The Huns are coming.

Winter is coming.

This is a bad time to be the ruler of an empire. Especially this one.



Britain will soon be flooded with invaders from within and without. Central and Eastern Europe will become a bloodbath. Rebellions will happen on a near constant basis in Spain, and the African kingdoms will make plays for your provinces in North Africa.

To survive as the WRE, you can hold on to the majority of your provinces. It will be hard, it will be stressful, and you will have "OSHI-" moments, but hopefully this guide will help.

Nota bene: This guide assumes "Hard" difficulty.

When Xi Jinping(a Chinese dude) took office as the President of China, he vowed to cut down out corruption like the cancer it is.


The WRE starts off as the largest empire in the game. This is not a good thing. CA has made it clear to us that the WRE is overextended and does not have the economy and the forces to stem the tide of invaders.

What they did not make abundantly clear was why this is the case:



This is the primary reason why you can't afford nice things, like swords, horse(teehee), buildings, darts that are actually dangerous, and killy death-sticks.

We're going to take a hint from Xi Jinping. Here's how we fix it.

At the top right corner, click on the Provinces tab and then sort your provinces by income, in descending order.



Assign governors to the top four provinces. I recommend the Emperor to be one of the governors himself. He's a pretty bad general, and unless you want him to be a waste of oxygen, I'd give him some deskwork to do. This will also increase his Influence over time, allowing you to do fun things like embezzle funds. Also keeping his influence high means that it will be more difficult for your generals to become more influential than the faction leader.

After a few turns, the governors will "level up" themselves. Go down the center tree to get to level 2 of the Vicarius ability as soon as possible. This will require your governor be level 2. In the meantime, have your governors issue the Bread and Games edict. This will give you a total boost of 80 food.

After the 10% reduction in corruption in your "top four", you will see a sizeable increase in revenue.

Eventually, if you play your cards right, you will also see an increase in your imperium, which will allow you to assign another governor. Either assign this governor to the next most prosperous region, or to Carthage.

Once a particular province's public order has stablized, you can also try the "Ecumenical Matters" Edict, which further reduces corruption by 5%, so long as you are still Latin Christian. Note, however, that this also reduces the influence of other religions by -4, so if you are planning to convert back to Greco-Roman Paganism, it might not be a good idea.

Note that this will also reduce food output by 20. If a particular province was producing positive food just because of the Bread and Games Edict, the resulting -25% tax income will be far worse than the -5% to corruption in said province.

Our next step, before actually moving any units or building any buildings, is downsizing.

Before diving in, this is the logic behind this phase and a brief overiew of the Food system in Attila.

The time period in which Attila is set during marked a severe and sudden change in climate. As the world grew colder, crop yields decreased. However, at the start of the game, the WRE is the owner of some of the most fertile lands across Europe.

Whenever possible, you should build buildings that give you food. Food is incredibly important in Attila. Unit replenishment depends on it, public order depends on it, and many buildings that contribute to public order depend on a steady supply of food.

A note on farms(screenshots are from Africa):

Wheat Fields produce the most food and some revenue. They produce the least base food, but additional food output benefits the most from provincial soil fertility. They produce the least base income, which is barely affected by base fertility.

Sheep Flocks produce the most revenue and some food. They produce some base food, but additional food production benefits the least from provincial soil fertility. They produce the greatest base revenue, and the amount of money generated by a Sheep Flock increases vastly based on provincial fertility.

Cattle Herds are a middle ground between the two. They produce the highest base food, but benefit the less from fertility in terms of additional revenue or food production.



Africa has rich soil, but here's a look at a province with average soil quality(Carthaginensis):



As you can see, as soil quality gets worse, Wheat Fields become worse and worse.

Early on, food should not be an issue unless you severely mismanage your empire.

Eventually, however, food will be an issue. Thus, we need to prepare for that eventuality. In order to prepare for the coming famine, we first need gold. And lots of it.

We have already covered one way of increasing revenue by eliminating corruption.

The next step is to downsize.

Hello.

This is a church:



This is a bigger church:



This church is mad big:



Notice something about these churches?

They all cost gold to maintain. Buildings with upkeep!

