Total War: Attila

In general, you want to keep power close to 50%.

Considering I have 4 games in the series in the 100+ hour club, this is a plus for me. The only downside from the lack of cannons, because I really like using cannons.

Yup. Get too much power, and the neighbors start getting wary.

Well, in the political system, at over or under 50% power you get maluses. Not sure if other nations care about that, though.

What’s up with the religious tab? In this game now there are like 15 different religions and each province is some percentage of them? Very Paradox like.

Razgon, I just wanted to check a couple of things, but here’s what I can figure out.

Characters get more Influence by being successful at things. Generals win battles, statesmen get it over time by holding positions of power. Characters can also get influence modifiers with those traits and skills that show up periodically.

Well shit. Here’s another loose nail that I’ve been missing in my defenses. All I knew about religion in this game was that the Hun faction imposed a morale penalty on Christian enemies when they fought. I assumed the rest of the religious types imparted some minor bonus/penalty like +5% growth or something.

Turns out there’s more to it than that.

Each faction starts with a preferred religion. As long as that religion is practiced by a majority of your people, you get that bonus. Bonuses vary. For example, German Paganism gives a bonus to army recruitment, Latin Christian has a higher chance of spreading to nearby provinces. The higher the percentage of people that worship your preferred religion, the better public order you have. Priests can be sent into other areas and convert people to your religion, to disrupt the enemy order, and prep them for your takeover. As faction leader, you can change the preferred religion once - not sure if that’s a hard limit or set by something else.

Talked myself into this. Thus far, it’s pretty outstanding. Still in a prologue campaign but they’ve really added a lot of mechanics to the game to facilitate ‘horde’ strategies on the campaign map, the graphics are outstanding, I’ve had no performance issues at all that others are reporting, and they’ve really cleaned up all of my complaints about Rome 2. I can’t speak to the AI quite yet however. Other than that it’s the best 44 bucks I’ve spent on a game in a while.

I haven’t quite finished the Tutorial but i spent some time rummaging through the Custom Battle generator, buying a bunch of units for a faction, and… looking at them. (That’s probably a quarter of what i do with these games.) With great effort i chose not to play yet again the gosh darn Byantines since i play those bastards in almost every ygame they appear in, it seems, and so instead tried out the Ostrogoths, who have an interesting bonus that allows them to recruit Roman units in former Roman territory. Well, that didn’t go so well.

My first attempt with the Ostrogoths I stayed away from the ERE and headed West, as the game seemed to think I should be doing. Raiding and sacking was my bread and butter for a few turns, but to my north a great swathe of cities were being laid waste; the Huns were there, sharking for victims. When i separated one of my two armies a bit too far from my other, it was immediately set upon by the Romans AND Huns at the same time, and promptly destroyed. The Huns then made a bee-line literally straight to my other army, intent on destroying me completely. If i stopped to rest, i was set upon the next turn and destroyed. I was chased all the way to the Baltic coast and took ship before the Huns turned around and went the other direction. Making my way to the eastern side of Sweden I finally found a safe spot to hole up and nurse my tribe’s many wounds. But my love of money did me in. Had a raised a second army instead of just fleshing out the first I might have survived, but I attempted to run the sound through hostile Danes with only one army/fleet, aiming toward Britain or perhaps Spain, but the Danes set sail and destroyed my fleet to the last. Round 1, game over.

My second attempt was to crash through the ERE directly to the south. Why not? I even got the Visigoths to join my in war. At least the stupid Huns won’t attack me there. For a year the sackings go on without opposition, but once again i get my armies seperated and the ERE just swarms one isolated army and destroys it. And I should say by seperated i mean that they’re barely one movement turn away from each other, only that they’re far enough apart they won’t be able to assist one another in a battle. Now cut in half my remaining army doesn’t have anywhere to go, and i die. Round 2, game over. If i could get to pikes, i think i’d have a chance, since pikes are superior to melee infantry and horse, but despite researching i never seem able to make whatever buidling is prerequisite for them.

Admitting defeat i try a game as the g-d Byzantines. Immediately ALL of Persia declares war. But miracles of miracles, thanks to sheer dumb luck they attack a lone general encamped but reinforced by the main eastern army, and as the general runs, literally runs at top speed to safety, they go around the encampment instead of through it which spends most of the time shooting their units in the back, rather than they going in there and wiping out those undefended towers. With some liberal use of pausing to order, as well as saving my skirmisher missiles as anti-Saravan specialists, I manage to soundly defeat the Persians with some 6 to 1 casualty ratio. Despite this flagrant cheesing of the AI i’ll still take it! I had not won a single battle as the Ostrogoths after hours of playing as they. Bernice is put to the torch to the south by the Sudanese though, and they’ll probably push all the way to Alexandria.

