Total War: Attila

Total War: Attila is a strategy game from Creative Assembly that follows on from Total War: Rome II and moves the setting several centuries later, into the period of the decline of the Western Roman Empire and the great migration of peoples. The player chooses from factions of the turbulent late antique world – from dying Roman provinces through Germanic and Slavic tribes to the Huns led by Attila himself – and tries to guide their people through an era of crisis, invasion, and the collapse of the old order, as old civilizations retreat and new peoples are only just finding their place on the map.

Compared to previous entries, Attila places much greater emphasis on survival: the game introduces mechanics of famine, epidemics, and climate change, which gradually make life harder in certain territories and force the player to relocate populations and even entire settlements elsewhere. The player thus often has to fight resource shortages just as fiercely as open war with neighboring factions. Also infamous is the scorched-earth tactic, whereby both one's own and enemy towns can be deliberately burned so that an advancing enemy is left with nothing to sustain itself, its army gradually wasting away from hunger and disease. The Huns, moreover, function as a nomadic horde without a fixed capital – their settlements can be packed up and moved at any time, turning the game on their side into an endless campaign without a permanent home, entirely different from playing a settled empire with fixed infrastructure. A similar, if milder, horde system can in certain situations also be used by other displaced peoples who have lost their original territories and are seeking a new home elsewhere on the map.

Why play: Total War: Attila will appeal to players who want to experience the decline and disintegration of a great empire from both inside and out, and who enjoy strategy games with a noticeably harsher, survival-focused atmosphere than classic builder campaigns full of prosperity and expansion. It's a choice for those who appreciate a darker tone, mechanics of hunger and plague, and a sense of permanent threat as a natural part of tactical decision-making.