Review of Total War: Attila – the confrontation between ten nations in the early Middle Ages. Total War: Attila - Guide to the Western Roman Empire Attila total war walkthrough tips

And the barbarians came

Admit it, after the announcement your fingers on your mouse were itching... and for good reason! Studio Creative Assembly, while painting her ninth creation in the series, did not skimp on promises. We won’t list it, it’s enough to express it like this: “We’ll improve everything that was good in our predecessors; we’ll fix everything that was bad; we’ll add new features and serve it with the sauce of a great picture.”

The trailers for the game were pleasing to the eye and called to decide the fate of history, and he Attila- threatened Great Rome with cruel reprisals! And now this day has come, the world froze in anticipation. At least the world of series fans...

First stone

Unfortunately, to arrange a cheerful life for the Romans, Franks, and other Saxons in the name of Attila it won’t work - the great leader of the Huns, although he gave the name to the game, is not a playable character. Apparently, so that novice commanders would not drag his glorious name into the mud with their inexperienced actions.

And such actions, whatever one may say, will happen. And the reason for this is not so much the complexity of the game itself, but problems with optimization. The release version suffered from subsidence FPS and periodic crashes for many players (mostly those using Russian localization).

Of course, with such beautiful graphics, high system requirements were inevitable, but when the game starts to lag even on powerful computers, successfully controlling a huge army is very problematic. All that remains is to either dance with the tambourine in the settings menu, or wait for patches.

It would be a shame if there was a flight now and all these valiant warriors died in vain

There were, of course, those who did not like the very concept of the new world. Like, all the gaming innovations could have been implemented without worrying about it. But, objectively, the few shortcomings of the game will soon be corrected with mods and patches. Why not treat yourself to something new?

Total war...Total war never changes

The game mechanics have not changed radically compared to the previous parts. We still have our own state, a brave army, and exorbitant ambitions to expand influence. In practice, bringing these ambitions to life will be oh, how difficult it will be, especially if you have not previously encountered the series.

There is, of course, training in the game, but to become a successful ruler, you need to study a lot of in-game training materials. It would seem typical "rock Paper Scissors": the cavalry crashes into the infantry like a hot knife, cutting to the right and left, the infantry quickly penetrates through the shafts of the pikemen, deftly wielding swords and hatchets, and the pikemen kindly impale the cavalrymen on spears, like sofas. And somewhere in the rear, under guard, stand archers, cooling the military passions with a rain of arrows. Doesn't it sound difficult? No matter how it is.

Soon the dawn silence will be broken by the sound of metal and the screams of the dying.

You will definitely have to take into account weather and terrain conditions. Soldiers, as a rule, do not fight very well, having made a forced march through a snow-covered forest in a blizzard, and then crawling up a mountain.

The battlefield is not just a great landscape, where hundreds NPC They are waging a life-and-death war, surrounded by smoke and burning buildings, these are dynamically changing events. The one who learns to respond competently to them and turn them to his advantage will emerge victorious from many glorious battles. Otherwise, even a more powerful and trained army will lose to a good tactician.

I walked like Attila on the charred earth

The developers tried to please as much as possible the players who prefer to conquer nations not with words and economics, but with fire and sword. New gaming features allow you to literally burn cities and terrain to the ground, plunging the enemy into horror.

Even ordinary archers do not hesitate to add some light to their arrows. What can we say about the huge siege engines spraying incendiary shells across city streets. This whole extravaganza looks dark and beautiful, especially when, before the player’s eyes, the besieged city gradually turns into ruins.

However, one should not forget that the player and his opponents are on equal terms. If the war takes a sharp turn and enemy troops flock to the city stronghold, then sometimes the best thing to do is to set fire to a populated area with your own hands and rush to save people and supplies. The enemy will either have to spend a lot of time and resources on its restoration, or, excuse me, a cozy winter in the warmth will be cancelled. All around are walls and ashes. And this is another innovation, as well as the possibility of building barricades, helping during the siege (if there is a chance of surviving it).

This is the vaunted Roman hospitality

Sea sieges are still here. Why walk halfway across the world to express your dislike to a distant leader, if you can simply sail to him? Moreover, the size of the map is quite impressive (about the same as in). The ships allow you not only to deftly land on the shore, but also to destroy the enemy fleet in the romantic setting of the expanses of water. We won’t even mention the sad possibility of going to the bottom on our own.

