This unfortified settlement battle took place in my campaign as the Eastern Romans as I attempted to lock down the passes into the Balkans. Check out the full video for context: • Total War: Attila - Ea...
This may have been previously stated or you have learned by now, but for future readers. That triple line he deployed, he either failed to or broke from Defensive Testudo. Roman troops are highly geared starting off to fight in a manner as to the state of their standings in history: DEFENSIVE. Do not get the idea as starting off with the Romans you will sally forth into lands to conquer everyone you see. That triple line of 2 Cohors and 1 Comm Spears/Border Guards, should have been deployed in Testudo and would have had no problem beating back that entire offensive push. He also should have deployed in a V formation with each flank protected by buildings and the inner flank supported by each other, with the opposition being hit from both sides on each push. You can test Roman Defensive worthiness on the city map with a bridge, deploy only 1 Cohor and 1 Comm Spears to hold the bridge, and you will beat back a barbarian army of 3000 no problem, or end in a draw.
Thankyou for peasants omg it was so annoying to see empty cities and such being defended its a good change i hope they leave the feature in for the next games in the series
totally agree, it would also be cool if they implemented some sort of system where there was a peasant count and you had to defend peasants during battles and if you lost too many there would be some sort of penalty on the campaign map even if you successfully defended your settlement
N Sil If there was penalties it should be slight unrest due to devastation (this one already exists) then one for a lot of the population being slaughtered, and maybe if enough peasants are lost you might lose population on the campaign map.
Hmm maybe if you deployed you're men into defensive stance in testudo you may have won the battle as its a big bonus when defending and smash you're cavalry in the backs of the men when there in conflict with you're men causes major casualty's.
I love your battles, but you forgot to enable Testudo mode on your spearman, which gives them amazing defensive bonuses against archers, cavalry and infantry. I was dying internally because you could've won the battle if you'd used it!!!
+Vahtacen I wouldn't always put them in Testudo because although they get great defensive bonuses, they make no effort to surround or kill a lot of the enemy. In this situation I probably would though, especially with the crazy charge defense Roman spear units have, putting them in Testudo right before an enemy charge can get you a nice rack of kills early in the battle.
Really cool mini series you're doing, I like how you're not only doing a few battles, but explaining to us the layout of the AI and how it works and thinks in Attila. Also, I'm loving the sheer amount of content you're bringing to us! keep up the good work!
I am all ears for what else you guys would like me to show. Otherwise I will continue to churn out content. I'm thinking like 4-5 new vids a day or something haha
Wish they had more in depth victory options, like 'pour molton silver into enemy generals eyes' or 'boil captured enemy spies alive' like the real shit Mongols got upto.
Damn imagine the field in this and just wait for Medieval 3 and Empire 2 to come out the battles will be more intense and imagine the Revolutions that will happen in Empire 2 and also i hope they add more unit size like 200 or 300 and the you can do 40 stacks in one army the battles will be so bloody
I think the unit size may be a bit bigger, but the amount of units is good in my opinion. I would love to see a medieval 3 with this kind of engine! It would look really cool.
Raymond Benjamins Yeah i hope too and if CA is the one releasing it i have high hopes but unit size i want a bit larger like in shogun fall of the samurai 200 men in one unit card
hell_yeah017 No I won't like that. In ww1 the warfare has changed too much. It's no longer units of hundreds of men fighting each other in huge lines. That's what makes total war so epic. If you want a strategy game set more towards the modern days, you should play CoH (WW2).
Barricades are actually awesome defensive tools. Tip for using them: 1. Put your javelinmen on top of the barricades (or any other missile units you can afford, but higher AP and missile damage is better) and disable fire at will. 2. Wait until enemy melee troops approach the barricades. 3. When they are literally about to start destroying the barricades, enable fire at will. 4. Your missile troops will start shooting at the enemies literally right in front of them, and an entire troop will be destroyed within seconds (if you are using javelinmen especially). Rotate your missile troops once they've spent all their ammo. The barricade position you saw in the video can be especially good, just have your most heavily armored (they need to withstand arrow shower) melee troops block the adjacent road with defensive testudo (or shield wall, spear wall etc..). Some enemy units will start charging towards them and some will try to destroy the barricade. The ones attacking your melee troops, will have their flanks or rear exposed to close range missile fire (from your units on the barricade). Enemy melee units will literally be massacred if this is the case.
