are required for the Homeric Victory condition. Meanwhile, Sacred Sites grant only around five Amazon Treasures.

Sacred Settlements and Homeric Victory: The big problem

This is actually where I hit a brick wall during my Total War Saga: Troy campaign as Hippolyta’s Amazons. The Homeric Victory requires you to control all six Sacred Settlements. The problem is that there are only six of these in the entire game. I’m not kidding.

I realized too late that mainland Greece didn’t offer more Sacred Settlements. In fact, the last two were already owned by my Trojan allies all the way back to the east. Even if I knew this beforehand, I doubt Hippolyta could rush to grab those last two before her pals take over. There was no other option here but to betray my allies and conquer these territories. Attempting to trade regions or wait for AI minors to “wardec” and take over these lands would be fruitless too.

Amazon Kingdom milestones

This issue left a sour taste towards the end of my playthrough. This was even though the Hippolyta’s Amazon Kingdoms mechanic is probably one of the coolest I’ve ever seen in Total War Saga: Troy. Here’s how it works:

You need to acquire a specific amount of Amazon’s Treasures. This counts the total you’ve amassed so you could still spend any extra that you have.
After reaching that requirement, you spend resources to unlock a milestone.
The milestone provides you with a “feat” or a boost to a particular mechanic in the game.

Veteran Tutelage and Sage Mentoring – Spend roughly 7-15 Amazon Treasures each unit level-up. Combined with a prayer to Athena and leader promotions to get higher-ranked recruits, you could boost units and upgrade them to their next tiers quickly. The same also applies to your generals, although the Amazon Treasures costs are a bit higher. It’s only agents that you can’t rank-up this way.

Wisdom of the Ages – This instantly completes a tech (around 40 Amazon Treasure per turn that’s remaining), and you could speed up your research like a breeze. Try not to accidentally click on the button for techs that require resources (ie gold) because that’d just waste the treasures for a measly turn.

Diplomatic Gift – For 25 Amazon Treasures, you gain +10 diplomatic weight to your proposals (the cost is only subtracted if you go through with the deal). This is completely exploitable too, especially when combined with a prayer to Zeus. Just imagine hundreds or thousands of resources being bartered to you freely for several turns.

Migration – This is a bit costly (150 Amazon Treasures), but it’s quite helpful and repeatable until the building chain is maxed out. The upgrade is instant and it won’t cost resources, not even population surplus. What’s not to like?

These unique features truly make Hippolyta’s Amazons an unrivaled faction in Total War Saga: Troy. When I was playing as the other leaders, the AI-controlled Hippolyta was often the spearhead of the Trojan advance, and she easily painted the map in her colors. Now, I know that she’s just that damn good. It’s just very unfortunate that her Homeric Victory conditions (specifically the Sacred Settlements targets) are borked.