Not with a single sword

One might get the impression that this is an extremely cruel and militarized game, but this is not so. If there is no desire (or opportunity) to make a cup for mead from the skull of the next leader, you can try to share bread and salt with him. This is where diplomacy comes into play. Moreover, it is inseparable from war.

You can’t just rush around the map, crushing those who are right and those who are wrong. Each move takes time, and significant time at that. Game years fly by, cities without the participation of the player and proper development fall into decay and cannot compete with their developing neighbors. And the neighbors themselves, harboring a grudge, can unite and cruelly take revenge on the self-confident conqueror.

The redesigned interface helps a lot to understand the global situation. By comparison, the interface has received a lot of criticism as inconvenient and uninformative. There is no such problem. After reading and studying HUD becomes an indispensable tool. It shows the number of troops, money, resources, profits from their territories, and gives access to tons of educational treatises.

What is important is that the dynasty system, which was cut out at the root in . You can manage the conclusion of marriages (or simply produce bastards), monitor the development of family trees, and appoint characters to various state and municipal positions. This is where development takes place. military leaders– each, with increasing influence, is able to learn additional abilities that improve the art of war or diplomacy.

They even returned the ability to change religion their subjects. They themselves may not be delighted, but new levers of political influence are emerging.

The territories are impressive, the possibilities of wars and alliances are more than enough

The technology system is divided into two branches: diplomacy and militarism. Their development helps you develop your own playing style, gaining distinctive strengths and weaknesses.

And you Brute!

Separately, it is necessary to dwell on the features network game . If you want to find out which of your friends is the best commander, then Attila will help resolve this dispute as objectively as possible.

There is a possibility custom battles based on significant battles - there are sieges, naval battles, and clashes in the open field, there is room for tactical ingenuity and imagination.

Among the interesting innovations, we cannot fail to mention the possibility co-op campaign. You must admit that it is not easy to exist alone in a hostile world, where behind-the-scenes games are constantly being played, military alliances arise and collapse, and betrayal and espionage flourish.

Often, in order to understand why relations with a faction have deteriorated, you need to scroll back a few moves in your memory and remember exactly where the mistake was made. Moreover, it can be allowed due to a banal lack of information about the enemy.

And with a friend, you can go both ways into fire and water. The main thing is to make sure that he doesn’t stick a knife in your back. Politics is a dirty thing.

Ad futarum memoriam

There is no need to keep in mind the rapidly changing situation in the political arena; the chroniclers will do it for you. All information received, be it the conclusion of an alliance, or even the smallest battle, is recorded in the game chronicles. Compared to this, the system has been optimized; now finding the information of interest is much easier and more convenient.

The game can take many weeks (and according to the gaming calendar, many years!), thanks to the complex, interesting, dynamic gameplay and the opportunity to share adventures with other players. There is a somewhat wooden animation of the troops, but given the scale of the battles, you simply don’t pay attention to this.

This is, of course, a worthy representative of the series and deserves an honorable place - in the real annals of the gaming industry.

Before we start delving into our latest collection of tips, we’ll immediately note that this is the first non-standard and at the same time original game in the Total War series in the last few years. Here you will find a very unusual gameplay among the nomads, a game policy worked out to the smallest detail and a hundred other innovations that will undoubtedly be able to easily throw off even the most experienced player in the Total War series. As always, we encourage you to check out our carefully crafted guide to learn more about government policy, warfare, and more.

Let's return to Rome 2 and remember the heavy infantry, which played almost the most important role in the battle. When starting to play, remember that this is not, so heavy infantry no longer plays a key role here. Heavy cavalry is now the main striking force. In addition, archers and various throwing units have now faded into the background, thereby giving way to newer warriors - crossbowmen. Of course, one cannot say that these are some kind of rapid-fire units, but their destructive power is simply enormous, so it allows them to immediately destroy some elite squad. Remember: the crossbow in the game is a real killing machine, and in combination with fire bolts you will also thoroughly demoralize the enemy troops!

