Attila: Total War

[Gusington]

^Yeah man, it's quite epic. The Prologue can take as long as a proper campaign if players want it to. I've played about 5 hours and now I'm ready for the main event. Starting a Hun campaign later.

Technically it's tight, and graphically it is beautiful. I daresay this is the best TW since Fall of the Samurai. I'm wondering if its the same team responsible?

[undercovergeek]

ooo you tease you

[Gusington]

You'll see, if you get it. Do you enjoy the era?

[Toonces]

I told you guys you were suckers for pre-ordering a TW title again, didn't I?   O:-)

[undercovergeek]

You'll see, if you get it. Do you enjoy the era?

era, shm-era

its TW, swords, axes and pillaging

[Sir Slash]

Careful if you play this game. It may cause you to become, "Amourus". Or Flaccid. Playing as the Franks and I'm not in love with my troops. They're basically rabble to begin with and on the battle screen, they all look like they're wearing green pajamas.  ???

[mikeck]

I try to time things so I am flaccid during gaming time.

[Nefaro]

Careful if you play this game. It may cause you to become, "Amourus". Or Flaccid. Playing as the Franks and I'm not in love with my troops. They're basically rabble to begin with and on the battle screen, they all look like they're wearing green pajamas.  ???

The armed rabble certainly aren't as impressive looking as Rome 2's various heavily armored troops.  CA has also left that annoying brown color filter over the 3D graphics and they seem even worse, like all my troops are constantly in shadow.  They look almost black even when the battle happens in the middle of a sunny day.  >:(  Dees eez boosheet!  Hopefully someone removes that shit filter in a mod.

As for the game, it's in pretty good shape on release.  I think there are some minor issues but it's definitely playable.  What's more, it plays a bit differently than the other Total War titles.  The economy is a bit more anemic; enough to force you to use cheap craptastic troops as filler and stick with them longer.  The new Horde mechanic means that wiping out a faction's last city means they convert to a nomadic horde entity and can move around, pillage, and eventually settle somewhere else.  The new Raze option is also turning some areas into deserted areas afterward, and rebuilding is pretty damn expensive so they tend to stay that way for awhile.

While many of the mechanics are the same as Rome 2, all the new additions promote a different play style than previous TWs and it's more difficult too.  The steamroller momentum is also slowed due to the huge cost of converting a different culture's main city building if you occupy a location. 

[Sir Slash]

Yes, if the captured city's culture and religion is different from yours, then it's almost not worth the effort of occupying it as it the wait to convert is a bitch. Better to loot and sack your way to a really worthwhile place before settling down.

[Nefaro]

Yes, if the captured city's culture and religion is different from yours, then it's almost not worth the effort of occupying it as it the wait to convert is a bitch. Better to loot and sack your way to a really worthwhile place before settling down.

Although the Saxons (and maybe the Franks?) have a Faction bonus making conversion only cost half. 


This thing is definitely a jump in difficult over Rome 2.  My first big & nearly even field battle turned out fairly well but attacking a fortified enemy army of similar strength was disastrous.  The arrow/artillery towers are especially deadly and quick firing now in fortifications and siege battles.

[Yskonyn]

I really don't get why you would like these new units cards over those in Rome 2.
I'll take the stylised Rome 2 ones over the silly 3D pictures any time. :)
The UI is otherwise much more nicely looking in Atilla though.
The campaign map is beautiful and the Battles are so much more lifelike with All the extra doodads and critters on the map.
Its runs pretty well on high settings too on my rig.


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[Nefaro]

I really don't get why you would like these new units cards over those in Rome 2.
I'll take the stylised Rome 2 ones over the silly 3D pictures any time. :)
The UI is otherwise much more nicely looking in Atilla though.
The campaign map is beautiful and the Battles are so much more lifelike with All the extra doodads and critters on the map.
Its runs pretty well on high settings too on my rig.


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I didn't mind the unit cards in Rome 2.  But after I saw that one guy's mod where he added painted versions of the troops, it looked far better.  Looked better than any of the unit cards CA had done before.  I don't think he quite finished all the units for it, though.  The ones in Attila aren't terribly good but they're functional.

The UI has had some excellent additions on both sides of the game.  Some of them made me wonder why they hadn't implemented them earlier. 

I'm seeing the AI armies razing a bunch of towns in my game.  I'll post a screenshot of the desolation soon.

[Gusington]

Started as the Huns last night and was destroyed in 20 turns! Quickest TW loss ever! Started again and will not go on the offensive as quickly this time.

[Nefaro]

It has been humbling thus far. 

I've reach 410AD in my Normal difficulty Saxon campaign.  I own the three areas of Frisia and a fourth, Londinium. 

Definitely not able to steamroll like previous TWs.  Having to take it slow & steady.  Income is an issue, even after steady econ building, and it also makes fielding enough troops/armies to defend larger territories more difficult.  The aforementioned prohibitive foreign culture building conversion costs and expense to rebuild devastated regions are also a huge factor.  I consider the three regions I've taken to be a decent haul even after quite a few turns in, just due to the expense and the extra Public Order penalties added in Attila (immigration being a notable example). 

Expansion going much slower and I'm having to carefully calculate my next target and plan more carefully.  O0

I'm a bit disappointed to see that the various Celtic factions all have Nordic placeholder units & buildings.  I suppose those will be one of the future DLCs.  Will probably make my conquest of part of the British Isles easier since my Saxons use the same city types and won't have to convert them for buckets of money, although a couple areas may be Roman.  I wonder how many other cultural areas have such placeholder stuff that will be released later?

[Nefaro]

A bug that is making the game more difficult:

That empire bar thing, which limits the amount of armies and agents you can have at any one time at the expense of big diplo and order penalties, is rising all on it's own. 

It is only supposed to go up as you capture more territory AFAIK; that's how it was in Shogun 2 and Rome 2.  Then you would make more enemies and have increasing internal problems the larger you became, which is another way to slow down the steamroller effect. 

I've begun two campaigns in Attila and the bar has been steadily levelling up even when I'm not expanding.  I've levelled up three times now, to the point where I can have 6 or 8 armies maximum, but I still only own four regions ( 1 province plus an extra region) and it's still been slowly rising.  It lists me as being a "Great Empire".  ;D  Pretty sure this isn't working as intended.

So be aware.. aside from the extra difficulty related to the new feature additions, this issue will also make your diplo and public order penalties steadily rise at a  higher rate than it should.  It's probably an easy bug fix so hope to see it smashed soon.