Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first thing you notice about Elite Units of the East is how unapologetically narrow it is. This is a unit pack, and it lives or dies on whether the thought of expanding Ottoman and Maratha armies sounds exciting to you. If you tend to play the big European powers every campaign, twelve troops for two other factions will not suddenly change your habits. If you have been looking for an excuse to spend more time with the Ottoman Empire or Maratha, though, the additions make those army lists feel less settled.

The Ottoman side gets the clear bulk of the attention. Haydut Irregulars, Wallachian Boyars, Bosnian Panduks, Circassian Armoured Cavalry, Armenian Archers, Libyan Kuloglu, Palestinian Auxiliaries, Cairo Janissaries, and Mounted Nizam-I-Cedit create a roster that is varied on its face, spanning irregulars, archers, Janissaries, auxiliaries, cavalry, and mounted troops. Even before you worry about exact battlefield roles, that range is the point: it gives an Ottoman-focused playthrough more pieces to consider when you are deciding what sort of army you want to field.

The Maratha receive a smaller but still welcome trio in the Rajput Zamindars, Poligars, and Barawardi. That imbalance matters. This is primarily an Ottoman expansion with a Maratha bonus, rather than a fully even package for both factions. You should judge the purchase accordingly: Ottoman regulars have the strongest reason to care, while Maratha fans get a modest roster supplement rather than the same depth of new options.

There is a nice specificity to the selection of units. The pack does not pad itself with generic labels; it draws attention to distinct regional names and formations. For a strategy game built around moving national armies across a huge map, that kind of faction texture has real value. Still, twelve units remain twelve units. You are paying for more variety inside familiar Empire: Total War battles, not a new way to play them.

Graphics

The add-on’s most concrete visual draw is its expanded lineup of named Ottoman and Maratha troops: Cairo Janissaries, Armenian Archers, Circassian Armoured Cavalry, Rajput Zamindars, and the rest give those army rosters a more regionally specific cast. The package is about seeing more kinds of soldiers among these two factions, rather than changing Empire: Total War’s broader look.

Story

Elite Units of the East finds its flavor in military history rather than in a separate authored tale. Names such as Wallachian Boyars, Bosnian Panduks, Palestinian Auxiliaries, and Mounted Nizam-I-Cedit immediately place the focus on the Ottoman Empire’s varied military world. That is a stronger hook than a plain set of anonymous “elite” upgrades would have offered.

The Maratha contingent has a similarly pointed character. Rajput Zamindars, Poligars, and Barawardi make the expansion feel rooted in a particular part of the game’s eighteenth-century setting instead of treating every faction as interchangeable. You may not come away with a new narrative, but you do get more historical color in the armies you choose to lead.

That flavor is also why the pack works better for a campaign you already want to role-play than for a purely numbers-driven purchase. The names invite you to care about who is marching under your banner. If that kind of texture helps you stay invested through a long strategy campaign, the pack earns more of its modest scope.

Overall Experience

Elite Units of the East is a clean, faction-focused add-on with a sensible target audience. It gives the Ottoman Empire the lion’s share of the new material and gives the Maratha a smaller three-unit boost. There is no need to oversell that: its payoff comes from refreshed army composition and stronger regional flavor, not from a sweeping expansion of Empire: Total War.

For an Ottoman campaign fan, the nine-unit selection is substantial enough to feel like a real roster extension. The mix of irregulars, archers, auxiliaries, Janissaries, cavalry, and mounted troops has enough breadth to make the faction feel more richly stocked. Maratha fans should enjoy the three additions, but should go in knowing they are receiving a side dish rather than the main course.

Ultimately, this is easy to recommend to the right Empire: Total War veteran and easy to skip for everyone else. If you are eager for more Ottoman units and appreciate historically specific troop names, it is a worthwhile bit of extra army flavor. If you want a major campaign shake-up or an even split of attention between the two factions, its limited scale will leave you cold.

Retro Replay Score

6.2/10