Quick Update – April

Leave a Comment / Total War: Attila, Western Roman Empire / April 13, 2015 / ,

I haven’t been writing as much because I have been busy, in particular my legendary Western Roman Empire campaign. I finally figured out a good strategy and it’s worked great so far, with me at turn 80, on the tail-end of a long war which had me out-maneuver and destroy many enemy army stacks.

12 factions have been wiped out so far. I personally wiped out the Marcomans, Quadians, Visigoths, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Suebians, and Iazyges. The only major opposition in Europe are the Saxons and a mishmash of British factions who are all fighting each other as well as me. A lot of the land to the east in Illyria has been razed by the constant fighting, only the Illyria and Macedonia factions are left. The Eastern Roman Empire fell to a combination of barbarians and the Sassanids.

I have about 20 turns until Chapter 2 finishes and Attila can potentially spawn. I was planning on writing a guide but the further I get into the campaign, the more I realize I can only provide tips and best practices for optimizing your empire, but how you survive is up to you. With so many factions at war with you at the start, WRE can be a little bit of a toss-up. I would not go so far as to say there is luck involved, but favorable outcomes and “being at the right place at the right time” is a huge factor in whether you’re fighting 10 battles a turn and barely surviving, or cleaning up quickly and surviving.

Total War: Attila – Celts Culture Pack

Leave a Comment / Total War: Attila / March 18, 2015 /

The Celts Culture Pack has been announced, but no release date just yet. It looks alright, and the Longbeard DLC was alright also, so I think this will be a good addition to the game.

You can play as the Ebdanians, the Picts, and the Caledonians. These three factions share one territory in the nothern British Isles and Ireland. Not too much has been shown so far regarding their rosters; but it looks like there we some unique buildings, units, technology, and missions.

Western Roman Empire Campaign Update

So far things are good. I had a few restarts as I developed my strategy. I am playing on legendary difficulty so if one mistake is made, I have to restart; there is no reloading an earlier save.

My current restart has me already wiped out the Suebians and Vandals, forced Quadians and Visigoths into peace treaties, and having control of all my original territories in Spain, Africa, France, and Italy still. The only real territory I’ve lost so far is Britain and Illyria. I’m making quite a bit per turn and I’m plowing that cash back into infrastructure. I am only in turn 16 but it is a very strong start.

I’m taking notes as I play so I can work on a guide for the Western Roman Empire campaign when I’m finished. It has been fun so far and probably one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in any Total War game. However, after figuring out the basic strategy, I think it’s actually pretty simple, but I can see how a player can overthink the entire thing and make mistakes.

 

Quick Update – Western Roman Empire

Leave a Comment / Total War: Attila, Western Roman Empire / February 24, 2015 / ,

I have been really busy with Total War: Attila, particularly playing the Western Roman Empire on legendary mode.

I have tested a few strategies, and I am testing some. Something I’ve found that was interesting is the sort of “peak income” for a high corruption faction. When you start your WRE campaign, corruption is about 75%-80%, which results in you pulling in about 600 denari a turn in income, despite owning a third of the map.

Ideally you want as little corruption as possible, but that is a natural function of the size of your empire itself: As your empire gets bigger, corruption increases. Corruption can be decreased by decree, governor, or technology.

For the WRE, you must abandon/lose territories, which has the effect of increasing your income. How many to lose is the key to min/maxing your starting income, so you have to choose carefully. So far, the most ideal corruption is roughly 40%, give or take 5%.

I have found that giving up more territories to go below 40% actually decreased by income, as the trade-off between corruption income loss did not make up better returns on income from having the territory.

The 40% number is a rough guess, which I arrived at by simply creating a game, taking note of the amount of corruption I had at start, then simply desolating territories in chunks, then seeing how much income I was generating next turn.

There is probably a better corruption number, but as it stands, it is ideal because it allows me to keep the right amount of good territories to survive the early game. Basically, I keep Spain, Italy, and Africa, while dumping the rest (almost all of Gaul and all of Britain).

That’s it for now. I’m still refining my strategy, and I plan on writing a more in-depth Western Roman Empire guide in the near future.

The Day before Total War: Attila!

Leave a Comment / Total War: Attila / February 16, 2015 /

Total War: Attila will be out tomorrow. I have the game pre-loaded and will jump into it and immediately into a Legendary Western Roman Empire campaign.

There are a few roster videos out there already, but from what I’ve seen so far:

1. Barbarians are still more dynamic/mobile; combat will be heavily movement and charging. One of the cooler things was that Royal Huscarls have cavalry level charge damage.

