Attila Praise Thread

[c.ryo]

I must second that, Rome 2 even with plenty of mods, is less then impressive. However Attila so far playing as Western Roman Empire proved for me to be challenging, interesting, worth every penny. Installed couple of mods, and I must say I do love it. AI is great, dark grim world is great, environment is great, political system, various game mechanics, all seems to be polished and working well.

I do agree, since Medieval 2 this is the best Total War yet, which has room for growth in future in terms of big mods.

Thank you CA finally you have made something good. Please let that Warhammer Total War be on new engine and as good or better then Attila.

It could be a placebo but it seems like the matched combat is much smoother now but it could just be that the rest of the game is so good that it was never really that bad all along.

I can only second this, it does feel and look much smoother.

[Sheridan]

they should just do what they did in rome 1 and have an option for arcade battles

Yeah agreed. Splitting up the battle styles - even the way Shogun 2 did - could have made a significant difference

[Riekopo]

I think it's good, but not great. It's an improvement on Rome 2 which was horrible.

[Huberto]

Would love for people to try to describe the battles a bit more. Have they really changed since TWR2? How have they changed? How long are battles taking? What about the new fatigue system what impact is that having?

[agent 47]

I think it's the most atmospheric game since Medieval 2 (quite arguably more so than that too). The music is great, as is the narrative, custscenes and voice acting. AI is pretty impressive too, actually. But I don't like the combat - at all, and it's certainly not the best since Medieval 2. The interface is cluttered with so many buttons, icons and at times redundant information (compare with ETW or NTW which were very clean looking and comprehensible). The mechanics aren't impressive either, truthfully. It looks and feels more dramatic than Rome 2, but the whole combat concept needs to be revised since almost every area is looking or playing awkwardly, although somewhat better than R2. I think they tried to hit a middle ground between arcade style combat and what Total War used to be, the problem is it's not really working. It's a shame, because the game as a whole is a gem. A good, solid and intuitive combat system would easily have made it the best since Medieval 2, and better than it on top of that.

You and I have the same opinions on the drawbacks of how warscape handles combat and although I'd like to see the old combat back what I was saying is it doesn't seem like its as much of a problem because everything else is designed so well and oozing with atmosphere

If there was just proper unit pushing and guard mode alone I'd be happy with that.

I should mention that I'm playing with dogsoldierSPQR's combat mod with the shield walls for all units, which is a good substitute for guard mode. Seeing the AI actually use shieldwalls really suprised me.

[Sheridan]

Would love for people to try to describe the battles a bit more. Have they really changed since TWR2? How have they changed? How long are battles taking? What about the new fatigue system what impact is that having?

So, as the OP mentioned the matched combat feels smoother. It's not as awkward looking as before and it has a less dominant role (lower percentage of animations). The actual engagements between units are pretty quick, but they rout and come back again at least once most of the time, increasing the length of the battle somewhat while requiring you to stay attentive to how it unfolds. The fatigue system is somewhat extreme, as your units get tired after about 30 seconds or so of running. An equally long period in combat may render them exhausted, which is supposedly a means to have the player and AI cycle their troops and keep reserves.

Overall though, if we ignore the AI changes, the battles are very similar. Some units have a more prominent role, others a lesser compared to their equivalents in Rome 2. Under all those ability buttons - believe me, there are many of them - it's the same rather poor system on the mechanical side. Granted, the UI is more well thought out.

You and I have the same opinions on the drawbacks of how warscape handles combat and although I'd like to see the old combat back what I was saying is it doesn't seem like its as much of a problem because everything else is designed so well and oozing with atmosphere

If there was just proper unit pushing and guard mode alone I'd be happy with that.

I should mention that I'm playing with dogsoldierSPQR's combat mod with the shield walls for all units, which is a good substitute for guard mode. Seeing the AI actually use shieldwalls really suprised me.

Yeah I agree, the other components of the game really hold a lot of weight.

[Greasy Dave]

I hope I'm not the only one who thinks this. I can't quite put my finger on it but this feels like the old total war games in terms of pace, design and atmosphere but mixed with the good parts of modern game design.

Since Empire I've always found myself trying to ignore the problems that came along with the new engine, like awful sieges, poor AI, bad pacing, combat mechanics and bland music. With this, I'm finding myself just loving it all. The siege maps are great and seem like a mix of the sieges of old games with the good of the new games but actually working as intended. The AI is solid, battles feel desperate and have a great pace and the music is great for Richard Beddow. Shogun was a great game with a lot of love put into it but you could tell the problems of previous games were still there, just hidden. With Attila everything just feels like its working as intended like the games on the older engine.

I'm even finding myself taking pleasure in watching the combat even though it hasn't changed since Rome 2 as far as I'm aware. It could be a placebo but it seems like the matched combat is much smoother now but it could just be that the rest of the game is so good that it was never really that bad all along.
.

I completely agree with you. I'm bowled over by the campaign game play - the time it takes, the finessing of region balancing that's necessary. The attention to detail that's needed. I found myself comparing it to Third Age TW in my head last night. I played a lot of that over the summer - and found myself wishing that CA would get that kind of speed and pacing into their games... Attila does just that for me. Gone is military building spam. Gone are maxing army stacks with level 3 units and not worrying about the cost. Gone is pretty much everything that I hate about the R2 campaign.

I read in another thread someone complaining about the cost of converting towns or resettling razed regions and demanding a nerf in a patch! I couldn't believe it - way to miss the whole point about the game.

TBH, I'm kind of thinking about taking steam offline for the next year just to be sure that if CA get cold feet and rebalance, I'll still have this gem to play unchanged.

