Total War: Attila Review

From 434 to 453, Attila was one of the most feared names in both Europe and Asia. The near-20 years of reign brought the Huns to a terrifying level. While both the Western and Eastern Roman Empires couldn’t halt the devastation, never once was Rome or Constantinople capturef by Attila. In Total War: Attila, the coming of the Hun leader is a moment you’re preparing for from the very start of the game regardless of your faction. The feeling of dread, and even helplessness, is iterated so well the moment you see your neighboring territory become engulfed in flames.

While I definitely got my fill of Attila’s wrath, my story of Total War: Attila came from barbaric diplomacy. With new internal politics and strife within my own Frank-ish family tree becoming an issue in early gameplay, I started to become desperate for clan unification. At this point, I noticed that my faction leader was unmarried but had a female daughter. To strengthen his dominance within the clan and to reinforce domestic alliances, the Franks and the Alamans found agreement through an arranged marriage with their daughter.

Thus why the game continued and Farmund conquered more and more of Europe, I found myself watching over his and Ealswid’s relationship. By year 407 they gave birth to the Franks' new male heir, Theodemar. Through some close and devious internal political ploys, the people accepted Farmund, Ealswid, and Theodemar ending the family strife. Years later, the Alamans snuck attack the Franks, forcing the Shieldmaiden to turn on her birth family and put them all to the sword as an example.

Why did I take two paragraphs to explain this singular story from one of my campaigns in Total War: Attila? Because it interests me and it is awesome. The fact that the game has all of these systems in it and you can choose to follow it is all the more fascinating. As a historian, this is all basically catered to me to fully geek out. These campaigns are long, even if you sim every single battle. While you can watch your lands grow, the Roman’s lands disappear, and the Huns home in on everywhere – you’re effectively retelling your version of history and that's just awesome. Even for those players who couldn’t give two s@#$s about the story you’re telling, your family tree still has to be tweaked or there will absolutely be civil war.

Similar to other games in the Total War franchise, Attila is a turn-based strategy game that is a hybrid with real-time tactics developed by Creative Assembly. It can be played both single player and multiplayer. Total War: Attila starts during the Dark Ages in year 395. Since a turn is one season (IE four turns to one year), your leaders, family, and personnel seem to stick around much longer than previous games. Unless you’re playing as the Huns (which you can totally play as the Huns), the first part of the game is all about making your foundation in the world and fortifying the hell out of it before the great horde comes a knocking on your territory.

Speaking of hordes, this is a remarkable new feature in Total War: Attila. If you’re playing a nomadic or barbarian faction, you can just choose to up and leave your settlements to pillage and sack anything and everything in your path. Your horde becomes ‘like’ a settlement with economy, food production, recruitment, and what not. If you so choose, you can pack up, go plundering, conquer a providence halfway around the world, and start over from there. Doing this turns all your other hordes into regular armies. Some factions, the great migration ones, START as hordes, which gives you the freedom of starting how you want to start. After taking a city, there are several more options ranging from making it a puppet state, peacefully conquering it, or razing it the ground. This new feature is remarkable and adds so much more replayability and tactics like never before in a Total War title.

Since there are seasons and long marches, these elements come into play when dealing with both army and navy fatigue. This feature seems far more tyrannical than previous games in the franchise. Armies will heal from fatigue in settlements, but while you’re on the long conquest this adds up. What’s that saying about never fighting a land war in Russia? Yea, basically that. Moral is far more fickle but in a more dynamic sort of way. Fatigue will cause issues for your military, but so bill getting attacked from the rear. You’ll know when your troops are feeling helpless and it can turn on a dime now. As per usual, your general’s death will cause problems in the moral department.

Cunning generals may set up ambushes in forests, wait until night, or rile enemy troops up with agents beforehand. A priestess talking all fire and brimstone to an enemy army or if a spy accidently poisons their general will make the fight all that much easier for you. I found myself getting far too involved with agent play this time around. Since your agents have progression trees, I felt myself obligated to learn what they’re capable of. This time around, I loved my priestesses. Messing around with the heads of generals, other agents, settlements, allies, and even entire settlements never got old to me.    

Battles can be found on both land and sea. Overall, they feel felt quite similar to the more recent Total War games. As previously mentioned, the dynamic level of moments within battles has escalated. As the overseeing general, I find myself needing to be far more observant of the little things in morale and statuses. They re-tuned the over-the-head view of the entire battle for those times you want to lead like a god. I wanted the mouse controls to be more innovative so I wouldn’t become so dependent on the WASD keys.

It’s the other aspects of combat that changed the most. Settlements will now take damage depending on, well, how much damage you physically deal to walls and buildings. The defender will want to repair these attacks to increase their condition. Attacks can also siege settlements, which will harm the physical conditions over the seasons.  This makes for expensive turtling, lower morale, and even lower attack of defenders. To counter this, have another army pincer the attacker and sally forth for victory.

While still FAR better than Total War: Rome II’s launch, the time between turns is still lengthy. Oddly enough, the later you get in the game, even after several factions are eradicated, more and more factions appear, making the time between the end and start of your turn even longer. While I played on a review version of the game, there were some graphical mishaps noticed. None of these were game-ending but just sort of odd; things like boats sliding sideways instead of forward and birds having tethers from space. From a graphical stand point, the over world map looks absolutely stunning. Just watching the water flow, trees sway, and birds fly overhead sometimes causes you to forget that you’re about to murder everything in your path. Sometimes.

For the long time Total War fan, you’re probably going to be interested in these new horde migration features. I found myself absorbed by them, the family trees, and agent activities. Each faction tells you the difficulty they will have from the start on top of you being able to choose a difficulty for the game. Even if you’re unexperienced in the franchise, there are established stepping stones to allow your to have a good time. While certain factions do feel similar, it’s really their starting location that makes all the difference. For a history nut consumed by the Dark Ages – just yes. Total War: Attila won’t be out on PC until February 17^th. If you’re going to get Total War: Attila, don’t do it for yourself or even for Creative Assembly, do it for Ealswid.