Why are you amazed that all of Persia declares war? That’s kind of like being amazed that all of the United States declares war. I don’t think individual states/provinces have any choice when the nation decides to fight :)

Oh, sorry “Persia” is actually the Sassanid Empire with all of its vassals. Most of Persia are vassal kingdoms, not directly owned. The Sassanids only own two regions directly.

How in the world do you survive as a tribe? I had to try the Ostrogoths again, and again it was just disaster after disaster. Ultimately the problem (for me) is that once the AI targets me, it throws everything it has at me, so unless i win like three battles in a row at 10:1 casualities, i get my forces cut in half… and then never get an opportunity to replenish them. I can’t sit still or I will die. But if i move, i can’t replenish, so i die. I finally beat off the Byzantines in an epic battle to the death… only to have another full army show up next door, next turn. ARG. No survival.

I’m tempted to get the Ostrogoths and just use “migration” until i’m in the ass end of England somewhere. I can’t see any chance of surviving in Eastern Europe. I might also just capture a walled settlement, any walled settlement, anywhere, and settle in and survive off gaming the AI with walls.

Well historically the tribes were not able to withstand the Empire. They would move in, either be accepted or rejected. If accepted they would be resettled within the Empire somewhere. Those that fought were usually repelled. It wasn’t any one tribe that did the Empire in, it was the cumulative damage of many tribes. So your best bet is to try and not draw the fire from the Byzantines, and let other tribes soften them up first.

Of course easier said than done. But I love how thematic it is that your choices boil down to a) stay and have the Huns smack you around b) go to the Empire and have them smack you around c) run like hell. Very apocalyptic and bleak. I love it.

I managed to get to Spain with the Ostrogoths! Literally by the skin of my teeth. I ran into the ocean from the tip of Greece only to be pursued by the Byzantines. They turned around when i reached the border, but passing Siciliy one of my units broke apart in a civil war. Nice timing dudes, in the middle of the ocean. So i split my forces into two sending one hopefully to the Baeleric Isles and the other half … anywhere else. But force number one is caught and destroyed by the Western Romans. Force two is actually trapped and can’t move because of some bug with the rebel’s ships for a couple of turns. When i finally manage to free them and attack the rebels - my force consisting of about 7 units at 20% strength - i find the rebels as weak as I. But in the battle itself the bastard Western Romans send two ships from Siracuse full of Naval Marines, and so even at the moment of victory i have to use what remains of my poor, battered forcers and attempt to attack these stupid, trained, effective, well armed, motivated, Roman Marines. And they beat me.

But … I’m still alive, with 10 men and a new general. Who manages to evade everyone and land in the nick of time, sight unseen, onto North Africa… and a province held by the Garamantians! Who inexplicably allow me to survive on their shores while i rebuild my strength. Finally after several seaons and a whole new army, i march to the horn of Africa, razing every Roman settlement in the way. I make it to Spain and burn the province of Baetica to ashes. I’m now advancing toward the rich capital of Cathago Novo, hoping to make it my home.

I’m playing with the visigoths and just got to Spain too. Playing in hard, the Western Roman empire is a nuisance, but thankfully they were occupied somewhere else for a while and I was able to raze Rome. Now they seem to have identified me as their main target and are sending their main forces in. The next couple or battles are going to be decisive…

There are many mechanics I don’t understand yet (too little time), but this is an outstanding game indeed. CA does many misteps, but eventually gets its shit together…

In my latest game I took my Danes and figured - Since so many elder citizens these days complain about the weather and want to move to Spain, why not move Denmark to Spain? So - We horded up, went to Spain, and took over 3/4ths of Spain by now. Its rather fun to do so with the Danish Vikings :-D

I’m really enjoying this but I sincerely hope turns will be faster soon due to optimizations!

Edit: oh, and its pretty funny that since I accidentially killed a few Jutes on the way, they are apparently REALLY angry now, and have followed me all the way to Spain and have it in for me big time!

I bought this because I’m a sucker for every TW game, and I can see how much better it is than Rome 2, but somehow I find myself playing just a turn or 2 and then going back to Offworld Trading Co., Frozen Cortex, or Cults & Daggers.

Do you find the time period inherently interesting. I think that’s a big part of why I find these kind of games interesting, and this installment is certainly an outlier from other period covered in the series (much more well known).

Oh, did anyone else notice the civilians running for their lives now when attacking a settlement? Thats pretty cool. I noticed it for the first time last night in a rather wonderful winter-landscaped village.

No, but that’s true of most TW games other than Shogun. I think it’s the appeal of the new and different that sucks me away.

That was fast.

The Longbeards Culture Pack brings three new playable factions to Total War™: ATTILA. The Langobards, the Burgundians and the Alamans may be used in Single or Multiplayer Campaign modes and Custom and Multiplayer battles.