[mougrim]

I completely agree with you. I'm bowled over by the campaign game play - the time it takes, the finessing of region balancing that's necessary. The attention to detail that's needed. I found myself comparing it to Third Age TW in my head last night. I played a lot of that over the summer - and found myself wishing that CA would get that kind of speed and pacing into their games... Attila does just that for me. Gone is military building spam. Gone are maxing army stacks with level 3 units and not worrying about the cost. Gone is pretty much everything that I hate about the R2 campaign.

I read in another thread someone complaining about the cost of converting towns or resettling razed regions and demanding a nerf in a patch! I couldn't believe it - way to miss the whole point about the game.

TBH, I'm kind of thinking about taking steam offline for the next year just to be sure that if CA get cold feet and rebalance, I'll still have this gem to play unchanged.

Yeah, I absolutely like razing and re-settling mechanic of Attila - that's the whole point when you play barbarian factions.

BTW, Nord factions are the best

[orange3black]

Thank you for the updated Victory screen that doesn't pause gameplay. I can watch my men mow down the opposition and then easily end the battle when I'm done. Small but much appreciated change.

[Yerevan]

EDIT : Initialy in this post were praises about the game. But after a few campaigns the conclusion is obvious, this game is an impostor. A complex family tree to pretend we are back to immersive campaigns the like of RTW, M2TW and S2 but the analyse does not stand the test of time. CAI is narrow, campaigns are repetitive and tedious.

[Sharpe]

What I like is the difficulty.

In some of the old games particularly Rome and Medieval you almost felt bad for winning because it go to a point where you could easily steam roll the entire map, but in Attila I find it's far more difficult to even get close to that stage. Hell, playing as the ERE I'm actually 7 regions worse off than when I started.

[foot soldier]

This is by far the best Total War game i ever played .
Thank ,from a loyal fan since Shogun Total War ,15 years playing exclusevly your games.

[the_mango55]

I really like how Mercenaries are finally worthwhile to use. In the last several games they were so expensive on a per turn basis they were only useful if an army was about to attack a settlement without any defenders or when you were attacking some walls and you needed a unit to serve as a sacrificial lamb to man the battering rams and go first through the breach.

Now they are more like 20-30% more expensive than recruited units rather than basically twice as much.

[swabian]

HA! Nice one this time @ CA. Enjoyed the game so far, except for some (more or less) minor issues. I just love messing around with the formidable horde system. Jutish 10th century vikings plundering the Balkans.... why not lol

[WelshDragon]

I will echo many of the thoughts already posted here. I downloaded ATW yesterday on kind of a whim since I was snowed in, thinking is was RTW2 rehash in a different time period... I was wrong! As stated above, it has a feel I haven't seen in a TW release in years with great immersion, it's much more challenging and unpredictable than RTW2, and though it's certainly not perfect, it's a huge step in the right direction. I was honestly worried after RTW2 that the franchise would go down hill until it was nigh unplayable without heavy modding, but ATW has somewhat restored some hope in the future of the series.

[Yerevan]

I really like how Mercenaries are finally worthwhile to use. In the last several games they were so expensive on a per turn basis they were only useful if an army was about to attack a settlement without any defenders or when you were attacking some walls and you needed a unit to serve as a sacrificial lamb to man the battering rams and go first through the breach.

Now they are more like 20-30% more expensive than recruited units rather than basically twice as much.

True ! I normally never use them but it makes sense to recruit some in Attila !

The UI have so much improvements I dicover a new one regularly. Last one was the new indication if the relation
is deterioring or improving in the diplomacy panel.


EDIT : If a comparison with S2 is nice, I'm not completely convinced by the artistic direction in Attila. Compared to Shogun's I find them cheap and unable to bring some atmosphere. The ingame battle pictures should be replaced by proper 2D art for loading screen.

[PumpkinBread]

By far my favorite TW.
Most of the other TW's - steamroll, steamroll, get bored. (Except B.I. WRE. EEK. & Caesar in Gaul as Romans. Barely won that one.)
Attila - get steamrolled - challenge accepted!

[Crouchy23232323]

I'm going to add my 2 cents worth. I was only introduced to Total War roughly 2 years ago. In that time I've bought TW games from Rome to now Attila, and in that order. The only games I spend any time with are TW. I bought Rome 2 6 months after release so missed out on the launch issues and it was cheaper so I've definitely missed out on some of the bad tastes left in folk's mouths. In Rome and Rome 2 I played a few battles as factions other than Rome, but every campaign I have done has been with Rome. On starting up Attila and playing through the prologue I have just started a campaign as the Visigoths. I had zero intentions of playing as any faction other than Rome, so kudos to CA for fleshing out the prologue in a way that would make me a 100% Rome campaigner want to play through a campaign as another faction. I, like everyone else have no time for cash grab DLCs nor did I pre-order to get the viking forefathers out of principle but DLC that would get my attention would be a more story driven campaign and is something I would like to see. That said I am not that far into my grand campaign yet but from what I have seen so far, good job CA. Credit where it's due.

[Yerevan]

Most of the other TW's - steamroll, steamroll, get bored. (Except B.I. WRE. EEK. & Caesar in Gaul as Romans. Barely won that one.)

Fall of the samuraie had another feeling. It was possible to win without steamrolling. Just conquer the minimum provinces before the start of the Boshin war and then rush to conrtrol the two capitals (Edo and Kyoto) with the help of your allies. Last campaign I won with only 4 armies and 9 provinces. Just talking about it and I already want to start another campaign lol

[Murfmurf]

Best TW game since M2, hands down.

Atmosphere, music, diversity. Has that je ne sais quoi that the last few games were missing. Love how with the raze feature you have to be super wary all the time of ravaging hordes.

Only thing I dislike at the moment is the speed of the combat, still too fast. But that's easy to fix.