History VideoGame / TotalWarAttila

* GameMod: ''Attila'', like many other Total War titles, has seen its fair share of mods, ranging from cosmetic changes to complete overhauls. Among the most notable is ''[[https://www.moddb.com/mods/medieval-kingdoms-total-war-attila-version Medieval Kingdoms 1212 AD]]'', which turns the game into an enhanced version of ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'' combined with elements from the ''Age of Charlemagne'' DLC.

* WorldOfHam: Just look at all the quotes on this page! Boisterous barbarians proclaiming their [[RatedMForManly manly]] love of war and bloodshed, while Attila announces to everyone that the world will burn.

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: Generals with traits from the Favored Line [[note]]Favored, Popular, Beloved by All[[/note]] can be considered this. Any province they govern has increased public order, any army they command has increased integrity, and they gain personal influence.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: The quickest way for someone to gain influence is to lead an army to victory. Influence is necessary for basically every political action, meaning a successful general has a lot more political power than a successful governor.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: A majority of the faction leaders are generals who kick ass in battle.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: Yes, the crossbow was already being used in Europe at this time.

* AnAxeToGrind: Done by almost everyone who isn't a Roman, but most well by the Nordic factions; whose Nordic Axe Warbands, Nordic Raid Leaders, and Berserkers can easily hack apart even the most difficult foes and the Jute Royal Huskarls are killing machines in another level.

** Once again, one of the generic names for Celtic armies is [[Music/TheRollingStones The Rolling Menhirs]] (Menhirs are standing stones that were religiously significant to ancient Celtic peoples).

* PromotedToPlayable: From ''Barbarian Invasion'': Played straight with the Ostrogoths, zigzagged with the Sarmatians (there is no longer a "Sarmatian" faction, as it has been turned into more accurate tribal confederations, of which the Alans (who were represented by Rebels in BI) are playable, though all the others are (as of yet) unplayable), inverted with the Alemanni (initially) and an UpToEleven example with the White Huns who were only present on some of the leftover game files. With DLC taken into consideration, played straight with the Norsemen (represented by the [[ArtisticLicenseHistory Saxons]] in BI (they're now divided into the Geats, Danes, and Jutes), Celts (now represented by the Ebdanians, Picts, and Caledonians), Burgundii, and Lombardi.

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: '''Everybody'''. But the Norse, Huns and Germanics are the [[UpToEleven most intense about it]]. Hell, even the Sassanids and Romans get on this; if you weren't a badass warrior during this period of history, you were a corpse.

* WarIsHell: UpToEleven. The most notorious example of the series, with the new destruction and razing mechanics. You can actually go around slaughtering civillians on the battle map, and the game shows in horrifying detail what sieges do to cities, add in the ''Blood and Fire DLC'' amount of gore splashing in every direction.

->You built an empire beyond imagining: the pinnacle of human achievement and the envy of the world. Did you think it would last? The eternal city -- that glorious monument to power, culture, and learning...but the old wolf lies wounded by jackals, circled by vultures, worried to death by a thousand, tiny, faceless mouths, brought low by your own arrogance. [[DyingEmpire These are the death throes of Rome.]] The light of civilization dims and gutters. I leave such precious time left to hide your women, for your children to cry. Even at the moment of your final defeat, you will take no comfort in oblivion -- for I am coming for you. I RIDE WITH A MILLION WARRIORS! I BRING THE END OF DAYS! [[PunctuatedForEmphasis I AM! THE SCOURGE! OF GOD!]]...And I will watch your world...''burn''.

->You built an empire beyond imagining: the pinnacle of human achievement and the envy of the world. Did you think it would last? The eternal city -- that glorious monument to power, culture, and learning...but the old wolf lies wounded by jackals, circled by vultures, worried to death by a thousand, tiny, faceless mouths, brought low by your own arrogance. These are the death throes of Rome. The light of civilization dims and gutters. I leave such precious time left to hide your women, for your children to cry. Even at the moment of your final defeat, you will take no comfort in oblivion -- for I am coming for you. I RIDE WITH A MILLION WARRIORS! I BRING THE END OF DAYS! [[PunctuatedForEmphasis I AM! THE SCOURGE! OF GOD!]]...And I will watch your world...''burn''.

* AmbiguousSituation: The description of the trait [[LackOfEmpathy Dead Inside]] reads as follows; "Someone silence that mewling child...". The child could refer to [[WouldHurtAChild one of the Character's victims]], or it could refer to [[UsedToBeASweetKid the character himself]].

** Act 2:"And I beheld a black horse, and he that sat on him had a pair of scales in his hand..."

** The various Germanic (and Nordic) factions all have access to pikemen whose weapons resemble Macedonian sarissae. While there is an account of Germanic tribes using pikes, it comes from the timeframe of 'Rome II'.

** The High King of Ireland at the time of the game was Nath Í mac Fiachrach, but the faction leader for the Ebdanians is a fictional character called Vosenios[[note]]There ''was'' a British king named Vosenios (or Vodenos), but he ruled from the end of the 1st century BC to around the year 15 AD, and he ruled the Cantiaci in what is now Kent, not anywhere in Ireland[[/note]]. Also, Ireland's religious status at the start of the game is 100% Celtic Pagan, but the 5th century chronicler Prosper of Aquitaine recorded that there were Christian communities in Ireland at the time. Finally, Ebdanians isn't their name: it's the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eblani Eblani or Eblanii]], with Ebdanians coming from Ebdani, which is believed to have been a simple transcription error in several copies of Ptolemy's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_(Ptolemy) Geography]]. They also weren't anywhere near the only tribe in Ireland, nor where they necessarily the most important.