The thing about the barricades is that they're mostly designed to hold melee units like spears and pikes. Since enemy melee units are instantly aggro'd on the barricade itself, archers don't have the melee capabilities to defend it properly. Whereas pikemen could hold their ground at the barricade.
rome was also built on hills, and most of it's middle roman empire cities indeed did not have walls, but then later on they were generally not abandoned persee they did start building palisades or used the coloseums as fortresses
I think it's definitely a lot more realistic. Peasants wouldn't just be able to defeat roman legions, but they would be able to put up a bit of a fight. Enough of a fight that it might start looking hopeless for the cohorts and the moral debuff sets in, especially when severely outnumbered. You really have to support your units if you want them to actually perform the way you'd expect them to perform. I'm excited for this. I hope they fix the barricades. They seem really pointless right now.
wow im so glad to see the AI perform better and that battles finally last a bit longer and dont end in 4 minutes. if this wont change until the release it will be just perfect :) actually in rome2 i never had to fear a defeat even on hard or very hard, so this increased difficulty is very welcomened. this video really increased the anticipation for the game! thanks ;)
the reason that the barricades in this situation do not hold up well is due to the fact that you have a ranged unit on them. The barricades are there for spearmen to stand on and keep the enemy at bay. Since you put archers on there then they had no choice but to draw their daggers which aren't going to reach the attackers and await their slaughter. Also you have to take into account that you are losing men to friendly fire from the firing position of how you placed your archers which kills morale. Also the reason that the men on the far right, where your three units were being pushed back is due to the fact that they are piling on spearmen, which means the ones in the front, back and front of the secondary unit, can all pound at your swordsmen which can usually only fight man-to-man. This allows for stacking formations to become a powerful tactic in the game.
Just a tip, put your sword infantry with thoes darts or pila on the barricades. Wait till the enemy gets close, then turn on fire at will. They can even Shoot them while they are attacking the barricades.
The romans should have a bit more staying power in my opinion. I mean some of those cohort units are suppose to be professional soldiers, and yet some tribal levies are able to cut through them pretty easily(even outnumbered, it doesn't make sense when you have them in a bottle neck).
***** no they were not, this is a huge misconception and most historians agree that Roman Heavy infantry was never affected as far as quality goes. The army of the late Empire was just as professional as the army of Augustus. While many were conscripted in the west, the army of the east still maintained a solid core of comitatenses that were a mixture of both volunteers and conscripts. That being said these were limitanei, they were not as well paid and were more like a defensive militia but still disciplined and should have held longer.
The basic Roman tier 1 units do not have the "Disciplined" trait, IIRC. That being the basic Cohors and the Limitanei Spearmen. And it is noted on their unit cards as having "poor morale" which might be exacerbated by being grossly outnumbered.
tbone martinez I think that the one line with 3 troops was justifiable as 2 ranged units was unopposed in shooting the blob of romans. but the last charge where the romans charged DOWNHILL into the cheap axe men and just said "fuck this" was kinda BS. i say roman heavy infantry needs a little buff. nothing too big, but i think they did it like this to make the huns tougher to beat
I was playing Attila with my friend and he was attacking my town, and I was vastly outnumbered. I put an archer unit on a barricade, and held my forces behind that barricade. A group of about 9 units charged the barricade and weren't able to destroy it. My archers on the barricade caused some serious casualties, around 400. I lost the battle, but I caused more casualties then received.
you coulda held this....that possition where the archers are is sooooooo good for defending vs a big attack ive held vs huge armys in the ai campaign with a tiny few
Barricades need a decent buff to the longevity of them. Only other thing I strongly dislike is every army has a Onager in them. Be it first turn or the latter part of the game, some diversity would be nice to see in that aspect. But just having them to fight against so early is rather annoying.
concentrae your troops on the victory point hill , with archer defence and defensive testuduos , leave the cav roaming free to annihilate artillery and rear charche the blob at the gates of the victory point ... works everey time even if you are outnomberd
Babarians being much more of a match against romans than in rome 2 actually makes sense. While they were slowly catching up over the centuries in discipline, equipmnet and training, the romans got actually worse compared to Marius era troops. They no longer have the resources to train enough elite badasses to garrison entie realm and have to rely mostly on militia tier troops
When I'm defending a city against mainly tier 1 units ill usually find one high point to defend and then use the heavy infantry as a bonus or find a way to kill their general. The main weakness I've found with the barbarian kingdoms in the early game is that without their general they almost instantly fall apart.
