Is anybody else playing this?
The last TW I played was Empire. I got an itch to try the formula again and reviewers are comparing it favourably to Rome 2, so this seemed like a good jumping on point. I am digging it so far, after a few hours of the prologue campaign. It's pretty dark and moody, yet the visuals are stunning at the same time and this time period in history seems to be a bit under-represented in games as far as I know.
The AI still seems very predictable and hasn't moved on much since Empire and the original Rome. If I deploy on a hill I can safely assume their horses will charge recklessly up it and onto my pikes. Maybe difficulty is scaled down with it being the tutorial campaign. However, I've still had some close battles in spite of that.
Edit: I'm not happy that they've just released DLC a week after launch.
I'm definitely interested, especially in the period of history, but I've learned to wait on the inevitable Game of the Year edition with Total War games. Those tend to include all the patches as well as most or all of the DLC.
Steam | Backloggery
Probably the best Total War release in quite a few years. I hated Rome 2, but this? This is bloody good out of the gate, so to speak! I recommend it fully.
For anyone having trouble wrapping their head around the politics options, as I was, I found this video that explains it pretty well-
http://youtu.be/T5MkIcbdIZ4
Steam: Kergguz [GWJ]
Battlenet (EU): Kergguz#2565
Sure am! So far, it rocks.
This is my Roman game (hard/hard) after ~30 turns.
In the first few turns, I pulled every legionary south to defend the shores of the Mediterranean. The retreating legions demolished most of the buildings in the frontier towns, and the barbarian tide rolled over what was left. That bought me fifteen or twenty turns, during which I poured every penny into civil development - farms, public order, sanitation. By the time the invaders reached Spain and Italy, I was pulling in >7,000 solidi and hundreds of food per turn. After that, the fight was on.
Stilicho, the Western Empire's leading general, is dead - though he took King Alaric and most of the Visigoths with him. (The rest followed a little later.) Northern Spain and the southern tip of Italy are smoking rubble. Even after notching up a few victories, it seems there's no end to the barbarian stacks. But my economic buildup wasn't in vain. I can afford to replenish losses; I've done so several times! The Roman Empire is battered, bloody - and so far, unbroken.
Matchsticks for my Eyes | Steam
That sounds fantastic! I'm still waiting on this.
If you don't mind my asking, Budo, are you waiting on it because you want a better price, or because you're not sure whether it's good? If the latter, I think it's worth buying now.
Context: I've played every mainline Total War game and many of the expansions, and with the exception of Shogun 2, I've always had a love-hate relationship with the series. I love the games at their best - the spectacle, the tactical battles, the epic moments when one cavalry charge decides the fate of a kingdom. I hate the bugs, wonky AI, and sagging mid/late games. Shogun 2 solved all three problems, and became my favourite strategy game ever. Attila seems polished and reasonably stable (only one crash so far!), and its AI is pretty cut-throat; we'll see how well it does later on.
Coming into Attila, I expected a tough but fair challenge, and so far the game has delivered. Things are pretty bad for Rome at the start! Bleeding treasury, restive populace, enemies on all sides, etc. I managed to salvage the starting situation and survive until now. I've made a bunch of mistakes, and I still have to contend with a ton of enemy armies; but I can see how with the right strategy and a bit of luck, I might be able to pull this off. And I can see how a better player might be able to avoid my mistakes and have a smoother ride.
The caveat is that I've only experienced the early game, and only tried a single faction - the Western Roman Empire. If the rest of the game is this good, I think it'll be one of the stronger entries in the series.
Matchsticks for my Eyes | Steam
And if it's the former, you can easily pick it up from key resellers for about two thirds the price on steam. I found it for £19.90, whereas it's £29.99 on steam.
I also agree with everything else PeterS said, and I'm finding it a very satisfying strategy game for now, albeit only 6 or 7 hours in.
Steam: Kergguz [GWJ]
Battlenet (EU): Kergguz#2565
This is where I ordered mine. Note that the price is in Australian dollars, which translates to 18-19 GBP or about 28 USD at the current exchange rate. Legitimate British retailer; they took a boxed copy and sent me a photo of the code.
Matchsticks for my Eyes | Steam
This game was the subject of a recent Three Moves AheadPodcast. Troy Goodfellow and Rob Zacny bestowed glowing praise upon it, and I'm thinking of going back to it and trying a Saxon campaign. I put about a dozen hours into it when it released and liked it a lot, but I was distracted by new shinies and then got deep into Witcher 3.
Steam: Kergguz [GWJ]
Battlenet (EU): Kergguz#2565
50% off on Steam this week. ENABLE ME!!
"I'm everybody's hero, I'm Batman's Batman"
Possy Niblet Posse
Three Moves Ahead Podcast called it the best Total War experience to date. I haven't bought it yet, but I will this Christmas. Way too much on the pile at this point.
Ask yourself two questions:
1. Do you like the setting?
2. Do you enjoy a slightly more challenging game?
If the answer to both of those is no this may not be the TW for you. If the answer to either is yes, it's definitely worth a look. If you're not sure either way, it's still worth a look. It's a solid title and very enjoyable. The challenge factor shouldn't scare people off unless you're after a more relaxed strategy experience. It's not that bad. You need to be a bit more careful, take fewer risks, keep an eye more firmly on the long-term. If you choose to play as the Western Roman Empire all bets are off though! They're a tough cookie. The most difficult faction in the entire series by CA's official ratings.
If you enjoy using cavalry-based armies the Huns are great fun. Their unique style brings a whole new type of gameplay to the series. They don't settle. They move their camps along with their armies. Mobility is the name of the game, raiding, sacking, burning, extracting tribute, and moving on. Once you get over the shock to the system it's quite empowering. Diplomacy? Pah! Burn the fools! Public order? Who cares! Money? Steal it! Let them cower behind their walls while you take your pick of softer targets. But woe betide the Horse Lord who loses too many battles ...
