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More Total War: Attila Information

More information out on Total War: Attila

There’s a blog post about the role marriage plays in diplomacy, as well as outlining how agents will work in Total War: Attila.

It seems like marriage will be a big feature of the family tree mechanic. In previous games, marriage was sort of a gameplay point that could be ignored. You did it so you could pick up a good general, but as long as your general wasn’t awful, he didn’t have much of an influence on how well you did in the long run.

I hope that marriage has serious gameplay ramifications. Political marriages were important aspects in international diplomacy during the time period, so it really should be no different in Total War: Attila.

The agent change is welcome. Agents were incredibly overpowered in Rome 2, especially spies/scouts with poison skills specialized. One high level agent could completely ruin and shut down a small faction; with multiple agents you can bulldoze anyone. By forcing agents to pick one tree and only perform actions on certain things, it will at least mitigate their strength and make specialization require some strategic thought.

Who to play first?

I’ve thought about who I wanted to play first out of the factions in Total War: Attila, and I have come up with a shortlist:

Western Roman Empire

A dying empire filled with corruption, rioting, food and money shortages, and barbarians attacking from all directions? That sounds excellent. I enjoy defensive strategy, and trying to shore up the Western Roman Empire against internal and external forces sounds like it would appeal to me the most. Including the scorched earth mechanic, fighting to create a tenable situation will be interesting indeed.

The Jutes

Barbarian factions are pretty fun, usually due to their proclivity towards raiding and pillaging. I am not usually a fan of axe units, but I like the Huscarl’s unit aesthetic, much like the ones that would appear later during the Byzantine Empire. Fast moving and hard hitting coastal assaults were pretty gimpy in Rome 2, so I hope with the emphasis on Viking “forefathers”, that we’ll finally see a naval assault faction with some teeth.

I enjoy two gameplay types: Defensive / Fighting Retreat Actions, and Assault / Raiding Actions. These two factions represent the gameplay styles I enjoy, so I will be playing them first, based on the current information.

Total War Attila Announced!

Leave a Comment / Creative Assembly, Total War: Rome 2 / September 25, 2014 September 25, 2014 / Rome 2 Total War, Total War: Attila

So today The Creative Assembly has announced their new standalone expansion to Rome 2, Total War Attila. I speculated in a previous post that a game involving Attila the Hun would be the most likely expansion, as there is already a book out about Attila, and it would have been strange to have a book but no game tying into it.

So it appears to be a “Fall of the Samurai”-esque DLC with a new campaign map, new factions, and a later time period.

The Good

I like the focus on the later periods as I don’t think any Total War games touches upon Late Antiquity. The scorched earth component is fun, as being able to destroy cities was an important strategy that worked in real world campaigns.

The small touches like civilians running away as a city is attacked make sense. It was always weird to attack a city and it be totally empty of non-combatants. It looks like they re-designed the technology trees, and the new campaign map looks much better.

The Bad

My biggest gripe is that I dislike playing horse archer factions. I just don’t enjoy the gameplay style myself, although it poses an interesting challenge to go up against. I’ve tried playing Parthia and some of the nomad tribes in Rome 2; while field battles are great fun, city sieges were not.

I am glad they brought back the family tree, that way everyone will shut up about it. In the previous games, it provided ZERO gameplay value. Ignoring it would have no consequences whatsoever. I get it, people want it and they want it to matter, but this game isn’t Crusader Kings 2. If you want a family tree to matter, CK2 would be a much better fit.

Imperator Augustus Campaign Map Revealed

Leave a Comment / Creative Assembly, Total War: Rome 2 / September 8, 2014 September 8, 2014 / Rome 2 Total War

The Imperator Augustus Campaign Map has been released. It features the original grand campaign map for Rome 2, but with different playable factions and starting positions.

The (Potential) Playable Factions of Imperator Augustus

The four major Roman factions appear to be:

Octavian
Lepidus
Sextus Pompey
Mark Antony

My thoughts are that each Roman faction will feature legionaries as the backbone of the army, but also include regional units as auxiliaries. So for example, Lepidus might have Iberian swordsmen and Libyan infantry, while Octavian might have access to barbarian infantry, and Mark Antony able to recruit perhaps a mix of barbarian and Greek units.

The remaining playable factions appear to be:

Iceni
Marcomanni – German confederation
Dacia
Egypt
Armenia
Parthia

Initial Campaign Analysis

I could see the Iceni probing and pushing Gaul, which would mostly consist of client states to Octavian’s faction. Octavian would have to keep control of the north against barbarian incursions, while dealing with the other Roman factions.

