Thoughts on Attila: Total War?

[salty mud]

I bought Rome II on release and was utterly disgusted like many people. Almost three years later however I decided to load up the game, get some mods and I'm kind of enjoying it. It's gone from absolutely atrocious to ok, which is some achievement considering the amount of fixing Creative Assembly had to do. That said, there are still some glaring issues. Siege battles are a joke that just get autoresolved all times. Diplomatic AI is very poor - other factions declare war on me then, the following turn, give me gold to sign a peace treaty. The generals and agents are very uninteresting. Their traits are basically meaningless. I just press a button and close the window, not even bothering to read what each does because the benefits are so minuscule. The jury is still out on the province system also. I simply cannot understand why conquering Rome, for example, would cause an uprising in Ariminum. Public order and culture should really be at a regional level. If there is a mod that does this, I'd appreciate it if you could point it out.

I'm interested in picking up Attila in the next Steam sale. I hear it improves on many aspects and fixes some of the more glaring gameplay and AI issues. It's one of my favourite periods of history so I'd certainly enjoy it from that angle even if the gameplay isn't up to speed. Also, The Last Roman campaign seems pretty interesting also. I've wanted a campaign around Justinian's reconquests since the BI days. I hear that the Charlemagne expansion is pretty much unplayable which is upsetting as that would be interesting also.

If you have some comments on Attila I'd be happy to hear them.

Regards.

 

[tesb]

i am in the same boat regarding rome 2 as you. i did not try attila, but i do play warhammer total war and this game is very good. i would rate it better than shogun and even medieval 2 which i deem the best in the series so far.

 

[salty mud]

That is some statement. So Warhammer is the best Total War game ever?

 

[tesb]

i would say so yes (only my opinion ofc). however this is without mods. i would still rate medieval 2 with the lord of the rings mod as the best.

it basically comes down to:
-small amount (if any) bugs (again for me)
-very different factions with a huge variety in campaign and battlefield playstyle. the last thing coming even close was the med2 expansion kingdoms (natives vs. spaniards)
-very good performance (better than rome2, again i can only speak for my system)
-best ai i have seen so far in any total war

there are some gameplay decisions that i really don't like, but luckily most of them are already addressed with mods. it basically feels like CA used all the bad games prior as testing grounds as engine and gameplay tests. imho there are only 4 good total war games (rome, med2, shogun2, warhammer) and this one is the best, yes.

 

[tesb]

i am really enjoying the battles, total war was never this diverse and had so many options. however the strategic campaign map is really annoying mostly due to the ai and game mechanics. the ai actually plays to win which means:
-they will raid your unprotected settlements
-they declare war on you if they perceive you as weak
-they will avoid your armies
-they will make sure to always stay outside of your movement range

this has very annoying consequences
-you will not have any enemies if you are strong
-the game has very little pitched battles, it is mostly chasing enemy armies or sieging

i would rather have a much less competent ai, if it means that it provides battles.



on the tactical side, with the recent patch ethereal units got a buff and the vampire count armies can be insane:

Spoiler :

this is from a custom battle, in the campaign you make this army even more insane:
1) Lord with the army traits that buff hex wraith attack (+12)
2) Vampire heroes that have an increased aura which provides a lot of leadership (you will take the most damage from crumbling)
3) Necromancer heroes can get channeling (they don't have it in custom battles), meaning they can cast a lot more
4) if you have the money replace cairn wraiths with hex wraiths (more attack if the lord took the right skills, see 1)

this army is basically immortal:
-the necromancers provide a short range healing aura and can heal and resurrect with their spells (overcast them for aoe effect)
-the vampires are good fighters and provide a lot of leadership
-the hex wraiths have 80% phys damage reduction giving them 14k effective life; however, since their hitpoints are actually very low you can easily heal and resurrect them in combat with the necromancer auras and spells
-all heroes and units are mounted making the army very fast on the battlefield

 

[tesb]

i would not call that a pyrrhic victory:

Spoiler :

to be fair those cannons killed maybe 120 hexwraith (i had very bad positioning), but invocation of nehek is just that op with hexwraiths

 

[schlaufuchs]

wrong thread?