The race to grow your civilization, discover new technologies, and defend your interests is at the heart of any good 4X game, and now in Ara History Untold, that can all culminate in the nation-destroying push of a big red button. As the already excellent strategy game continues to improve and get even bigger and better, its new 1.3 update brings a load of new gameplay options – including the ability to fire nuclear missiles at rival civilizations.
Free for all players, Ara History Untold 1.3 – ironically titled the Diplomacy Update, given the addition of nukes – adds several new features and ways to advance your empire. Tensions around nuclear weapons have been prominent throughout the last 80 years of real-world history, but we’re thankfully yet to be wiped out by a uranium-fueled apocalypse. Touch wood, that streak continues… Ara, however, is all about rewriting history and forging your own path, so now you can use the threat of nuclear annihilation and actual nuclear annihilation to your advantage in the 4X game.
With the relevant resources gathered and technologies unlock, you can now build a new ICBM special project – that’s an intercontinental ballistic missile, in case you don’t know. Once built, it will sit in your global inventory, waiting to be fired at an enemy civilization. If you do press the red button, you’ll see an enormous mushroom cloud appear right where that rivaling faction was just a moment ago.
“Nuclear strikes eliminate all units and improvements in the targeted region, leaving it – and adjacent regions – uninhabitable for several turns. However, expect severe diplomatic repercussions,” developer Oxide Games says. Anti-missile defenses can also be built, just in case there’s another nuclear power in your game.
For those of you looking to avoid Armageddon, the Diplomacy Update includes some less destructive options. Two new actions can leverage your power and resources against other nations – Bribe and Demand Tribute. The first sees you give resources to another civilization in exchange for them waging war against a shared enemy, and the second threatens a rival nation and forces them to hand over something you want.
The new Military Aid feature also lets you send troops and resources to allies that are warring against your enemies.
Elsewhere, the new Diplomatic History view tracks and displays how your relationships with other civilizations have changed following key events during a game. There is also a long list of balance changes, optimizations, and bug fixes, and you can read up on all of them here with the full patch notes.
The Diplomacy Update for Ara History Untold is live right now and free for all players. For some similarly challenging titles, head on over to our best strategy games and best RTS games guides.
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