If you decide to play some kind of barbarians (Alans, Huns and others) - then remember that for you robbery is the main source of income that will support both your economy and military-political power! Therefore, we strongly recommend that after the next raid on an enemy settlement, do not demolish it to the ground, since the owner will eventually rebuild this city again and you will be able to return back to get more money. If you completely level a province or even a region, then there will be nowhere to return for loot and therefore you will have to look for a new place to make money.

Are you short of gold and at this very moment you need to get money as quickly as possible? It's very simple - raise taxes to the maximum, and then lower them back the next step! Thus, you will quickly be able to collect gold for a new armed army, and the people will not have time to blink an eye when everything will fall into place. But first, in order to carry out such frauds, you should raise the economy of your faction: build trade buildings, study technologies in the civilian branch that will reduce corruption (since corrupt people are much worse than the invasion of the Huns!). For example, the Western Roman Empire starts with 80+% corruption, that is, the government receives absolutely nothing.

Please note that it is best to appoint only your most loyal Generals to any positions! If some dubious General sits in a very “strong” post, then most likely he will use his position to take control of power, and subsequently a real civil war will break out! But to prevent this from happening, it is best to place his trust in your favor, that is, you can marry your daughter to him, or an alternative option is to order a murder.

It has such a feature that any outbreak of disease can lead to an epidemic, and that in turn to unrealistic losses and generally to the collapse of the empire! Sick regions will not only bring you less gold, but also food, and this will also lead to unstable order. Therefore, we recommend that you spare no expense in building various aqueducts, baths, sewers and many other buildings that increase the level of sanitation. The cleaner and healthier your people are, the less likely they will be to encounter any kind of plague.

The barbarian migrant troops are not just a bunch of wandering population, but also an army. They represent a kind of mobile settlement, since nomads can leave their campaign at any time, establish a camp, or even start raising livestock along with construction. Remember that the safest way to roam the continent is in a huge horde, keeping your troops close to each other, but also remember that food consumption takes twice as long, so when a province runs out of food, your troops will no longer be replenished with new recruits like this up to the point of hunger strike. To do this, you will have to divide your troops into groups as a couple and go plunder local settlements so that you have everything in abundance.

If you decide to play for the Eastern or Western Roman Empire, then it is best to destroy all cathedrals and temples that relate to the Catholic faith in the first moves and return Roman paganism as the main state religion. This is because Christian churches and so on will cost you more than a penny, and the bonus of these buildings is simply meager. Without these Christian cathedrals, your profits will immediately double and returning to the original faith will give you access to aqueducts, higher level baths. As a result, you will get a lot more benefits.

A skillful and competent General must always calculate everything in advance before launching a military campaign against his enemy. Remember about such a nuance as the change of seasons: spring, summer, winter, autumn. To perform in the autumn or winter season is a real suicide, since you will lose a large number of your soldiers! And don’t forget about global cooling, which was the reason for the resettlement of most peoples. Every year the temperature will drop, thereby the fertility of the provinces will decrease. It is best for nomads to move to the southern lands, as otherwise their armies will be greatly reduced due to lack of food.

Once you learn certain technologies, you can upgrade your units to stronger and more elite units. By the end of the game, the ordinary cavalry of the peasants turns into a heavy cataphract, and seemingly ordinary militias turn into fierce defenders of the emperor! But it is also worth considering that a considerable amount of gold will be spent on paying such soldiers! In addition, as soon as you hire stronger warriors, the opportunity to hire less unprofitable warriors immediately disappears. Based on this, remember that if your treasury is empty, then you should not rush to improve.

Surely everyone has heard that the company of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires is unrealistic, even terribly complex. But indeed, the developers did not exaggerate this at all, because companies are simply terribly complex. Two parts of a once great and vast empire are hanging by a thread from complete destruction! Dozens of barbarian factions attack them without any interruption, the provinces constantly suffer from disease and hunger. Competitors conspire, and corruption haunts us. Even experienced fans of the Total War series will not be able to beat the campaign of any of the two factions, let alone two, on the first try. Beginners should start with something more or less easy.

The most difficult campaign is the passage of the Western Roman Empire. When playing with this civilization, you are immediately faced with a bunch of problems, and the most important thing is that your eyes run wide from their number. Below we have prepared for you a list of the most important rules that will help protect and preserve this state.