+jack ken I wouldn't say a full stack quality army is always better. In those campaigns where gold is very important for rapid expansion or diplomacy I often have a mix of good troops and fodder troops because it doesn't cost you a fortune and allows you to either have another army or two or lets you save money for whatever you may need it for. I did it a lot in Rome 2 vanilla with the Romans, half for the reasons mentioned above but also for somewhat historical accuracy. I'd have Hastati at the front, Principes in the middle and Triarii in the back, like a Triplex Acies. Eventually levys and mercenaries filled the front ranks but you see what I mean.
there was no reason to do all tha moves and sacrifse all these units,that u could hold them alive for an other defence. u could have easily camp all your units in the camp area with the flag except the 2 horses ,use 3 inftantry units that could perform testudo to block the one opening and have all the others infantry units on the back as reserves closing any openings that might open,have your archers hit the enemy with flaming arrows before they reach u,and protected by your 3 inftantry units. u could use your horses as u did to destroy enemy;s artillery and then perform fast attacks on its missile units.i do that and always hold my city and have most my units alive for an other defence,u shoudl try it.
So in the game's current state, would you suggest a last minute pre-order? Its looking really good but I'm uncertain about pre-ordering for the free 3 factions.
I am tending to think the quality of the game might justify supporting them with a preorder... but oh gosh thats only gonna encourage them to do more day 1 DLC.
THFE Productions To be honest, I actually think this day 1 dlc is good in some way (of course they still shouldn't do it). Some games give you pre order bonusses, and then later you are not able to get this stuff anymore (at least for a certain amount of time). So with this day 1 dlc they actually give people that pre order a bonus, but still allow people that want to wait out the reviews to get it when they buy the game (for some money). But I do agree that they really shouldn't be doing it, I just think it's better then making a bonus exclusive to pre ordered copies.
The ai is the same as in Rome 2, wherein they just send the whole army to one choke point, thus a big blob all being forced in to one checkpoint. That sucks looks like i wont be pre-ordering haha
You need to find a place in the city where they can only attack from one front and not 2 as you had there.and they will pour everything at that 1 spot,like a narrow street ,allow them only 2 attack that way will make clog up and if u have missile behind ur defensive testudo.Their forces can not overwhelm you no mater what,and spring out the units that u hide alittle outside the town and hit them in the rear while theyre concetrating on Your 1 position
The seiges are crap because no city worth its salt would ever have a build up of houses next to the walls, takes away valuable killing ground from the defenders, so there's no point in defending the whole length of the walls even if you had a good enough pc to have all the men needed
u could save most of your units just by camping on the camp side that has only one opening,closing it with 2 infantry untis making them form defensive testudo,put archers on the ledges to fire at advancing enemies and with your horses flank and kill their archers when left exposed on the back. and u hold all the other units inside camp behind defensive testudo. I did too many of my cities and saved them and saved units for the next defence in the other turns.
I think its because their general was still alive if you kill him their moral will drop a lot then they route easier. I think dogburt from CA always aimed to pick off the enemy general
Focus your main force on the enemy general side. The only way to win those outnumbered battle is by killing their generals. After killing the catapults use horses to attack from behind and later archers
i think that the last 2 total war games are the battest of the series. The reason is that we had very big expectation for these games before they were publiced and when they did, they disappoint us... Perfect graphics but you cant play those shits, also you cant enjoy them because you're all the time nervous and fearing that you will die on the next freaking turn by 10 farmes where they are full armed because they are in a garrison of a little town..
Warrior of Sparta does fine in winning this kind of battles, perhaps you have to use their abilities more? Like the defensive testudo. That really boosts their defense.
