Total War: Attila

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.

More Total War: Attila Information

Leave a Comment / Creative Assembly, Total War: Attila / December 3, 2014 /

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.

Viking Forefathers Culture Pack: Total War Attila Pre-Order Bonus

Leave a Comment / Total War: Attila / December 5, 2014 /

Viking Forefathers Culture Pack

The Pre-Order Bonus is the Viking Forefathers Culture Pack. The factions are: The Geats, the Danes, and the Jutes. The store page is here.

Here is the unit roster:

Spear infantry:

  • Thrall Spears (Geats only)
  • Thrall Spearmen (Geats only)
  • Nordic Levy
  • Nordic Spearmen
  • Elite Nordic Spearmen
  • Nordic Spearmasters

Pike infantry:

  • Nordic Pikemen

Melee infantry:

  • Nordic Band
  • Nordic Brigade
  • Wold Coats
  • Hirdmen
  • Nordic Warriors
  • Elite Nordic Warriors
  • Chosen Warriors

Axe infantry:

  • Nordic Axe Warband
  • Huscarls (Jutes only)
  • Nordic Axe Warriors
  • Royal Huscarls (Jutes only)
  • Viking Raiders
  • Norse Berserkers

Bow infantry:

  • Nordic Bows

Slingers:

  • Nordic Hurlers

Skrimishers:

  • Thrall Skirmishers
  • Nordic Skrimishers
  • Nordic Javelinmen
  • Nordic Brigands

Melee Cavalry:

  • Nordic Mounted Raiders
  • Nordic Horse Raiders
  • Nordic Horse Lords
  • Viking Raider Cavalry

Skirmisher Cavalry:

  • Nordic Raiders

Artillery:

  • Onager
  • Large Onager

Warhounds: * Warhounds

Naval units

Unique General unit:

  • Viking Captain

Ramming ships:

  • Strike Liburnian (Nordic Light Bowmen)
  • Assault Liburnian (Nordic Light Bowmen)

Melee ships:

  • Snekkja Longship (Nordic Heavy Marauders)

Assault ships:

  • Drekkar Dragonship (Elite Norse Marauders – Danes only)
  • Drekkar Dragonship (Nordic Berserker Marauders)
  • Drekkar Dragonship (Chosen Norse Marauders – Danes only)

Bow Ships:

  • Skeid longship (Norse Bow Marauders)

Artillery ships:

  • Artillery Liburnian

Fireships:

  • Greek Fire Dromonarion

Thoughts on the Viking Forefathers Culture Pack:

I am excited to play as the Jutes, if only for the Huscarls. So I am at a loss as to what faction to play first: Western Roman Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, the Saxons, or the Jutes. Not a bad problem to have though.

One thing I noticed is that the unit rosters are very robust. A problem Rome 2 had was that many non-major factions felt incomplete. From a gameplay standpoint, many lacked late-game, top-tier units that could compete alongside major empires. It is my hope that all factions in Total War: Attila are competitive and capable of winning.