Rule - 1: Fight corruption

The Roman Empire has a huge number of problems, so in addition to hordes of barbarians, it also has such a problem as corruption. This “rot” in the state will take away a huge amount of income from you, so if you start fighting it right away, then you can double your income! To solve the problem with corruption: appoint governors for the largest economic cities of the empire, you will also need to develop the appropriate skills among your generals, assemble a retinue for them, and be sure to first study technologies in the civilian branch that help fight corruption!

Rule - 2: Clear mind

You will need to immediately come to terms with the fact that you will not be able to hold all the areas of the empire that will be given to you at the very beginning of the game. Hordes of barbarian tribes will burst into Gaul and Italy, so they will constantly plunder everything they come across there! To be prepared for such consequences of attacks, it is necessary in advance to invest your funds in the development of those regions that are located in North Africa and southern Spain. It is there that Rome will have many fewer enemies and much more time to prepare for the barbarians that will soon arrive. Moreover, those lands are the most fertile.

Rule - 3: You must take risks

Sitting constantly on defense is the worst option. Especially when you have a bunch of enemies a few steps away that are ready to tear you apart. Moreover, the enemies will be able to restore their strength very quickly, so the attacks will not stop. You need to try to be the first! Give them pre-emptive strikes, try to burn them and plunder their cities. Having repulsed one attack, continue to lead the legions further, but to their lands! Don't hesitate to attack the barbarians in Northern Britain, as they will be very weak in the early stages of the game!

Rule - 4: Battlefield

By default, it is made so that the garrisons of the Roman Empire are powerful troops, so they can fight off even stacks of full barbarian armies, so if you see the numerical superiority of the enemy, never retreat and fight until the last legionnaire! Take a defensive position somewhere in the city square. Always remember that barbarians love to leave settlements destroyed, so such moments will be a critical blow for you.

Rule - 5: Generals

Barbarian hordes have low morale from the very beginning of the game, so try to eliminate enemy commanders by any available means. If a commander dies, then any army will be ready to go on the run at any moment! But also always remember about your commanders, because for you it will be no less a loss. The loss of your commander threatens a real disaster for the entire state.

Rule - 6: Home Dear

At the very beginning of the game, the party that currently rules the Western Roman Empire will be very weak. You will have to put it in complete order within about ten turns, because if this is not done, various uprisings will begin throughout the country, which will eventually develop into a civil war that will put an end to the Western Roman Empire.

To begin with, you will need to make the party leader your best general and then send him to the front line. This is necessary for two reasons: you will be able to lead your troops more diligently and your emperor will be able to gain experience and authority faster. As your hero develops, you will need to accept new faces into your family and assign appropriate positions to them (it is better to place governors in developed regions, and generals in the most powerful). The strongest and most influential members of the opposition should be assigned to the most problematic regions (for example, Belgium and the border that runs with the Eastern Roman Empire).

Rule - 7: Diplomacy

Try to use any valuable means to delay the start of the war. If necessary, then even break the alliance with your influential neighbor in the east in order to reduce the number of conflicts. The Eastern Roman Empire will be the first to feel the full force of the Huns, so they will quickly deal with your allies.

Rule - 8: Fleet

In order to fight your enemies more effectively, you will need to have at least two huge fleets: one is best kept in southern Britain, the other somewhere in the Sicily region. It would be better if the fleet had mostly ramming vessels, since they can sink any ship at once.

Rule - 9: Legion

If you have a situation where you need to make a choice: saving a settlement or a legion, then it is better to make a choice in favor of your troops. The Roman troops have been restoring the size of their armies for quite a long time; even the usual hiring of heavy infantry will take up to two turns!

Rule - 10: Outposts

Once you have come to terms with the fact that you will have to lose a large number of settlements, immediately select those for which you will fight until the last warrior! It is best to move all strategically important buildings to those settlements that have walls. One large city will be able to block huge stacks of enemy armies.

There is something intriguing in projects of irreversible decline, collapse and even total degradation, because as they say: “breaking is not building,” and in general, any story ends someday. These are the conclusions that the developers from Creative Assembly came to, unanimously believing that it was time to bring the real-time strategy Total War Rome franchise to the finish line. Fortunately, the creatives are not some kind of triarchs with their beloved, so instead of the dull forcing of the line, we got the opportunity to personally put our hands on the already skinny necks of the Roman Empires, completely rotten in disease and corruption. Like Opposing Force from the Half-Life universe, we are offered a look at the events of the fall of great empires from the eternal antagonists of the Romans - the barbarian tribes of the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Huns, as well as other lovers of ancient culture and part-time nomads. Looking ahead, we note that Total War Attila is not a remake of the Barbarians add-on for the first part of Rome, but an almost full-fledged part of the series, with many noticeable updates and significant optimization of the interface, which cannot be said about performance, but let's take it in order.