Lepidus would have to contend with local Iberian and African factions, while attempting to join the two parts of his territories together. Pompey is surrounded, but more than likely will have a powerful starting navy while his neighbors have little to none. The Pompey campaign will most likely involve him using his navy to delay an invasion while allowing him free reign to strike at any of the other Roman faction’s coastal territories.

Mark Antony and Egypt will most likely be allied, but he will have to contend with Octavian and Dacia, as well as potential encroachment by Armenia or Parthia from the east. That situation could easily turn into a two front war, which would give Egypt a decision as to whether they focus their armies west towards Lepidus or east to Parthia. As a side note: I think Mark Antony and Egypt would make for a good co-op campaign.

Marcomanni and Dacia will probably be look to confederate with their neighbors before pressing into Roman territory. Armenia and Parthia are at each other’s door, so it would be up to them to cooperate or battle it out for control of the east, before moving west into the Mediterranean.

Overall, the Imperator Augustus Campaign for Rome 2 is looking to be a pretty exciting new campaign. I think this is a great way to use the grand campaign map while creating a new dynamic. While I personally enjoyed the regional dynamic of Caesar in Gaul and Hannibal at the Gates, I missed playing on the grand campaign map.

You can read more about the new Rome 2 Emperor Edition and the Imperator Augustus Campaign here.

Rome 2 Emperor Edition announced!

Leave a Comment / Creative Assembly, DLC, Total War: Rome 2 / August 30, 2014 August 30, 2014 / Rome 2 Total War, Total War DLC

CA has put out some exciting news, Rome 2 Emperor Edition. This is an upgrade to the base game which includes all the free DLC up to this point, as well as a brand new campaign revolving around the civil war and Augustus. As reference in our previous post, it was one of the campaigns I speculated would be in the works. Check out the Rally Point episode below:

What I like so far about Rome 2 Emperor Edition:

Rome versus Rome: it wouldn’t be a proper Roman civil war if it there was not an emphasis on Roman unit combat. There will be three Roman factions to choose from. If I were to speculate, I would say Octavian, Marc Anthony, and one other faction.
Armenia as a playable faction: New factions are always fun, but we definitely needed more Eastern factions. The two we currently have are Pontus and Parthia. However, before they add Armenia, the faction needs a roster expansion and fix, as it looks almost like Parthia’s roster.
Better politics: The politics system in Rome 2 will matter more now. You can sort of ignore politics in the Grand Campaign, but with the changes highlighted by Jack Lusted, it seems as if you will need to be more aware of political developments, as well as strike a balance between the government families/factions.

What I am concerned about with Rome 2 Emperor Edition:

The final battle of the civil war was the Battle of Actium, which was a decisive naval victory for Octavian which led to his ultimate victory over Marc Antony. Most likely this will end up being a historical battle, but as naval combat still has a lot of issues, I may avoid it altogether. The Rally Point episode mentions that they are revamping naval combat, so I will reserve judgement until I try the new naval gameplay.
New civil war mechanics: the civil wars themselves are more an annoyance than anything else, but with the new political system, civil wars can now occur any time, not just at max imperium. It may make the campaign more chaotic, but not necessarily fun.

I personally enjoy the DLC mini-campaigns more than the grand campaign, as they’re quicker to finish, and also have a more focused set of objectives and specialized roster. I might try to do a legendary let’s play when the DLC campaign comes out.

Link to the Rome 2 Emperor Edition FAQ

Hannibal at the Gates – The Newest DLC for Rome 2: TW

Leave a Comment / Creative Assembly, DLC, Total War: Rome 2 / March 17, 2014 June 26, 2014

The Creative Assembly has announced the newest DLC to Rome 2, Hannibal at the Gates!

This new mini-campaign is based on the Second Punic War, and includes the historic Battles of Cannae and Zama. Following in the footsteps of Caesar in Gaul, the DLC will have a smaller campaign map that focuses on Northern Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, and Italy. There will be five playable factions: Rome, Carthage, Syracuse, Arevaci, and the Lucitani, the latter three of which will also be playable in the main campaign.

From the initial information available, it looks like Scipio and Hannibal will be the main generals for Rome and Carthage, respectively. Both of these factions will start with a number of allies and client states, and civil research trees will focus on diplomatic maneuvering to undermine enemy coalitions.

“Hannibal at the Gates” is set to release on March 27th. Below of the video trailer.