Considering that one of the reasons why the later Byzantine Empire fell was because the Emperors were spending more money on the church and religion instead of their armies, we should take a hint.

Yes.

Destroy all the churches.

Watch the $$$ flow in.

Nota Bene: You have to destroy the church in Rome twice.

By the way, this also eventually sets up a great thing you can do later where you covert Western Rome back to Greco-Roman Paganism and use religion as a reason to reconquer the East!

Destroying all those churches also gives you a substantial amount of money in addition to removing thousands in upkeep. This means that in turn 2, you can continue to upgrade economic buildings or build more buildings.

Now, before we start:

1) Do not build anything in Britain. More on this later.

2) There are three regions in proximity of Liguria: Raetia et Noricum, Pannonia, and Maxmima Sequanorum. Do not develop these regions economically. Put guardhouses where you can. Expect to shed manly tears and load games from time to time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first and primary goal of rebuilding the WRE is to recoup the loss in public order bonuses because we destroyed all those churches. Replace baptistries with guardhouses; churches with either a Capitol or a workshop.

In developed, densely populated provinces, relatively safe from barbarian hordes or rebels, such as Magna Graecia, Insulae Occidentalis, or Liguria, build fountains instead of guardhouses. The sanitation bonuses will help prevent diseases, which will keep revenue and public order high.

Guardhouses provide +3 order in exchange for -10 food per turn and at the cost of 1500 gold. This is very, very cheap. The Bread and Circuses edicts that you issued should cover all the food costs of the guardhouses you build. Most importantly, guardhouses provide additional garrison troops, which will come in handy when reinforcing or fending off rebels.

Normally a building like this would seem pretty useless, but considering the amount of rebels and invaders you're dealing with, the fact that this is an opening moves guide as opposed to a late game guide, and the fact that you're constantly being attacked... Spending a one time fee of 1500 and upkeeping two decent infantry units for 10 food per turn is pretty damn good.

Capitols provide some income as well as a +3 in public order with no downsides other than its hefty 2000 gold price tag. Capitols are similar to Forums, but from an upgrade perspective, Capitols provide more public order for less food per turn. Upgraded Governors' Houses provide +9 order for -20 food, far better than the Auditorium.

Yes, the Amphitheatre provides 15 order for -50 food. But considering that it costs 5000 gold, realistically, you're not going to be building one anytime soon.

Workshops provide some money from industry with no downside, but only cost 1000 gold.

Britain, approximately 8 turns in.



There's a great quote from the Denzel flick, American Gangster. Denzel's character, Frank Lucas, is discussing the transport of millions of dollars worth of heroin with a corrupt PRC military official, and the official, sensing some previously absent anxiety on Frank's part, leans over and says:

"It's not in my best interest to say this Frank, but quitting while you're ahead, is not the same as quitting."

It's a mistake oft repeated in history. Don't let it be a nail in the coffin for the Western Roman Empire.

Combined, Britannia Inferior and Britannia Superior net you approximately 410 gold per turn in revenue. This is the upkeep required to run Legio VI:



This should speak for itself.

The only reason why one might be interested in holding on to Britannia Superior is because of the presence of Stonehenge, which provides a factionwide 20% reduction to unrest caused by religious differences.

You can click on a religiously different province and check out exactly how much unrest this is. For example, Liguria is pretty diverse, and suffers from a -3 penalty.

Sorry, but -20% of whatever number that gave you 3... is actually still around 3.

This is not really a great reason to hold on to Stonehenge.

Evacuate Legio VI from Britannia and send it down to Northern Spain.

This being said: do not abandon Britain until you've completely milked every last drop of money you can out of it. If you see a settlement under threat by the enemy, demolish all the buildings preemptively. Fight off naval invasions if you can - hold out for as long as possible, but do not invest any funds in Britain.

Besides if you stay then Clive Owen would never have had the chance to bang Keira Knightley in King Arthur.

Once you have made sufficient changes to the outlying areas of your empire, you should turn your attention to the areas of your empire that keep the boat afloat, so to speak.

These are the provinces that you have assigned governors to, governors who should be decreasing the level of corruption in said province. Developing the economies of these provinces will allow you to generate the maximum amount of income. In addition to development in these specific provinces, however, there are a few regions that stand out.