Briefly about the game mechanics of the Total War line

If you are keen, then at least half an ear, but you have heard about the products of Total Var. This hybrid strategy took the top RTS due to the fact that it competently combined strategic and tactical parts. Indeed, sometimes we ourselves find it difficult to distinguish tactics from strategy, but in the case of Total War Attila everything is quite simple. On the global world map, we make moves, as in, and during battles we switch to the already familiar micromanagement, leading our legions. Of course, we can close our eyes to diplomacy, sanitation, mass culture, religion and a dozen other “boring” elements and factors of this epic, because loading saves every half hour is so exciting and fun.

The decline of an empire is not for the faint of heart

Let's start with the fact that playing for the “rotting imperial West” is not just a worthy challenge for skilled commanders, but a real stress test of your skills and general understanding of this gameplay. The proletarians are bathed in lice, plump from hunger, bureaucrats of all stripes and ranks fill their pockets with taxes with impunity, and not a trace remains of the former border forts. The empire is literally bursting at the seams, and the number of available legions can be counted on one hand, so don’t be surprised that despite all your efforts, after just a dozen moves, flocks of dashing bearded men will annihilate a quarter of your provinces.

In short, the legendary difficulty suggests eternal damnation, but experienced players quickly found holes in the mechanics. For example, you can “politically incorrectly” terminate the alliance with the Eastern Empire and thereby protect yourself from a couple more packs of radical roving groups. The same thing happens with religion: why maintain expensive temples and cultural assets if manufacturing chains and elements of the military-industrial complex are claiming their place? The people will still be dissatisfied, so we use this benefit to suppress riots and other democracy, which, in general, can disrupt the atmosphere of the game, but will significantly increase the chances of a favorable outcome.

An outside view or features of playing for nomads

Another thing is the nomadic and not very barbaric tribes, whose gameplay clearly resembles the modern culture of tourism - they came to the clearing, had a lot of fun and left behind nothing but dirt and ashes. Thus, our tramps roll from one location to another, set up camps, at the same time cleaning up everything behind them with a wall of fires. The scorched area is one of the most spectacular innovations of Total War Attila, the essence of which is the so-called “wipe” of the region, which practically dooms it to death, since the restoration of such locations costs colossal sums to the already thin treasury.

It would seem that the game mechanics simply insist that it is time to burn out this intelligentsia “with fire and sword,” but as practice shows, you will have to pay bitterly for any short-sightedness in Total War Attila. We remind you that a horde is not one or two, but tens of thousands of hungry mouths that need to be fed and warmed with something during the cold season (yes, the seasons have been returned in Attila, so let’s welcome frostbite and minuses to stats). Thus, by cutting out the entire district to the roots, we are deprived of sources of food and income. In addition, scorched earth is in no way suitable for pastures, so veterans of the line recommend gripping the chairs less and thinking more about the future.

Peculiarities of playing for the Huns “liberals” faction

One way or another, the West and the Ostrogoths, as well as the barbarian tribes, can still play for “unrest”, as in, for example, but the hordes of the Huns are a different story. These free folk do not make long-term stops and are constantly on the move, so their main farming consists of raids and forays. Having one of the best cavalry among the factions, the Huns can afford a strategy that is quite flexible in terms of retreats and counterattacks, but here again there are some features. The fact is that large detachments of 50+ cavalry in urban conditions begin to wander in three corners, which turns them into an easy target even for yesterday’s outcasts with pitchforks.

It is interesting that our hero of the occasion, the semi-legendary leader of the barbarian tribes, Attila, was not even born at the beginning of the campaign. In other words, playing as the Romans you will have to live to see the great battle, and only then experience for yourself all the charm of nomadic culture and everything that follows from it. To prevent instant defeat, we recommend creating so-called buffer zones in Illyria, Austria, and Galia, where you need to place 1 legion each. Actively develop your defensive infrastructure and beware of incendiary shelling, since the game physics in Total War Attila is close to reality, where one random arrow can set a whole city on fire, and without any pigeons there.

