Good day folks!We’re now a week away from release, and you’ve seen most things that we have to offer in the Archimedes update and Magna Graecia content pack.What we haven’t covered yet, of course, are the myriad balance changes and tweaks that accompany any major patch. Next week’s dev diary will contain a comprehensive list of patch notes, though there are a couple of things I’d like to draw attention to, which can heavily affect the game world.Certain greek states, the diadochi, and various others, will begin at a higher tech level than their neighbours.We’ve taken a long look at army deployment, particularly with the advent of supply trains. Combat deployment should now act in a much more predictable manner, allowing you to determine more accurately where your units will appear when using the preferred flanking/secondary/primary selector. Additionally, we’ve added a special ‘supply phase’ once all fighting units are eliminated in a combat, where the victorious troops will begin laying waste to enemy supply trains.Harder to pinpoint this one, but the effect is noticeable in-game. To put things more subjectively; you should begin to notice that individual powerful and disloyal characters are much more likely to stick around as a thorn in your side. Loyalty management has become more integral, and adds more permanence to your decisions. The difficulty level of internal management has taken a step up.The addition of food supply resulted in a significant bonus to the defender in a siege situation. This is still preserved, however, we’ve reduced the siege phase timer to 25 days to compensate, and reduced the number of soldiers required per fort level from 5k to 4k. A highly developed fort territory should still prove a significant challenge to invaders.As part of the Archimedes update, we’ve added roughly 30 heritages to Greek minors, giving some variety to playthroughs in the area. Here are a few examples:Both the sound and icon for increasing stability, have been changed in the Archimedes update. The religion focus of the update seemed like a good opportunity to give our monotheistic religions some care.Tax income has been slightly reduced overall, and is now split between freemen and slaves. Slaves will still provide the lion’s share of tax income. Citizens research output has been increased to make it slightly easier to retain optimal research ratio.With the other religious changes in the works, base religious conversion speed (and speed from policies) has been significantly reduced. This is intended to both encourage you to engage with the new mechanics, and to stress the importance of hybridization and syncretism in antiquity.All players will be treated to new splash screen art in the Archimedes update, depicting the siege of Syracuse:Not every DD can be akin to Homer's Iliad, I'm afraid - yet you may prepare yourselves to receive the full (huge!) list of patch notes next week./Arheo