Spain is far removed from Attila and the Migrating hordes, which means that it can be a fairly stable source of income, provided that sanitation and public order are kept at reasonable levels. Even if the hordes do manage to slip through your lines and do head for Spain, armies at the passes in the Pyrenees and Narbo can effectively block off entrance into the peninsula.



Spain also has excellent sources of rare resources, such as high quality iron, gold, and wine.

However, with the exception of Lusitania and Gallaecia, after the "Climate Change" event, much of Spain will no longer have good soil quality.

Focusing development in spain means two things:

1) You absolutely need to bring Legio VI to Northern Spain to help Legio VII in quashing rebellions and establishing order.

2) Keep in mind that the soil quality will decline in much of Spain.


Previously, I mentioned that Carthage could be an alternate site for development and governorship after your imperium increases. Here's why:

1) Carthage is out of the way. Eventually, you might come under attack from the African kingdoms, but they're not too hard to deal with. There are plenty of cheap mercenaries in N. Africa available for hire.

2) Carthage has fertile soil. Unlike modern day N. Africa, N. Africa back in the day was a verdant forest, and effectively the breadbasket for Western Rome.

3) Carthage has the existing infrastructure to support development.

A skilled governor in Carthage can restore the city to greatness and allow it to provide for the Roman empire well into darker times.

As Western Rome, you will soon be host to numerous vacationing barbarians traveling by way of circa 400 AD equivalent of RV homes. (Yes, this is how you should think of yourself if you vacation by RV home. And this is how people around you feel about you too.)

One thing you'll notice is this: The romans can levy troops from these RV convoys(hordes) for a relatively low cost and fairly low upkeep. For one, this is a great way to supplement your forces. Aside from your core Cohors/Legio/Comitatenses infantry line, much of the rest of your army can(and was historically) made up of these foreign levies.

Note, however, that hordes in your provinces do cause public order issues and food issues.



So there are downsides. That's not so bad, you might think. Remember, however, after Stilicho was framed and killed by his rivals, Alaric sacked Rome.

Does that mean you should pre-emptively wipe out Alaric and co.? Yes and no.

You are ultimately destroying a faction from the game, which removes flavor from the game, while at the same time, the migrating horde AI isn't really aggressive. If you play the prologue, you'll see that the horde ai is modelled after the ideas expressed there: the hordes don't want to get on the Roman's bad side, but at the same time, they need to get away from the white walkerscold weather and Khal Drogothe Huns.

Potentially granting regions in Pannonia to Alaric and others essentially creates a decently powerful, somewhat friendly buffer of angry Germans when the Huns do eventually come. Before granting a province, however, diplomacy with these guys is next to impossible.

Remember that this can cause potential issues with the Eastern Roman Empire, which is a much better ally to have than one migrant barbarian faction.

Literally.

When possible, arrange a marriage between Stilicho's daughter and the Eastern Romans. They will be cool to this notion initially, but eventually, after maintaining the alliance between East and West, the ERE will warm up to the idea of marrying a quarter-Vandal girl. This will help strengthen ties and prevent the ERE from backing out on their military obligations.



Whenever possible, the military alliance with the Eastern Romans should be maintained. This means you should avoid dragging the ERE into fights with people in Britain or Gaul, for example.

This also means that when some random kingdom in the distant east declares war on the ERE, you should join them.

However, this doesn't necessarily mean that you need to respond affirmatively to every request the ERE throws at you. I eventually secured a martial alliance even though I refused the ERE's request for aid against the Huns, for example. They kept trying to get me to attack the Huns while offering me varying amounts of money but it was a fake:


Securing the ERE's alliance and keeping them happy is absolutely essential to the WRE, and not just because of the fact that they will lend a hand in Eastern Europe(in my game, they took out three full stacks of Ostrogoths for me).

Specifically, this is why good relations with the ERE is critical in the early game:



Losing that trade income will deal a critical blow to your economy. Occasionally, the game itself does a very gamey thing where it will force one of the ERE's vassals in the distant East to declare war on you. Regardless of whether you call the ERE to help or not, the ERE will abandon the alliance and shut down trade, something that never happened in reality.

In my opinion, this just makes a already difficult experience artificially hard, and as a result, you should just restart if something like that happens, unless you're looking for a very punishing experience.