A few words about innovations and optimization

The main difference between the Total War Attila strategy in terms of interface and graphics is the serious work on the bugs and wishes of the fans. Now all the necessary information about your state comes in separate tabs, and not in a single stream, as was the case in the previous part. At the same time, on the contrary, technological progress has removed the unnecessary, leaving all the necessary branches in one window, so in terms of interface and user friendliness, the Total Var line has taken a step forward. The global map has darkened, the bright colors have diminished, leaving the glow of fires to illuminate these dark times. The textures of fields and meadows now actively reflect the seasons, and the forest finally looks like a real grove, and not like a couple of bushes in the middle of a map. Indeed, graphical updates are always pleasing to the eye, but they also require much more system resources, so decide for yourself what to choose - plus 30 warriors per squad or global lighting of the bushes.

Let's sum up the continuation of the Total War line

The real-time strategy Total War Attila will perfectly brighten up the leisure time of series veterans, thanks to truly hardcore campaigns for the Eastern and Western Empires, in which there will be many random events and unpredictable events. These surprises will test all your tactical management skills in stressful mode, and what’s most interesting is that you will have to learn to act outside of the mold in order to twist the game mechanics like a pig on a spit. For those who are getting acquainted with the Total War line for the first time, we recommend starting with the original Rome or its equally good remake, since without proper preparation, the peculiarities of the local gameplay will quite shake your nerves.

We were waiting, but we weren’t sure what new things the new game from Creative Assembly would give us. Some thought that it would just be an addon to Total War: Rome 2, others counted the days. And so, numerous reviews and broadcasts pleased those who were thirsty - a lot of new things appeared. In general, the innovations have already been presented to the world, and players have already rushed to study them in more detail and on their own skin, but I will try to tell you about one of them, the most interesting and unusual for Total War connoisseurs. Namely, about playing in hordes. Many of us were familiar with hordes in Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion, but in Attila it's not just a starting or forced-to-flee state - a horde can now actually be played.

Leaving others to plunge into the problems of the Eastern and Western Empires, I quickly got down to my immediate needs. Briefly, the situation with the hordes is this: in the game they are primarily the Huns, and secondly the Alans, Ostrogoths, Visigoths and Vandals. When you start getting to know each other closely, you will also notice the existence of minor hordes like the Yazygs, Budins, Kutrigurs and Savirs, and you will be able to turn completely sedentary peoples, for example the Franks and Saxons, into a horde, displacing them from their lands, or rather taking away settlements, because They will still need to be “erased” from the earth (I wonder, is it possible to make Rome a horde? It would be funny - we’ll check it out someday). The Huns and similar minor hordes are deprived of the opportunity to occupy settlements, but the migrating peoples have such an opportunity, which, in my opinion, is more interesting and corresponds to the target plan for conquering the world.

The situation of all four factions of “settlers” obliges them to flee away from the Huns. At the start, the Ostrogoths are in the middle, at the borders of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. The Vandals are located to the north and come into contact with the northern peoples (Utes, Saxons, Franks, Rugs, etc.). The Visigoths are further south in the territory of Thrace, almost at the walls of Constantinople. The Alans are on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, and they will have to immediately contact the Huns. Having considered the bonuses of each faction, I settled on the Ostrogoths. And what? The faction’s bonuses are very good: we are promised no period of instability when capturing Roman settlements (for a minute), and the ability to hire Roman troops. The position, as they say, is “in the forefront,” in line for Roman property, which one can’t wait to take possession of. God, what do these games teach us, what lessons can we learn!? But everything is much simpler. For now you just need to master it Total War: Attila . Well, let's be the first to learn.

Lesson one and short.

