Total War: Warhammer 2 is great. The Creative Assembly has elegantly streamlined the game, introduced an excellent new campaign structure and done a tremendous job of realising four exciting factions from the OTT world of Warhammer. We like it so much we gave it 92.For new players the game explains itself better than any other Total War to date, through detailed tooltips and sensible campaign introduction tutorials.

It is a complicated game, however, and some systems (I'm looking at you, corruption) can pop up and disrupt your campaign out of nowhere. I've addressed a few of these elements below with brand new players in mind. Learn your army in custom battleYou do need a short winning streak of battles to get a campaign off the ground. If you struggle to take your first province, or do so too slowly, you risk falling behind in the grand race to control the vortex. Total War: Warhammer 2 is forgiving during the opening stretch, but a campaign isn't the best place to learn an army and experiment. Plus, how are you supposed to know what to build if you don't know how the units you're unlocking really function?So, jump into skirmish against the computer in custom battle mode and get used to your army's units right away. Just how tough are those High Elf spearmen really?

Can a dinosaur with a laser cannon on its back tank a hundred clan rats? I have found it useful to focus on a few core units that work efficiently to form the backbone of an army. Then I like to find a few high level units I like so I can later aim for them in the campaign.There are some cool story scenarios to play too.

Total War: Warhammer 2 screenshot of the expanded Mortal Empires. One of the currently available provinces, but rather in entirely new ones! A subreddit for the Total War strategy game series, made by Creative Assembly. Discussions, strategies, stories, screenshots, and more for Medieval 2, Empire, Shogun 2, Rome 2, Attila, Warhammer, Three Kingdoms and others.

These are a good way to learn the controls, and they show you what a balanced force can look like. There's no substitute for picking your own units if you're trying to learn a force. A few hours of experimentation in custom games could save you many hours during a campaign. Look past a campaign's starting difficultyIn typical Total War fashion each campaign has a difficulty rank to let you know how tough that faction's starting position is on the world map. It's tempting to jump into the easiest starting position, but there is more to the choice than this. Though it's wise not to opt for a hard campaign straight away, it's worth bearing in mind each faction's tricks and play style before you choose.If you play as High Elves in Teclis' 'easy' starting position you find yourself in the heart of the High Elf island of Ulthuan.

It's a beautiful land of rainbows, huge magical vortexes and fortresses positioned in easily defended mountain passes. As starting positions go, this is as good as it gets. However the High Elves are an elite army that relies on a relatively small number of vulnerable units that can deal a lot of damage. Their research tree is the most complicated of the set.

Plus their special ability to manipulate enemies through trade is also more abstract than, say, Skaven, who can bring up units from beneath the earth in corrupted territories, or the Dark Elves, who can spawn enormous black arks to harass distant enemies.If you have played Total War games before then the organised blocks of infantry in a High Elf army will feel nice and familiar, but I would be tempted to recommend the Lord Mazdamundi Lizardmen campaign and even, perhaps controversially, the Squeek Skaven campaign. Mazdamundi's starting position is very friendly to the Lizardmen. Once you've seized your province you can ally with the cheerful human faction south of you and then raid the weak Dark Elf forces to the north. Lizardmen units are more fun than Elves because they have dinosaurs and giant frogs that cast magic. This is a fact even though Jody will fight me over it.The Skaven Queek campaign is a tough prospect for a newcomer, but it's a lot of fun if you don't mind taking some punishment and want to think like a Skaven warlord.

Taking the starting province is dead easy because you just set up in a series of ruins, however you face constant raids from a High Elf island nearby and from treasure-hunting Lizardman fleets. There are a bunch of Skaven clans to the east that will fight hard for the warpstone source in that area of the map.

It's a game of scrabbling from settlement to settlement. Raid aggressively to keep your food supplies up and smother enemy territories with corruption. This is the way of the horned rat.The Dark Elves are interesting too. They get more powerful when more things die in battle, they have cool monsters and Malekith is a powerful general. Sadly, I find Malekith's starting position a bit dull. You're dropped into the frozen North far from the sea, surrounded by independent states and ruins plagued by Skaven. Once you do get onto the ocean Black Arks are amazing.