Hello.

These are the Quadians of QuadiaNitrahwa. They are led by Gundovald.



Destroy their armies and wipe them off the face of the earth(genocide) as soon as you are able.

Yes, this is a serious part of this guide.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Guys and Gals.

Dudes and Dudettes.

Dawgs 'n Does. <---- This one actually hasn't happened yet, but I'm trying to make it happen, just like that time I tried to make "fetch" happen in high school.

Bros and

For some reason, only Ladies and Gentlemen works with the girls first. The other ones just don't sound right. You try Gals and Guys.

Do it.

No. Seriously, do it.

See?

But right - the important bit. I have been informed by a highly credible source... that there is a war.

A war on SCIENCE.


Such silliness. How are GMOs evil? Monsanto didn't make that Indian farmer drink pesticides, they just gave it to him. In large quantities.



While you are trying to figure out why Thor is in my uploaded images bar but not inserted anywhere into this guide, here is an edited screenshot of the WRE tech tree.


Note that I have labeled some technologies with numbers. This is, the most ideal path for you to take when researching technologies. The 2nd technology researched in the military tree reduces the upkeep of melee infantry by 10%. This is huge, as upkeep is applied after the effects of corruption.

Other technologies that have been circled in red will also reduce your upkeep.

Because the WRE's economy does not rely on a few highly developed provinces, but multiple somewhat developed provinces, you will find that there is actually little need to go up further in the Civic research tree. In fact, even if you unlock some of the more complex buildings, you will:

1) Be unable to build them because the money is better spent elsewhere.

2) Be unable to build them because the negative public order and squalor effects would be worse than the positive economy impact.

Finally, remember that a province that is happy generates a tax bonus, while a province that is unhappy generates a tax...

uh...

hrm.

unbonus.

Also, a province that is sick due to some disease will be affected by various effects based on the disease.

(Nota Bene: None of these effects are good)

This is not to say that you should not research anything in the Civic Tree at all. You should, by all accounts, research in the Civic Tree. For example, notice that my 3rd and 4th technologies to "rush" are in the Civic tree. The 3rd reduces corruption factionwide by 1%, which is basically not that useful, while the 4th isn't really useful at all, but it is needed to complete a Secondary Objective that rewards you with 1000 gold by the time 420AD rolls around.

However, avoid the "Central" Civic technologies - the ones that require money as well as turns to unlock.

Here's why. Those technologies actually take away science.

You are researching away science.

Like poured concrete.

Unless you have built or do not wish to build the buildings that require the technologies that the Central Civic "technologies" will undo, DO NOT RESEARCH THE CENTRAL CIVIC TECHNOLOGIES.


Future researching: Other than the part about avoiding the Central Civic technologies, you can do whatever you want with the technology tree. Everyone has a different playstyle and ultimately they will have different priorities on which technologies will be most important to them.

If you do want to have an idea of where to go, however, I recommend the top most technology in the Tier 2 bracket of the Military tree, Compulsory Levy.

This technology allows you to recruit Armigeri Defensores, a hugely powerful melee infantry unit that should form the aggressive/elite of your roaming legions that will support the various garrisons of comitatenses troops in guardhouses around the empire.

While Palatina and Protectores Domestici(explained in greater detail in another thread) are cheaper and better in a straight up melee than Comitatenses-style troops, their stats are too similar to Comitatenses troops, so I can't justify having them early on only to retrain them into ADs eventually for a hefty cost.

Good luck, and remember, OJ Simpson really did land on Mars!!!!


This guide was paid for and sponsored by Monsanto - A Sustainable Agriculture Company

Inevitably, you will run into a nasty popup message.

Your empire is running out of food.

"What? I had a 400+ surplus last season!!!! WTF!"

Yeah, cus it was summer.

Attila makes no effort to tell you how your harvests will be the following season, just as rulers had only previous records to go by to "predict" how much food would be harvested back in the day. This was hardly reliable.

So, you will run out of food. Running out of food is awful, as it causes desertion, halts troop replishment, and causes tons of public order issues.