Having rushed into battle, every old-timer of the series will probably want to capture something as quickly as possible, or at least plunder it, and will immediately understand that he was in a hurry. It’s one thing to quickly defeat the enemy, savor the graphics and test the fighters in action, and quite another to understand the pointlessness of such a hasty decision. Firstly, the amount from the robbery is not so significant, and by turning the first minor faction we come across against ourselves, we will deprive ourselves of the opportunity to replenish the units battered in the first battle. And if we capture a settlement, in hope and out of habit, to settle down faster and begin to develop, then there will be a very big “secondly”. Rebuilding a settlement costs fabulous money to start the game, just like founding a settlement on abandoned lands, we will get a lot of disadvantages with dilapidated buildings, from the resulting expenses in the treasury and unrest. In addition, we will cease to exist as a horde. The further development of events is so hopeless that it is not worth continuing. Here it is - that's not what it was invented for Total War: Attila to repeat the experience of the first Rome. The Horde itself is thought out as a work. It has a beginning, development and ending.

Lesson two. Nomadic cities - a city that is always with me.

Let's try to pay attention to why we didn't have all the delights of decay when we were a horde. To do this, the game has many statistical windows. Also, looking at our army, we will discover two significant innovations: the establishment of a nomadic settlement and the mode of transition of the army to this state. You can view existing buildings (if you can call them that), but “construction” and some bonuses only work in the camp setup mode, indicated by the “yurt” icon. You can recruit troops in any mode and on any territory. Technologies are studied regardless of the state of the horde. The camp window is quite spacious and, unlike the provinces, it has the ability to erect as many as ten “buildings” - you must admit, there is room to roam around. Of course, as in the case of ordinary settlements, for each expansion and, mind you, improvement, an excess population is needed, in our case a horde. Each commander and a number of buildings have bonuses to its growth. And considering that you can set up a camp anywhere with all your armies, you get a well-developing faction. The camp can provide us with everything we need, like an entire province. "Roam - I don't want to." To do this, you just need to not occupy the settlements. And what’s very good is that when the camp is removed, construction is not canceled, but suspended for the duration of the movement. We fought, advanced, and set up camp. Don’t forget that for this opportunity you need to save 25% of your movement points (we outline the route on the map with RMB held down and looking at the commander’s movement points we can calmly measure the path as much as needed). In this way, you can gradually move your people from location to location, rebuild, and upgrade your commanders in battles. By the way, this is an indispensable condition for development. After all, commanders have the necessary skills, acquired by increasing experience, that can not only improve the spirit and military qualities of units, but also the very necessary parameters for the growth of the horde, food supply and increased cohesion, without which there is a risk of losing the respect of their fellow tribesmen and even the army.

Public order, the possibility of rebellion, hunger and other delights leading to collapse are also influenced, excuse the tautology, by the influence of the characters and the political influence of the faction as a whole, bonuses from studying technology, and internal strife. Changing these factors falls entirely on commanders and other leaders. Be prepared for the fact that the horde will not like being in the same region with your other armies, and you will have the negative effect “Internal strife” (-20 food, - 20% wealth) for every other horde located in the same region. Good or bad, the effect extends to the next turn. That is, if at the time of the move the undesirable condition was met, then on the next one you will receive a penalty, if not, then no. In this way, you can leave your hordes in neighboring regions, and on the next turn gather for joint operations and scatter again. Well, or act separately, which requires a sufficient number of units in each stack and will affect costs. It’s up to you to decide what is best to do at the beginning, and what development path to choose. Every wrong decision will drag you down.

Lesson three. "Our weapons are God's word and kindness. There is wine and women in the city!"

"Rob the loot!" Well, they robbed... And they left. They left with nothing. The income from robbery is not great. The experience of commanders is much more valuable. And thanks for that. Unlike other games in the series, in Total War: Attila, robbery does not necessarily mean capturing a settlement. Everything was a little different. Now, in the choice of action after defeating the besieged, in addition to the usual “plunder and occupy,” there is simply “plunder.” And yet, now you can completely destroy the settlement. There is little point in destroying, only out of the need to deprive the enemy of support bases. Since there will be no one else to rob here until new residents arrive, and the fertility of the land will deteriorate, and you will also receive fines for cohesion. You can rob at least every turn, but don’t expect the same amounts as the first time. The settlement should recover. Therefore, if you took 2000 coins, on the next move you will take 400. Whether it’s worth keeping an army nearby because of this, again you decide for yourself. Often you will have to camp near the enemy who has just been robbed - and deprive yourself of the opportunity to replenish your troops. You can switch to the usual army mode "Raid", but it is not beneficial for the horde, because... in the absence of many fines in the camp, we will earn more, we will build and develop. Although by upgrading our commanders we will increase the percentage of profit from raids with some skills. I think it might come in handy after the transition to a settled state. Thus, a thorny path to a settled life was outlined. This cannot be changed. But you can still tweak and sweeten it a little.