I love this, and its clearly the best Total War. I consider myself somewhat an expert (on the Internet, I know, I know), having over 300 hours in Rome2, and various 100's of hours in the other Total Wars so for what that is worth, Attila is the finest edition of the game so far.
it does have one unfortunate flaw though, that does that I only have around 60 hours in the game so far, and that is the turn times. The turn time in Rome 2 was horrible at the beginning as well, but they fine-tuned that so that it runs VERY fast now, but Atilla is...not good. I have up towards 3 minutes turn times in later turns, and right from the start, around 1 minute.
If you can stomach the turn times, there is a great great game here!
I just grabbed this today for $15. I'm looking to get into it tomorrow!
Battle.net: kokoe#11383 | Xbox: oO Kokoe Oo | Steam: Kokoe
Ubi: Kokoe2
OK, so Warhammer is on the horizon, but due to time and money constraints my brother and I have agreed to both get it later in the year, so we can play it at the same time, discuss it etc. But with all that total war marketing out there on the interwebs it had made me itch to play some, so I've just back into this and started a Visigoth campaign.
Man, it's hard! In a good way though. For some reason when I was playing it last year I stuck to factions with a more traditional set up, like the Saxons. Now I wonder what I was waiting for, because the migrating barbarians playstyle is really liberating. We've been slowly moving westwards, with a long term goal of settling in the historically accurate Spain area, burning some Eastern Roman towns along the way, but came up against some serious opposition in the WRE. I get that they're meant to be a crumbling empire but they pack a hell of a punch.
My horde had to end their migration early and occupy Verona... We needed some walls to hide behind urgently! I just fought off a Roman army at odds of almost 1:2, but with terrible losses, I'm down to about 1400 men from nearly 3000. For now the Romans have retreated but I've a feeling they'll be back, it's very tense!
So, a couple of questions- we are ALWAYS losing money. When we were migrating it didn't matter too much because we were sacking towns left and right, but now we are settled, albeit temporarily, our income is something like -1000.
Also, can anyone point to a detailed guide about fighting the battles in total war? It doesn't necessarily need to be Attila specific, but I'm looking for stuff like how I should deploy swordsmen for example, or how best to utilise horseback archers for example.
Steam: Kergguz [GWJ]
Battlenet (EU): Kergguz#2565
I'm back in too - started a Charlemegne campaign as the Vikings and am having a lot of fun. I've taken over Southern England and have treaties with the Welsh and Scots, but I'm always at danger of revolt. Also Charlemegne is pushing close to my borders in Denmark and I can see a double front war coming soon.
@ Kergguz - I don't want to overwhelm you but basically you have a Rock Paper Scissors system in Total War. Archers are great in softening up enemies but if they get caught by any other unit they're toast. Spears are a must for defending against cavalry, but get chewed by swords and axes. I usually put my spears on the flanks and run my heavy infantry up the middle. I don't play many horse archers but they're effective at harassing isolated units or dragging away enemy cav. My only other piece of advice is check your commander's special abilities. Debuffing enemies or boosting morale with war cries can help turn a evenly pitched melee.
My backloggery
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GWJ CRPG Club
Thanks Zappa. I also found some nice guides on YouTube. This
taught me some manoeuvre controls that I had no idea of.
After remaining in Verona for a couple of turns we hit the road again and headed south for Roma. The empires armies were nowhere to be seen, I assume they are dealing with other barbarians elsewhere, so it was an easy sack for a big chunk of change. We also liberated Fiorentia which created the Italia faction. It's nice to have some friendly factions dotted around- it worked well when we were further east and Dacia and Macedonia provided a buffer between us and the ERE.
Next stop, Iberia.
Steam: Kergguz [GWJ]
Battlenet (EU): Kergguz#2565
I know most people have probably moved on to Warhammer by now, but can anyone help with this small issue. Everyone now and then when I use the priest action 'Inspire Populace', it decreases public order instead or increasing it. Any idea why? Is it just that this particular character isn't very good at his job, or a bug?
Steam: Kergguz [GWJ]
Battlenet (EU): Kergguz#2565
Does he have a character trait which reduces public order? If he's got a severe negative trait it could outweigh the benefit of the bonus.
He doesn't, and I've noticed it happen with other priests too. Some digging on various total war forums turned up other people asking the same question with no definitive answer. There does seem to be a pattern. If I use Inspire Populace with two priests inside the same province, the second priest will cause a negative impact. Also, if a priest uses the ability, then uses it again the next turn, that also cause the negative impact. My strong suspicion is that it's a bug that never got shouted about loud enough and never got fixed.
Steam: Kergguz [GWJ]
Battlenet (EU): Kergguz#2565
I went back to Attila a couple months ago and noticed the same thing, though to be fair my Norse priest was trying to pacify a newly conquered British Christian province. Maybe if there are multiple faiths in a region it causes a problem?
All in all, what drove me crazy with Attila is rebellions were constantly happening despite me doing everything I could to stop them, including brutally stomping out earlier attempts. In past Total War games, you could assume that once you put down a rebellion your province was likely safe, but Attila was a game of whack-a-mole.
My backloggery
GWJ Strategy Club
GWJ CRPG Club
I haven't had too much problem with rebellions. The Garamantians get a penalty if other religions are present so I've spammed religious buildings from the start. Probably overkill but at least I haven't had many rebellions. Around turn 80 with 120k gold and +16k per turn, I can't really lose from this point, the problem is it turns into a bit of a slog painting the map!
Steam: Kergguz [GWJ]
Battlenet (EU): Kergguz#2565