Some Attila Questions

[OnATShirt]

Hey guys, so far been liking Attila, just had a few questions about a couple of things that I'm not sure are intentional.

I am playing as the franks at about 425 AD on Hard.

1) At around 400AD all pretty much all political/interesting dilemmas (other than marriages and things like that) have stopped - is this intentional? I really liked those little events!

2) Starting to push out now from Britain - about 2/3 of the map is completely razed - that seems a bit much? And the AI seems to almost always raze my settlements rather than settle (sometimes they just sack though - which makes sense). Or is the game designed to be played mostly in a wasteland with a few settlements dotted in and of high importance?

3) Champions can completely wreck cities, in 1 turn 1 champion did about $10000 worth of damage on a city. What is the best way to defend settlements from agents?

4) Probably just my bad economic management - but repairing/converting seems so expensive! It takes me so many turns just to save up enough cash just to convert a settlement across, I don't remember having this much trouble in rome 2.

5) Just a side note - but I really hate artillery in non-siege battles - and it seems most enemy stacks recruit it. It just forces an engagement in a specific way and takes away so many fun options. What if artillery could only be used within 25% of movement distance? That way they could be used in defences/sieges but you could travel far and attack with it. I'm sure lots of people have had ideas/mods about this - sorry I have not been reading much about the games for a while online.

[RGA]

1. I still see dilemmas after 400 AD.

2. Map desolation seems to be a difficulty-linked thing. I play exclusively on Normal and razing is pretty much acceptable: some regions here some there but never the whole swathe of land.

3. Agents are always OP in vanilla. Either fight fire with fire (i.e. use your own agents) or wait for mods.

4. Conversion cost declines after time. I think it's linked to religion.

5. Mercenary onagers are everywhere, so everyone uses them. Wait for mods that eliminate this particularly hated unit and problems will be solved.

[Lugotorix]

1) They've gone away for me too. Then came back in three or four of them. That's what's great about new campaigns. New dilemmnas.
2) It was the same in my Hard campaign. It was more like 3/4 after I had to abandon my settlements in Italy, because the very year before Attila was going to die, wub hit the fan.
3) Haven't noticed this to be honest. I see agent actions all the time, but in the late game my settlements were being sacked so often it was more effective to let them repair themselves.
4) I converted everything and built a good economy around it. I was pretty depressed when it all had to be abandoned. It helps ALOT to conquer the same or similar culture: So Celtic/German etc. so you inherit their fully upgraded buildings. Its a cash cow, and gives you good AoR.
5) I usually auto-resolve battles against the rebels, usually the Roman kind who start getting artillery on turn 2 of the rebellion. When I have fought them, their numbers are diminished by the 2-4 units of artillery.

[nameless]

Hey guys, so far been liking Attila, just had a few questions about a couple of things that I'm not sure are intentional.

I am playing as the franks at about 425 AD on Hard.

I played as Saxons on VH BTW.

1) At around 400AD all pretty much all political/interesting dilemmas (other than marriages and things like that) have stopped - is this intentional? I really liked those little events!

There are techs that reduce it but it should be reduced so you should still see it every now and then.

2) Starting to push out now from Britain - about 2/3 of the map is completely razed - that seems a bit much? And the AI seems to almost always raze my settlements rather than settle (sometimes they just sack though - which makes sense). Or is the game designed to be played mostly in a wasteland with a few settlements dotted in and of high importance?

Different for me. Only the center part of the map was razed, everything else was more or less fine or re-colonized.

3) Champions can completely wreck cities, in 1 turn 1 champion did about $10000 worth of damage on a city. What is the best way to defend settlements from agents?

I feel for you bro. Use champions to kill them. Always keep a group of agents on the prowl and kill them the second you see them. Since the game allows agents to live longer you could have a veteran 6 star running around while the AI is stuck with low-leveled guys that can't do much so so long as you keep killing them the AI won't be able to harm you too much.

It's bad but not as bad as Rome 2.

4) Probably just my bad economic management - but repairing/converting seems so expensive! It takes me so many turns just to save up enough cash just to convert a settlement across, I don't remember having this much trouble in rome 2.

Yes it's very expensive. it's probably why a lot of AI factions prefer sacking/razing unless it has enough money to convert. As the Franks though you could let the other AI barbarians roam and conquer and then you take them over as they'll already be converted.

5) Just a side note - but I really hate artillery in non-siege battles - and it seems most enemy stacks recruit it. It just forces an engagement in a specific way and takes away so many fun options. What if artillery could only be used within 25% of movement distance? That way they could be used in defences/sieges but you could travel far and attack with it. I'm sure lots of people have had ideas/mods about this - sorry I have not been reading much about the games for a while online.

Mods...get rid of mercenary onagers. I hate them so much.

On that matter even without mods the AI armies only seem to carry just the one which is barely enough to cause any damage whatsoever.

[Bramborough]

On that matter even without mods the AI armies only seem to carry just the one which is barely enough to cause any damage whatsoever.

Gotta disagree with that statement, at least as far as the Huns are concerned. I routinely see 2 onagers in their stacks. And that's on just Normal difficulty. You may be correct about other factions' AI armies though. I haven't seen enough of them to form a firm opinion...too busy fighting off the dang Huns...

Artillery damage, moreover, seems much stronger now than in R2.