These ominous seaborne fortresses are cities in their own right. Check which buildings you need for researchMost of Total War: Warhammer's factions need to construct buildings to unlock paths on the technology tree. This does a neat job of tying building, tech and unit production into one interlocking system, and it gives each faction characterful approaches to R&D. Lizardmen—magical demons and masters of the universe—have loads of mystical buildings that unlock short sprints of technology. Skaven instead start learning new tech when they've built a couple of tier-three buildings (though note that you can found a settlement at rank three if you have enough food for a shortcut).Whatever faction you decide to start with, open up their tech tree on turn one and mouse over the little red icons attached to technologies. These will tell you what you need to build to start researching that discipline.

When you know your tech buildings you can plan to leave spaces for them in your provinces. If you don't want to worry about any of this, go with the Dark Elves. They can plunge straight into the research tree with a simple payment.

That's sorcerers for you. Look out for corruptionChaos and the Skaven infest the lands they occupy, changing the very nature of the Old World to suit their gods. Corruption is displayed as a percentage value in each territory and you may even notice the land changing in appearance as Chaos warps your home into a lava-strewn hellscape.If a land becomes too corrupted your armies start to die off, public order takes a massive hit, and and you're pretty much screwed. Chaos corruption can spread very aggressively (much more quickly than the first game, it seems) and because wrangling corruption is a slow process, prevention is better than cure.A territory's info card on the bottom left of the screen gives you a useful breakdown of all of the factors influencing corruption in that region. Your methods for dealing with corruption vary from faction to faction.

Look for hero skills and buildings that improve your quotient of untainted land. Note that you can level up the same hero skill multiple times, so you can create heroes dedicated to hoovering up corruption wherever they go. Multiple hero effects stack as well, so if you have a serious corruption problem a reactive cluster of heroes might help.Of course you might play a faction that enjoys rolling around in corruption, in which case look for buildings and heroes that spread more of the stuff.

It's fun to load up Skaven heroes with pestilence and send them raiding in enemy territory where they can steal food and spread rot at the same time. Chaos invasions become powerful quicklyIn Total War: Warhammer 2 the four major factions are performing rituals to influence the roaring vortex at the centre of the map. Every time you successfully perform a ritual Chaos invades your lands.

In my experience the first invasion is easy to bat away, but Chaos attacks with much greater power with each ritual performed.I was caught out in one campaign when I decided to let my garrisons and an army of magically summoned wild dinosaurs defend my lands while my main army was marauding abroad. A collection of rampaging Chaos armies stole away several cities before my mighty Slann returned to crush them. The best defense is a strong economy that allows you to sustain multiple armies, but if you like to gamble you can build defensive structures that grow the garrisons automatically stationed at your cities. Merge units, and be careful about raising a second army too soonUnit upkeep costs are a big deal. Raising a second army of noteworthy strength can wipe one or two thousand gold off your incoming gold total per turn.

If this puts you into the red then be prepared to disband individual units from your armies to balance your economy. This is especially painful if you're having to disband battle-tested forces that have earned veteran bonuses.Merging units is an efficient way to cut costs.

If you have two half-strength units of clan rats after a battle, consider merging them by clicking one, shift-clicking the other, and then selecting the merge command from the tiny pop-up menu. Now you're only paying for one unit rather than two. You can always hire another unit of clan rats later when you have more cash coming in.There are lots of ways to make money. The safe way is to build a bunch of money-making buildings and spread them across your empire. If you would rather use those building slots for other things then you can be a pirate instead. To do this plunder nearby lands in raiding stance, defeat enemy armies and extort as much money as you can from the aftermath, and sack cities every so often to empty their vaults.

Look out for bonuses in your hero skill trees and technology trees that increase the percentage of gold you get out of combat engagements and plundering settlements.If you're a charismatic faction like the High Elves, trade can also bring in a lot of cash. Talk to everyone and try to establish as many trade agreements as possible.That's enough to be getting on with for now. It is still difficult to quickly discern what minor variants on units really do in the game, but the best way to fix this is with experimentation in step one. With a bit of training you'll have control of that vortex in no time.

Total War: Attila is a strategyvideo game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega, released on 17February 2015 for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux. It is the ninth standalone game in the Total War series of video games.

