The Total War Attila Release Date has been announced, February 17th, 2015.
Green Man Gaming is doing a promotion for 25% off most games in their library, including the Total War Attila Pre-Order. Use the code: 1MZ9FW-H92JSD-2CT74F . It is good until November 27th. You can buy it at GMG here.
The Creative Assembly has put out some more information about a new Rome 2 DLC, the Black Sea Colonies Culture Pack, and Total War Attila factions.
The Eastern Roman Empire, the Vandals, and the Visigoths now have wiki entries on the Total War website. I usually find myself playing as the Byzantine Empire in other games, so the precursor civilization of the Eastern Roman Empire is appealing to me. However, the barbarian tribes have no starting territory, similar to Barbarian Invasion, so that is very appealing as well. I have enjoyed playing barbarian factions in the Rome 2 Grand Campaign, so I’m looking forward to seeing more information come out before I decide who to play as first.
The new DLC announced today, the Black Sea Colonies Culture Pack, unlocks Pergamon, Colchis, and Cimmeria as playable factions in the Grand Campaign. The free faction is Massilia, a favorite of Total War fans. I’ll admit, I too would like to play Massilia, mostly due to it’s interesting, but precarious, start position. This DLC and Free-LC will release November 20th, so a week or so from now. Below is the information taken from the page:
Black Sea Colonies Cultural traits:
Cimmeria
Background:
The Cimmerian Bosporus has been fought over for its resources and strategic importance for millennia. The adventurous Greeks of Miletus, in Asia Minor, formed several colonies around the Black Sea coast during the 6th and 7th centuries BC in order to exploit its resources for trade with the wider Greek world. By the beginning of the 5th century BC their government had gravitated from classical Greek democracy to control by a single family. The current ruler, Satyrus, conquered nearby Greek cities, heralding the birth of the Cimmerian Kingdom, and a dynasty of rulers that endures to this day. Despite this strength, Cimmeria remains under threat from the surrounding nomadic tribes, and from the avaricious gaze of nearby Pontus, whose military strength may yet prove its undoing.
Faction Traits:
New units:
Unit roster:
Unique Buildings:
Pergamon
Background:
Although a minor player up to that point, Pergamon came to prominence during the struggle of Alexander the Great’s Successors for control of his fragmented empire. An ambitious lieutenant named Philetaerus acquired control over the fortress city and led Pergamon into a new golden age of culture and learning, building an impressive acropolis and a temple to Pergamon’s patron goddess, Athena. Not yet a kingdom in the truest sense, the time is right for expansion beyond its current borders. There are also new threats to be faced from Galatia, the duplicitous Pontus and Cappadocia. Pergamon must be strong if it is to meet these challenges and fulfil its destiny as a mighty Successor state.
Faction Traits:
New units:
Unit roster:
Unique buildings:
Unique technology:
Colchis
Background:
Far to the east of the Black Sea, at the very edge of the Greek world, lies Colchis. A place of legend, it is said to have been the final destination on Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece. Around the 6th century BC, Greek traders from Militus arrived to construct a thriving mercantile economy from this former Persian satrapy. Its current ruler controls a powerful Greek trading state with strong Scythian influences and a nobility who extol the finest qualities of both cultures. His warriors fight in the Greek fashion, yet the ferocity of their nomadic past is very much alive. As such, Colchis has set out to conquer much of the land around it – to absorb further Scythian tribes, and as many former-Persian lands as possible, into his burgeoning empire.
Faction traits:
New units:
Unit roster:
Unique Buildings:
I think the Black Sea Colonies Culture Pack will be good. It adds three Greek factions that people have expressed interest in playing, as well as the perennial favorite Massilia as a Free-LC.
Cimmeria looks the most interesting of the three, and I will give it a shot after Massilia. The Cimmerian Heavy Archers sound like the Dacian Heavy Skirmishers, which do alright in melee combat. But archers with spears? That sounds great against cavalry on paper, but we’ll have to see if that is the case.
One annoying thing I am already expecting is that since the surrounding peoples are steppe factions, you’ll be facing a lot of horse archers and melee cavalry. Greek factions typically have excellent spear units to counter melee cavalry, but usually poor ranged units with which to counter horse skirmishers/archers.
While playing as Baktria, I had to mass recruit slingers in order to survive the early game against Parthia and other horse archer-heavy steppe factions nearby. It’s not terribly fun, but it really does push you to improve your playing skill. The Black Seas Greek factions have Picked Peltasts and the Cimmerians have Heavy Archers, so maybe it won’t be too awful.
Green Man Gaming is selling the Black Sea Colonies Culture Pack currently with the -10% due to Pre-Order, but if you use the code NOVEMB-ERGMGX-20XOFF, you’ll get an additional 20% discount if used before November 21st. I paid $5.76 for mine, which isn’t bad at all. The link is here.
A new entry has revealed CA’s Rome 2 DLC Plans on steamdb. According to the list, Cimmeria, Colchis, Massilia, and Pergamon will be added to the Grand Campaign
There are entries also for the Boiotian League and Korinthos, and as they are not in the Grand Campaign as minor/unplayable factions, gives evidence that they exist as unplayable factions in a separate campaign DLC like Hannibal at the Gates or Caesar in Gaul.
The evidence suggests that the new campaign is the Peloponnesian War. While CA gave no hint of their future Rome 2 DLC plans with Total War Attila on the horizon, it is a welcome addition to the vanilla game. The Peloponnesian War was a campaign that was often requested by the fans, as it covers an interesting time period of Ancient Greece.
CA has been tight-lipped so far with Rome 2 DLC plans, and I hope they will add more campaigns after this Peloponnesian War one.
The trailer sets the tone for the new Total War Attila game, and its also interesting to see the different civilizations in that time period begin to make their moves.
Constantinople looks interesting, and I hope that the developers take care to design it well. The other major cities in Rome 2 have looked good, but at the same time, the cities look sort of like a battle playground. They don’t look “lived in”. Total War Attila is trending towards a grittier look that the original Rome 2 appeared to be in early screenshots, and I hope it stays on that path.
The Huns look interesting, but my hope is that they’re actually fun to play. The issue I have with steppe factions in Rome 2 is that they’re not very fun due to the extreme emphasis on cavalry coupled with the extreme emphasis on siege battles. Quite simply, horse units suck in siege battles. The unit’s advantages are lost while on foot, so the only way to negate it is to use siege engines to break down walls so your cavalry units can ride in.
The idea seems to be that to successfully play a steppe faction, you basically have to invest in siege technology that reduces your attrition while besieging a city. Since you can’t effectively attack a city with most of your units being cavalry, you have to wait for them to come out and give battle. This strategy seems to work extremely well as steppe factions excel in field battles, I don’t consider it fun because it requires you not engaging in city assaults.
However, I will definitely give the Huns a try because of how important they were during this time period. Combined with the new gameplay mechanics, it could add more depth to steppe faction gameplay that the vanilla Rome 2 game sorely needed.
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.
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.
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.