Attila: Total War

[Gusington]

The Huns are darkness incarnate. Who wouldn't want to play them? It does take a while to retrain your brain in their new mechanics, they operate quite differently from a traditional TW faction.

[mikeck]

The Huns are darkness incarnate. Who wouldn't want to play them? It does take a while to retrain your brain in their new mechanics, they operate quite differently from a traditional TW faction.

I beat them like they stole something in my game as the ERE. Put my spear comintenses in "defensive testudo forming a horseshoe around 4 units of archers. Watch the Hun cavalry grind itself against the spears while their pitiful compound bow arrows hit the shields. Flaming arrows scare the horsies and off they go. Of course, after the battle, i execute all the little f***ers

[Gusington]

^I'll remember that.

Finally did not get decimated tonight. The year is 403AD and Attila has been born. I raised two or three cities tonight and eliminated a few factions. Moving on the Gepids and then if I can keep the economy going I have to decide which Romans to eliminate first...East or West.

[Sir Slash]

Gus, where do the Huns stand diplomatically with the other factions at start?

[Gusington]

They have one or two small allies and are at war with 5 or 6 more. No trading is possible. And it's much easier to make enemies than friends. You're a pariah, more or less.

In my current game it's 403AD and both my allies have been destroyed. I am about to destroy the Gepids.

[Sir Slash]

Funny that you've had such a hard time, over at the TW Forum, the talk is that the Radious mod has made the game too easy. But I haven't tried it yet. I like my porridge... just right.

[Nefaro]

Funny that you've had such a hard time, over at the TW Forum, the talk is that the Radious mod has made the game too easy. But I haven't tried it yet. I like my porridge... just right.

I don't think it needs a mod just yet.  As with Shogun 2, the vanilla game is pretty solid.  More so once a few of the bugs get ironed out.

The only mod I might consider at the moment would be the always present movement speed reduction.  Or something that gets rid of that dark overlay filter on the 3D graphics (still pissing me off).

[Sir Slash]

Agreed. Just because it was the beginning of the Dark Ages doesn't mean everything has to be that way. I'm hoping the changes tomorrow will make it run better on my old machine.

[Gusington]

This...this is why I am obsessed with the Huns right now.

[Nefaro]

Thus far CA has pretty much told us to buzz off regarding the Imperium diplo penalty issue.  The thinking behind it is nuts, however.

Here is one of the CA replies:

Hiya, unlocking techs will cause your Imperium to increase - this is indeed by design. If you want to turtle down and build up your economy without increasing your Imperium you can choose to not research techs instead - you are not forced to research each turn.

You can quite easily offset the penalty to diplomacy by maintaining good relations with your neighbours. This can be done by joining mutual wars, harassing mutual enemies and giving gifts. Alternatively just conquer them then there's nobody to declare war on you anymore.

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/148385-Starting-imperium-growing-too-fast/page3


Yes, you heard that correctly.  Researching techs in Total War Attila will quickly raise your Imperium rating, which is basically a large Diplomatic relations penalty with everyone that goes up each level.  It also includes some Public Order penalties and other such stuff.  For the record, the diplo penalties aren't just for "your neighbors", they're for everyone.  And they far outweigh any small bonuses you can get for DOW'ing the same enemies.

It's been reported that after researching your first two techs, the Imperium rating will rise a level.  After ~8 techs it will go up again.  Etc etc.  With a -15 to -100 average Relations penalties for the first few levels.  Mixed with territorial expansion, everyone will hate you in record time.  Hell, you don't even need to expand much before being labelled as a "Great Power".  Think I got it with only one or two regions conquered.. nearly all of it came from research chugging slowly along.

And the CA employee suggested that we just need to completely stop researching techs (in a TW game!?) if we want to avoid increasing those penalties.  Because, evidently, people hated technological advances in the dark ages more than invading armies.    ::) Dubya Tee Muthaslappin' Eff?!   

I got some extra choice words on this design philosophy I will keep to myself.  Hopefully the modders can properly fix this nonsense instead of using a workaround.  We suggested they were valuing tech research far too high but someone at CA seems to want it that way.  Not sure they have a good grip on the what happened in the "Dark Ages".  ;D

[Nefaro]

Workaround mod for what I was bitching about:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?681823-Explaining-the-quot-Great-Power-quot-penalty-and-fixing-it

Not the best solution since it would probably make the actual 'Great Empires' with large territories easier from the start.  But it's something.

[W8taminute]

I can understand nations hating you for being too high tech in a Civ game but to have that happen in a TW game?  Somethings not right with that thinking imo.   I don't recall other TW titles penalizing you this heavily for being too high tech. 

[Gusington]

That is bizarre and definitely sounds incorrect. I wonder if everyone hated me because my tech was at level 2, or because I was playing as the Huns? Both?

Either way I have been defeated again, 4th campaign coming to a crashing halt :( Question is, do I continue to play, selecting another faction with the above weirdness still in place, or do I wait until it's fixed? Will the patch tomorrow address it? The answer you got Nef just can't be correct...

That aside, I am going to choose between the Langobards/Lombards/Longbeards, or the Geats, tomorrow, as my next faction. I just couldn't get on as the Huns...could not make it work.

[mikeck]

Meh...I kill everyone anyway. Barbarian heathens.

[Gusington]

Who are you playing as?