The game begins in 395 AD, during what is now called Late Antiquity (the transition period from Classical Rome to the Medieval age in European history). While the title character will be able to become the leader of the Huns, he is not yet in power at the start of the campaign. Due to its setting near the Dark Ages, the game is possibly a spiritual successor to Rome Total War: Barbarian Invasion.

Gameplay[edit]

Campaign map[edit]

The campaign map for Total War: Attila spans from Bactria to Lusitania and from Caledonia to Garamantia in the Sahara. Provinces are groupings of three regions, and each region within a province can be conquered separately. The number of cities and regions is different from Total War: Rome II, but the size of the map is similar. The map of Total War: Attila further extends into modern-day Russia in lieu of the eastern provinces of the Hindu Kush found in Total War: Rome II, shifting the player's attention to the nomadic Huns. The largest settlement in a province is designated as the province capital. These province capitals have more building slots than the other settlements and are also walled at the start of the game, though in a change from Rome II the small settlements can eventually be upgraded to have walls.

Historical setting[edit]

At the dawn of the Dark Ages the Roman Empire descends into chaos due to volcanic changes rocking the empire as apocalyptic signs foretell of a great scourge to sweep across Europe. Upon the death of Emperor Theodosius I in 395 AD, the empire is divided between his sons who each rule a half: Honorius in the West, and Arcadius in the East. Since the days of Diocletian it has become a custom to divide Rome as the pressures to govern the empire have become too much for a single emperor to handle. With the split of the empire both sides face multiple threats on all sides, including internal instability undermining each of the young emperors' control as part of the long-term repercussions of the Third-Century Crisis. When the game begins, playing as the Western Roman Empire, players will face waves of hordes entering their borders as the arrival of the Huns in the east and the devastation they have caused have forced them to flee in search of new homes. Since the death of Emperor Valentinian I and the division of the empire, the weaknesses in the West have rapidly begun to show and edge the empire closer to ruin. With depleted funds from centuries of internal mismanagement and corruption, the West is unable to muster an effective army to combat the invaders. While players will start the campaign with vast territories under their command, it will quickly become a game of survival as Rome's legions are stretched to breaking point to protect a decaying empire. The Eastern Roman Empire, however, has profited from the division to take control of the civilized world as it begins its transformation into a new empire. With the new administrative capital in Constantinople serving as the gateway for trade between Europe and Asia, along with economic reforms, the eastern empire has become an economic powerhouse in the game. Yet, the Eastern Romans face an initial threat from the Visigoths led by Alaric I in Greece, who makes a direct assault on Constantinople itself, and remain wary of the Sassanid threat in the East. The Romans must find new ways and technologies to cope with this changing world if they are to survive as the old technologies and antiquity systems no longer apply, along with the increasingly growing power of the Church becoming ever more influential. If players choose to play either of the Roman empires, they will be tasked with saving and preserving the once-great empire, and if possible unite Rome under a single emperor.

Features[edit]

As Total War: Attila embraces an era of great change with the people of Europe migrating across the campaign map, Attila adds a new dimension in the form of a faction's religious conversion in the game that brings an array of unique benefits across the player's empire depending on the religion that they choose to favour. The presence of a faction's state religion offers bonuses, including provincial edicts assigned, temple buildings, churches, and even character traits. These factors all play an important role in how dominant the player's religion is over a province. If a province has a population with several religions, it can have a negative effect on public order and thus lead to revolts. Factions also suffer or gain religious penalties when engaging in diplomacy with each other depending on their chosen religious affinity. Should the player choose to convert to a new religion, their faction's overall population must have at least 35% of that religion to convert. To find which religion is dominant in a region, the campaign map may be searched using the religion filter provided. For players who choose Christianity as their state religion, the five cities of Rome, Constantinople, Aelia Capitolina, Antioch, and Alexandria that formed part of the Pentarchy have the exclusive option for their churches to be upgraded to 'Holy See' status, which comes with major bonuses. The game includes a total of 13 religions available throughout the campaign map, although the effects of minor religions are not fully understood.