2. On that note, axe-men are their own infantry group now. They’re defined by high weapon damage but rather low armor, a particularly shield defense against projectiles.

3. Crossbow units are in, but have similar pros/cons as the ones in Medieval: High armor piercing damage, high ammo, low fire rate.

4. Roman Empire factions units are still high armor. Better spear units now, more balanced sword units, and a robust collection of slingers, skirmishers, and bowmen. Units are all very defensive, which to me kind of plays into the defensive nature of the campaign for both WRE and ERE.

5. Sassanids have a strong and well-rounded empire. I could see most players who are newer to Total War playing the Sassanids and succeeding well.

Overall, I like the direction of the rosters and campaigns from the previews. I still plan on playing WRE first as I consider it as being probably the most fun challenge in Total War: Attila.

Total War: Rome 2 – Historical Battles in Patch 15

Leave a Comment / Total War: Rome 2 / February 5, 2015 /

rome 2 historical battles

One of the highlights of a Total War game are the historical battles. Rome 2’s Historical Battles contain such scenarios as the Battle of Cannae, Battle of Alexia, and Battle of Zama. Having played a few of the historical battles so far, some issues have come up. First of, let me say that I am not the best tactical player. While I can complete a game on legendary difficulty, that is mostly because of my skill in campaign management, and not because I’m a tactical genius. If anything, my tactical and micromanagement are at best, very average. However, I understand the principles of how the Total War games work, so at the least I have that going for me.

I feel that the historical battles are a good way to practice and measure tactical skill in Total War, as they often place players in a battle with a difficult problem to overcome, mostly being outnumbered. However, due to the many patches over the course of the game, many of the battles have become much more complicated, and CA has not done anything to re-balance or fix the historical battles.

The culprit, I believe, are the incremental changes made through 15 patches, which slowly changed the game to the point where the original historical battles are much more difficult that before.

Before I begin, let me say that I am not asking for nerfs or the like. I enjoy a challenge, it’s why I play only on legendary, and also why I play the historical battles. However, I think it’s important to understand how the changes to the game have partially broken the delicate balance that historical battles had.

Here are the Patch 15 notes for reference.

 

So what went wrong exactly with Rome 2’s Historical Battles?

 

Bonus vs. Infantry Removed – A lot of the battles involve the Romans, and many of the Legionary units previously had  “Bonus vs. Infantry” as a  stat. This allowed for sword units to defeat equal-tier spear units easier, and speed is an important factor in winning many historical battles.

CA removed the stat to balance spear-heavy factions with sword-heavy ones. For example playing as a Hellenistic faction doesn’t feel as odious as before due to the change. However, historical battles are balanced around the sword unit’s previous superiority against spear units.

Unit Moral Changes – From the notes:

  • The pace of battles and combat has been reduced, and morale values adjusted so battles last longer and are more dynamic.

For example, in the Battle of Alesia, you command six Veteran Legionaries and one Eagle Cohort. These are excellent units, but even the Eagle Cohort gets bogged down trying to kill a tier 1 melee unit such as Celtic Warriors due to the nature of the morale changes.

My challenge to you is to watch any of the legendary play-throughs of the Battle of Alesia, and see how quickly units are shattered. The key to the battle is to quickly rout as many of the units as possible before the next wave comes. It is still possible to rout enemies, but it’s not as quick as before, and certainly not fast enough for the non-stop waves of barbarians.

Active Abilities Removed – Many people will argue whether activated abilities should be a part of a historical battle game, and I lean towards the side of not having them. However, the historical battles were designed back when they had the abilities, so once they were removed, that balance was lost. “Use the Whip” in particular was an effective ability that increases combat effectiveness, which allows for a burst of killing power.

 

So what is the fix?

 

I’m not asking for the battles to be nerfed, and I’m certainly not advocating undoing the changes I mentioned above. The battles are winnable; albeit with extreme difficulty. I found myself trying out the Battle of Pydna, and after a few attempts, managed to win by the skin of my teeth. I used my ammo-depleted velites to melee charge one of the few remaining pike units to seal a victory.

One suggestion I read elsewhere was to turn off formation attack for your units to improve combat effectiveness. I did not notice a huge change in unit performance but it’s usually enough win the day if you’re playing at 100%. There are a few videos on Youtube showing tests done with units with and without formation attack enabled, and there is a noticeable difference in performance.

However, I believe the changes to re-balance the historical battles can be made by adding more experience to your units, or adding a few more units to accommodate the loss of balance. Overall, I think they’re still a good challenge and possible to beat; I may try to write a guide if I get the time.

Thoughts? Have many of you found success post-Patch 15 in Rome 2 Historical Battles?