Attila Total War inherits a gameplay mechanic from Rome 2, where Provinces with negative food output do not get food from the State/Empire when they are not taxed. Again, use the handy Province tab in the top right corner, arrange your provinces by order of income, and begin to dole out those Bush-era tax cuts to the hungriest provinces.

With the taxes out the window, so do the government sponsored food-stamp programs!

Voila, your famine issues are solved!!!!

Hi.

These are Levis:


These are Levis Armaturae:



Unfortunately, Levis weren't invented until the mid-1800s. Had the Roman army been equipped with Levis, they may have suffered from less swamp attrition.

Fortunately, every army you start off with includes Levis Armaturae. Javelin armed troops that kinda just run away from stuff. I've heard some people say that the first thing you should do is disband your Levis Armaturae from your armies, and replace them with Comitatenses or Limitanei.

This is a mistake, because Levis Armaturae are not jeans. They are AC-130 gunships(the thing you get to shoot from in CoD:MW that goes BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT DAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKA BOOM DAKKADAKKADAKKA BRRRRRRRRRRRRRT).

Disbanding your Levis Armaturae is like disbanding your Lockheed AC-130 gunship because it doesn't do so well against things like jets and air to air missiles.

For one, at Turn 1, a single unit of Levis Armaturae is capable of producing more DPS than your entire army can for approximately 10 seconds. Two will melt enemy units at close range under certain conditions.

Now, why is this relevant and part of this Opening Moves guide?

Because the starting forces of Western Rome are incredibly powerful. But not because of the tech advantage that they start off with professional, relatively powerful spear and melee infantry. Alone, Limitanei and Cohors are good at holding the line, but they are very lacking in terms of damage output.

Using Levis Armaturae properly by flanking them around enemy lines pinned down by Cohors or Limitanei in testudo formation will yield spectacular results.

Caveat emptor: Do not place Levis Armaturae behind a line of units. The resulting friendly fire will cause manly tears of manliness and frequent reloading.

Other factions also have great skirmisher units that deal lots of damage as well, like Levis Armaturae. Unlike the Roman factions however, they do not start with a unit that can pin multiple units down for an extended period of time! ;)

Nota bene: Cohors can be used in a similar fashion by setting them on fire at will, and place them behind an enemy without using testudo formation. They will not throw their weapons while in testudo. However, Cohors and its upgraded iterations have far less ammo than Levis Armaturae.

Fishing

Romans consumed an inordinate amount of fish and fish sauce(garum). This should be capitalized upon as the weather gets poorer and poorer, as food obtained from Fishing does not depend on soil conditions. When possible, convert Military Jetties to Fishing Jetties, and build Fishing Jetties from Jetties. Existing Trade Jetties should remain untouched, since they provide substantial income, and you won't have enough money after building new Jetties and converting military Jetties anyway.

Other sources of Food

Wineries and Orchards produce a fair bit of food, but are rather expensive. Wineries also generate public order, which makes them an excellent investment in general. However, in a region where public order is already high, Orchards can be a great source of non-soil dependent food.

Olives are available in Carthaginensis and Furs in Savaria allow for some food as well.

Salt mines also generate food, a well thought out bit by CA, since salt helps preserve food.

Food Markets/Emporiums also generate a decent amount of food at the cost of public order. When placed in a region with lots of Sheep Flocks, the 10-15% bonus can be substantial, though from a long term perspective, Sheep Flocks don't seem to be that useful for an Empire with a huge corruption rate and a europe that will be facing food shortages soon.

As time progresses, your job should be to increase food production and attempt to use food to maintain as many buildings and units(Guardhouse tree) as possible, while using what money you have to continually improve your economy while keeping your troops happy.

From time immemorial - philosophers, thinkers, great thinkers, leaders, and Bertrand Russell - have pondered upon these questions, searching for answers meant not to be found by the likes of man:








This segment of this guide will attempt to answer these questions, but we only have time for one of the above.

Because cake is so fluffy and soft, it is superior to pie.












I guess I should talk about the difference between palatina and legio as well. I had initially decided not to include this discussion in my guide due to two reasons: I had not really had much experience with the two myself, and this is, again, an opening moves guide.

((TL;DR: Palatini have their unique role, but it is not filled well by the first two units in the Palatini line. Wait until you have access to Armigeri Defensores before training Palatini type units.))