The game also introduces the ability for players to use their armies to raze settlements once they have been conquered. This new feature allows the player to enact a 'Scorched Earth policy' which destroys the land around the nearby settlement, crippling the enemy's food and money supply. Attila also lets a faction who did not originally begin the campaign as a horde to abandon its settlements at the cost of burning those former settlements or simply abandon a chosen number of cities which before being destroyed, will provide a small amount of wealth to the treasury. However, it is advised to analyze which settlements players destroy; recolonizing it would cost a faction a hefty amount of gold, a separate cost from building expenses to reach its former state.

Based on historical accounts, a mini Ice Age in this period plays a part for the people of Northern Europe to move to the more fertile south as the winter cold moves further down and engulfs Europe in longer winters as the game progresses. As an added new feature included in Attila, the Fertility of a region plays a crucial part when settling in a region if playing as a migrating horde or creating important buildings that deliver food throughout your empire. The campaign map is divided on various fertility levels that are color-coded and labeled; from highest-lowest: Rich, Good, Average, Poor, Meagre, Infertile. The greater the fertility level, the greater the amount of food can be cultivated with the appropriate buildings. However, the amount of food harvested is affected by a number of various external and internal factors. These include: building consumption costs, razed areas within your controlled province, provincial edicts, character traits, foreign armies raiding within your borders.

The game features 56 factions, 40 of which are unplayable. Each faction has their own unit roster and agenda. Ten factions are playable in the game at launch, with others added via downloadable content (DLC) packs.

Downloadable content[edit]

Several DLC packs are available and planned for future release. These add factions, units and new standalone campaigns to expand the original game.

The first of these, 'Viking Forefathers', was released on 17February 2015, adding three new playable factions: the Danes, the Jutes and the Geats. The second, 'Longbeards', was released on 4March 2015 adding a further three factions: the Langobards, the Alamans and the Burgundians, as well as introducing a new narrative chain, 'Lay Of Ybor', which when completed unlocks the titular Ybor as general, with traits tailored by the story.

A third faction pack was released on 25March that contains three Celtic factions: the Picts, Ebdanians and Caledonians.

On 29April 2015, The Creative Assembly released Assembly Kits on Steam, which is a pack that features modification or 'mod' tools that allow players to create, edit, process or customize campaign maps, database entries and textures as well as other features.^[2]

On 25 June 2015, The Creative Assembly released its first Campaign Pack, titled the Last Roman. The Campaign focuses on the Wars of Justinian I in the former Western Roman Empire as he sends a Roman Expeditionary force led by his general Belisarius to reclaim the western provinces from the various Barbarian kingdoms that have torn it apart. However, the prospect of rebuilding the Western Empire may influence men to make other agendas such as becoming emperor themselves which is made possible in the campaign once a settlement has been taken. The campaign is unique in that the Expedition functions as a horde using Roman units, and that any captured settlements are controlled by the Emperor unless the general declares independence. It also allows you to play as the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, the Franks or the Vandals. In addition, the Campaign Pack also includes the Historical Battle of Dara. A free DLC pack, released the same day made the Suebians playable in the Grand Campaign as well.

A fourth faction pack, titled 'Empires of Sand' was released on 15 September 2015. This pack adds three new playable factions: the Tanukhids, Himyar and Aksum. Along with it, 3 new religions were introduced into the game each with their own benefits: Eastern Christianity, Judaism, and Semitic Paganism. A Free DLC pack, was released the same day and added the Lakhmids as well.

An expansion, titled Age of Charlemagne was released on December 10, 2015. It is set in the early Medieval Age and features new units and a new campaign that stretches from modern-day Portugal to Western Romania and from Scotland to Sicily. It is in this period from which the medieval kingdoms begin to form. The campaign begins in 768 A.D., depicting Charlemagne's rise to power as the King of the Franks with his brother Carloman I, later becoming the first since Imperial Rome to unite most of Western Europe under a single ruler with the title of Holy Roman Emperor. After centuries of warfare, a leader must rise to bring peace to an entire continent.^[3] In addition, a free DLC pack was released the same day making the White Huns playable in the Grand Campaign.

On 25 February 2016 a fifth faction pack was released entitled 'Slavic Nations' along with a free DLC that includes the Garamantians as a free faction. These nations have been tipped to be the 'world's best hope to defeat the Huns'. This new pack includes the Anteans, Sclavenians, and the Venedians each with settlements in the nearby proximity of the Hunnic Hordes advancing into Western Europe. Each faction enters the game with a formidable cultural trait including immunity to snow attrition and becoming the only factions to recolonize razed settlements for no cost.