Why not close the entrances to the city in all three positions,use defensive testudo so that you can maximize the damage from the towers and the sagitarii(from the city centre) ...I mean only with the garrison you can have a nice trade...with the garrisoned army you could kill them...
Of course this is a rough way of putting it with morale and skirmishers but when it comes to infantry it should be 3 tier 1s should beat 1 tier 3 or 2 tier 2s can beat a tier 1 but that's only if its very basic
could have split the cavalry into two sides to attack archers on each flank giving your troops some time to breath instead of focusing on one flank, about the testudo formation i wont comment, could have stacked the infantry togather to make a strong line
I wonder whether or not the enemy were able to break through your lines easily because they had high army integrity? That or it's weird AI bonuses or something, depending on your campaign difficulty. If it's not that, then I think they may have screwed up the battle mechanics somehow, because while I expected them to eventually swamp you, the way they just steamrolled armored infantry with levies, regardless of your units' tiers, is just absurd. I like that your legionnaires didn't win, but I don't like how quickly they lost. Another thing I noticed is that fatigue sets in incredibly quickly-perhaps that's realistic, but I'm not a fan of just HOW quickly it sets in. Towards the end of the battle you popped Second Wind, which, when I looked at it, recovered 1 level of your general's fatigue, maybe 2. Thus, the ability's borderline useless, especially since half a minute later you were back to exhausted again. They may as well remove that ability entirely, because it would take extraordinary circumstances to make Second Wind more than minimally effective.
im all for lower tier units having staying power in combat, but romans need to have the advantage in an infantry melee grind, I mean come on the hunt advantage was their cavalry and their mass volleys, not their light spear infantry
Is this fog just a weather effect you can wait out like you could in Rome2, or does it show up all the time? Very obstructive, the game looks terrible when you zoom out.
The fog is just one of the weather options, usually when you decide the battle you can cycle out of it but the AI will usually just attack on the first weather conditions available
if u fight spears head on then your fighting to their advantage, u must maneuver in this game to win battles like these, u cant rely on having purely better troops, if they are the same tier then they can kill one another,u should of let the hun in on the right so u could surround them at the opening, so they have to fight on all sides,instead of jus fighting forward .
Hmm, that doesn't really match my experience. From what I can see it looks like you went for broad narrow lines, that seems not to work well in Attila, the unit has low mass because it's in shallow formation, so on a defensive line it gets punched through the middle. In campaign I've managed to hold off 3-4 units with one unit of Legio on Medium and hard difficulty, but they will eventually break unless you can get your equites to rear-charge them.
I hope they change the projectiletrails... graphic of the whole thing looks good and the gameplay and AI changes will be good too(i hope) but those trails are ugly as hell^^
Nothing personal, but you played like a noob. You didn't use the formation; didn't look for barricade; did a huge harm to your units by retriting in the fight going on, ets(
dude zoom in time to time...the only thing I can see is white clouds when ur zoom out alot...people wanna see the fight man...gutting , slashing , deadly moves and all
yer barricades have no health :s wtf they are like walls of wood and rubble surely you need to chop away at that for a bit ! or climb over kinda like in shogun!?
But it's alot and breaking wood actually would make it tougher to break. Longer pieces of wood make better support if you try climbing up it. that and you'd have arrows to the face while trying to break the wall.
Didn't like the battles in Attila, which have no weight to it. Lacks the feel of actual impact of troops slamming into each other. Then I saw there's civilians that can be slaughtered, and I changed my mind.
Sigh... Proper Roman tactics were to have veteran solidiers first slug the out and then refresh the battle line with fresh units and pulling the first back, You cannot do this as your roman army is in a state of retreat as it is.. Cohorts on a unit collision of 1:1 with a squadron outnumbered to what? 3:1(plus 3 squadrons of archers!) You obviously will not win and no total war has let you win that.. The best tactic you could have done is to let them slip through and have a flanking choke point somewhere in the city so at least you have a good ratio unit collision (so you can take more people out within your exhaust metre) instead of having 1 unit wittle away while 2 squads stand there getting demoralised by archer fire... Derp.