But a total war buddy of mine posed this question to me, and I decided that it warranted more investigation.

My answer to him was this: You should and you shouldn't.

As I expected, he was rather confused, because he doesn't speak English.

But after I explained to him(with the help of adobe text to speech and google translate) in greater detail, he understood what I meant and the logic behind it: To obtain Palatina, you first need to research the first technology in the roman tech tree, which takes 2 turns. Then, you need to spend 3 turns building the building required to build palatina, by which time, you could have spent 3 concurrent turns researching the technology that upgrades all your palatina into Protectores Domestici, which are a straight-up, all-round upgrade to Palatina.

So, sure, get Palatina, but why pay for the upgrade cost when you can just train PD's right off the bat?

But even then, you shouldn't be training expensive Roman units by turn 5 - you should be relying on barbarian levies and same-turn disband mercenaries.

Comparing Palatini and Comitatenses:

The Western Roman melee infantry tree consists of two branches: the comitatenses(cohors, legio, etc...) and the palatini type(palatina, armigeri defensores, elite palatina). Later on, you also get Herculani Seniores, but since that's late game, I'm not really going to go into that.

Historically, palatina started off as palace guards intended to replace praetorians, but over time they evolved into a elite legionary sort of role. They were paid better than regular comitatenses, but probably were similarly equipped due to the roman fabricate system that overtook individual legionary blacksmiths. So, if there was lingering RP confusion, it is acceptable to have large numbers of palatina.

In Total War: ATTILA, at first glance, palatina and legio(two comparable units tech-wise, are not very different[attila-enc.totalwar.com].

They have similar stats, but the similarities end there. If you recall, I made an addendum to the guide talking about how to use Levis armaturae in conjunction with roman comitatenses units. Levis armaturae are not very powerful by themselves, but when used in conjunction with the excellent line-holding ability of defensive testudo units, become powerful force multipliers.

Comitatenses type units all have Defensive Testudo. Palatini type units have Attacking Testudo. Here are their respective effects/bonuses:


What the tooltips do not mention is this: The instant your unit attacks or is attacked while under Attacking Testudo, they break the testudo formation and cannot form into the testudo formation again while in combat. That said, the bonuses listed under Attacking Testudo seem to apply for a brief while when the unit is under attack. Say, for instance, your Palatina are charged by a cavalry unit: the increase in mass will still apply.

However, while in attacking testudo, Palatini units can move. As a result, they can use their testudo formation to flank while under fire from archer units.

Thus, the difference between Palatini units and Comitatenses units is profound: Palatini simply cannot hold a position with the same kind of efficiency that Comitatenses can. Once engaged in melee, they become vulnerable to missile fire, especially when you upgrade your Palatini to Armigeri Defensores(more on this later).

Defensive Testudo also effectively allows sword-armed Comitatenses units to become decent against cavalry, something Palatini simply cannot do.

So, Comitatenses are just better, right?

Well, not really.

For one, Palatini are cheaper to recruit and maintain. If you factor in the cost of the building, they aren't, but eventually you will need to upgrade your military buildings. Second, after a certain point, you will get to upgrade your Palatina/Protectores Domestici into Armigeri Defensores.

And those guys are a different beast all together.[attila-enc.totalwar.com]

With 40 melee skill and 55 melee defense, these guys will wreck things faster than Rupert Sanders can wreck homes. They have considerably less armor than both Palatina, PDs, and Comitatenses units, but that's what Attacking Testudo is for - to allow them to close distance under fire.

Plus, by the time you've been able to research ADs, your economy should be stablized enough for you to actually train a meaningful number of them.

This was my first Steam Guide. I hope you enjoyed it, but most importantly, I hope it helps.

Attila Total War is probably the most enjoyable iteration of the total war games I've played so far, with my only gripes being some performance issues and the building icons looking far too similar.

Both the campaign and battle AI have been dramatically improved, though the AI still does some really stupid things, like getting its generals killed during amphibious assaults. You should have seen the expression on my face as the AI turned spearmen around to face my cav coming from the rear though.

Keep these things in mind as you progress, and enjoy Attila Total War!

I might do a Eastern Roman Empire guide, probably based on how this guide is received.

Thanks for reading.