Reception[edit]

Total War: Attila received 'generally favorable' reviews, according to review aggregatorMetacritic.^[4]

Dan Griliopoulos from PC Gamer gave the game 83/100, praising the in-game representation of history, enjoyable multiplayer, stunning music, animation and sound-effect, improved army and character management as well as the themes, which he stated 'has reflected the era accurately' and the new family system, which adds new complexity into the game. He also praised the developer for fixing the long-term problems in the series. However, he criticized the extreme difficulty, AI problem, laggy chat in multiplayer, frame rate issues and bugs. He concluded the game by saying that '[Total War: Attila] is a barbarous twist on Rome II, with a handful of fixes. The Total War games still need work to reach that perfection they’re aiming for, and the bugs this close to release are worrying, but Attila shows that Creative have been listening.'^[10]

TJ Hafer from IGN gave the game 8.1/10, praising its dynamic campaign, AI, improved interface, siege battles and utilities, new army types, and enhanced pacing in the real-time battle, which he stated 'adds an extra layer to the choice of army composition'. He also stated that the game has helped people understand 'the perspective of these ancient people, notorious for raiding and pillaging.' However, he criticized the game for its impenetrable, non-user-friendly and frustrating internal politics and diplomacy, occasionally nonsensical AI and the disappointing Celtic factions, which are non-playable and lack their own roster or models. He stated that 'Total War: Attila' is a cleaner, better thought-out experience. It is an adept refinement of Rome 2 instead of a glorified expansion pack for its predecessor. In fact, Attila is proudly its own game, and puts a firm foot forward in contrast to Rome 2's initially unsatisfying jumble.'^[9]

Atlas Burke from GamesRadar praised the graphics, audio-design, and new additions. He stated '[New additions] seem to be direct responses to the Rome 2 backlash'. He also praised the satisfying gameplay, outstanding tactical battles, improved AI and UI, the option to turn settlements into armies, and the heavy emphasis on political machinations. However, he criticized the excruciating build turn, technical issues, over-simplistic interface, and unbalanced units. He summarized the game by saying that 'Total War: Attila is a damn fine strategy game in its own right, without having to compare it to its oft-lamented predecessor.'^[8]

Writing for Destructoid, Greg Tito was slightly more negative about the game, giving the game 6.5/10. He praised the choice of setting and improvements to the real-time battles. But he was less positive about the campaign side. He criticized the changes to the political system and issues with trade and diplomacy. He thought there was 'a lot to like' in Total War: Attila, and that it 'doesn't need to reinvent its formula each time,' but 'setting even a well-made sequel in the crumbling legacy of the once-mighty may not have been a good choice.'^[5]

References[edit]

1. ^'Total War: Attila Performs Miserably On Linux - Phoronix'. www.phoronix.com.
2. ^Nunneley, Stephany (30 April 2015). 'Official mod tools for Total War: Attila are now available'. VG247. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
3. ^Purchese, Robert (24 November 2015). 'Total War goes medieval with Attila expansion Age of Charlemagne'. Eurogamer. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
4. ^ ^ab'Total War: Attila for PC reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
5. ^ ^abGreg Tito (12 February 2015). 'Review: Total War: Attila - Be the barbarian'. Destructoid. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
6. ^Griffin Vacheron (12 February 2015). 'Total War: ATTILA review'. Game Revolution. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
7. ^Nick Capozzoli (12 February 2015). 'Total War: Attila review: Horders'. GameSpot. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
8. ^ ^abAtlas Burke (12 February 2015). 'Total War: Attila review'. GamesRadar. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
9. ^ ^abTJ Hafer (13 February 2015). 'Total War: Attila review: Greatness from the Ashes'. IGN. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
10. ^ ^abDan Griliopoulos (12 February 2015). 'Total War: Attila review'. PC Gamer. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
11. ^Colin Campbell (12 February 2015). 'Total War: Attila review: The Empire'. Polygon. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
12. ^Thew, Geoff (13 February 2015). 'Review: Total War: ATTILA'. Hardcore Gamer. Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved 13 March 2015.

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