So, after the next capture, in the options for deciding the fate of the prisoners and the entire settlement, the “release” button appears. For example, by capturing Sirmium, we can free Illyria from “centuries of slavery,” that is, from the Romans. Iliria is formed immediately, becomes friendly and receives several detachments led by a commander. In the future, the army grows significantly if this faction begins active operations and may well turn out to be viable. And by pitching tents on the territory of Iliria, we receive the necessary replenishment of the thinned out troops. If we or our new friends, who are very indebted to us, are attacked, we will be able to help each other with reinforcements in battle. Agree, this increases the chances of survival. By the way, you can first plunder, and then release. Unfortunately, this cannot be done in every settlement and not even in every province. We move forward and liberate peoples wherever we find them.

In addition, it is not at all necessary to destroy the first factions you come across; you need to learn to live in peace with them. There will be no great honor or profit from this. And you can also not completely destroy it and make extra enemies for yourself. It will soon be possible to get wives, gold and allies. Watching the military and political struggle play out around us is a special pleasure. One of your consent or refusal can remove a couple of extra factions from the political scene. They will all be at each other's throats. It is also possible that they will attack you en masse. Everything is the same as in life - just stand on the side, substitute your shoulder or leg, to choose from. New political levers have emerged and the possibilities of diplomacy have grown. You'll have to become a fish out of water to maneuver between friends and enemies, and hordes rushing around the map in search of victims.

Lesson four. In the service of Rome.

After 20 moves you understand how the horde is growing, what is needed for its existence. Not everything will happen rosy and as planned. The Romans are not as harmless as they seem at the beginning, they just haven’t had time to catch up yet. And if you find yourself between them and their allies, you may greatly regret that you were not careful when walking around cities and villages. Having killed three emperors of the VRI, ravaged many settlements, liberated Macedonia, Dacia and Illyria, I was driven by the Huns to Greece. It was in Corinth that my Ostrogoths were lucky enough to defeat two of the Emperor's successors. But the truth is inexorable - to survive against the Huns you need a little more than I had. You won't have time to get stronger troops, because... this requires technology, and research cannot be accelerated at the beginning, it requires a certain number of moves. You need a certain level of the horde in order to build the necessary buildings that provide warriors. The money, as further showed, will come.

The Huns will attack sooner or later. Conquering peoples and turning them into tributaries, they quickly cross spaces in search of you and other unwanted ones. The earth is covered in ashes from cities burned to the ground. I had to swim to new friends who bought their friendship with a bag of gold, the Romans from ZRI. Having won the last victories over the Byzantines, I decided to go looking for a better life in the ZRI. But the Huns, having boarded the boats, or whatever they found there, rushed after me. Luckily, they got lost somewhere in the fog.

Don't be shy about getting into character. You quickly get used to the game. She is rich in her manifestations. Life is literally in full swing around you. In the family and horde too. Brother turned on brother. The brother-in-law acted as the bastard's killer, for which he had to be set up. Overly talkative wives and overbearing commanders are literally tearing your people apart. Having prevented an assassination attempt and sent my unwanted relative to my forefathers, I breathed more freely. The fertile valleys of Italy lay before the Ostrogoths. And only somewhere far away, near Ravenna, the barbarians, as the Romans call us all, are tearing the empire apart. We have to go there too. Rome itself has no troops and it will still not be possible to sit out in the rear. And the Romans do not skimp on paying for our swords. Their generosity knows no bounds - they pay in advance for the heads of all their opponents. You can choose to fight with old allies and sworn enemies. Having bargained and got the best price, I repeated the same with their opponents, who immediately decided to pay for peace with the Ostrogoths. The treasury has replenished impressively. Moving past Tarentum, Naples, and Rome, the Ostrogoths set up camp and retrained their soldiers. Alliances were made and broken. And then, approaching the front line, I saw numerous enemies of the Empire, and now my enemies. “Eh, Marfusha, should we be sad?” Snatching their swords and vomiting a furious cry from their throats, the Ostrogoths rushed into battle.

A continuation suggests itself, but is delayed due to technical reasons.