** The Hunnic factions since they do tons of pillaging, plundering and the razing of entire cities and towns or outright subjugation of other nations. And unlike other playable factions, you can't even peacefully occupy the major settlement of a province.

# ''The Last Roman'' was released on 25 June 2015, and follows the exploits of the legendary Eastern Roman Empire general, Flavius Belisarius, in reconquering the ruined remains of the Western Roman Empire. It adds several new factions to play as in a mini-campaign, including the Roman Expedition that features a unique Roman horde play-style, extensive narrative-based missions, and an entirely new campaign. Said campaign also features the bubonic plague (i.e. the Plague of Justinian, manifesting as a powerful disease in-game) which historically ended Justinian I's ambitions of re-unifying the Empire.
# The second expansion pack, ''Age of Charlemagne'' was released on 10 December 2015, set in an entirely different time period from the base game: the dawn of [[TheMiddleAges the Middle Ages]]. It features a huge new Campaign focused primarily in Western Europe, along with special early medieval-era units such as proto-knights and huscarls, eight new playable factions, new tech and buildings, and unique features, such as War Weariness, and story-based Kingdom Events.

The first expansion pack, ''The Last Roman'' was released on 25 June 2015, and follows the exploits of the legendary Eastern Roman Empire general, Flavius Belisarius, in reconquering the ruined remains of the Western Roman Empire. It adds several new factions to play as in a mini-campaign, including the Roman Expedition that features a unique Roman horde play-style, extensive narrative-based missions, and an entirely new campaign. Said campaign also features the bubonic plague (i.e. the Plague of Justinian, manifesting as a powerful disease in-game) which historically ended Justinian I's ambitions of re-unifying the Empire.

The second expansion pack, ''Age of Charlemagne'' was released on 10 December 2015, set in an entirely different time period from the base game: the dawn of [[TheMiddleAges the Middle Ages]]. It features a huge new Campaign focused primarily in Western Europe, along with special early medieval-era units such as proto-knights and huscarls, eight new playable factions, new tech and buildings, and unique features, such as War Weariness, and story-based Kingdom Events.

*** This makes a great deal of sense though when you take into account the enormous importance of heroism (in the original meaning of the word, badass, rather than someone who does moral things) to the Germanic and Norse cultures. They've also got [[BadassBeard chest-length beards]] and BarbarianLonghair.

* BadassBeard: Badass barbarian tribesmen, so 'twas to be expected. Hell, even the Romans get in on this.
** No beard in the game is more glorious than that of Lethuc's, mighty chieftain of the Langobards. We could expect nothing less than from the leader of a tribe whose [[MeaningfulName name literally means "long beards"]].
** Attila's beard is also pretty badass.
** All the Norsemen factions. Longbeards may the chosen of Odin, but we all know the Norse are his most favoured warriors.
** The Sassanids and their badass Middle Eastern beards should also not be ignored.

* BadassMustache: The Huns by far are the most prominent example with their ridiculous, ahistorical, gravity-defying Fu Manchus.

* DummiedOut: It turns out there's a trait for generals having a reputation for repeatedly losing siege defenses. This is entirely impossible to obtain as absolutely nothing in an army will survive a failed siege defense.

* Mighty Glacier: [[EleventhHourRanger Herculiani Seniores]] from the Western Romans are heavily armored and slow-moving, and can also shred most other units in melee combat (even the feared Huns), making them one of the best infantry units in the game, albeit very expensive and at the end of the tech tree.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Not only when compared to ''Barbarian Invasion''; this is also the darkest and most [[RealityEnsues realistic]] of all the ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' series:

* RealityEnsues: The game shows the after-effects of war and how taxing attacking cities can be. Razing or rebuilding cities can greatly affect your empire's economy and the morale of your citizens and armies. Things will not be as easy as putting things back together like game board pieces.
** Even further highlighted in ''The Age of Charlemagne'' with the inclusion of "War Weariness" as a game mechanic. Which makes fighting multiple wars on many fronts for a prolonged period of time a guaranteed way of harming your own people.

* UriahGambit: As in most ''Total War'' games, sending a detrimental general on vacation in enemy territory with no backup is a great way to be rid of him. [[UpperClassTwit Emperor Honorius of the Western Roman Empire]] is a particularly popular candidate for this.

** It's dreadfully common to come across one or two Germanic tribes in western Europe who have decided to convert to Tengriism. This can be decades before Attila comes along to get the Huns' shit together also.[[note]]This is actually more of a gameplay mechanic than anything else though, as the AI tends to convert religions as soon as that religion becomes the majority. The Germanic tribes in this case merely had the ill luck of taking over areas with massive proportions of Tengriists.[[/note]]

** At game launch, the Alans were considered a Germanic people and got several Germanic units; in real life, they were an Iranian people, not Germanic. This was corrected by free DLC; now the Alans have their own identity and unit roster.

The first expansion pack, ''The Last Roman'' was released on 25 June 2015, and follows the exploits of the legendary Eastern Roman Empire general, Flavius Belisarius, in reconquering the ruined remains of the Western Roman Empire. It adds several new factions to play as in a mini-campaign, including the Roman Expedition that features a unique Roman horde play-style, extensive narrative based missions, and an entirely new campaign. Said campaign also features the bubonic plague (i.e. the Plague of Justinian, manifesting as a powerful disease in-game) which historically ended Justinian I's ambitions of re-unifying the Empire.

The second expansion pack, ''Age of Charlemagne'' was released on 10 December 2015, set in an entirely different time period from the base game: the dawn of the Middle Ages. It features a huge new Campaign focused primarily in Western Europe, along with special Medieval-era units such as proto-knights and huscarls, eight new playable factions, new tech and buildings, and unique features, such as War Weariness, and story-based Kingdom Events.

** During the Alpha, Western Roman Empire is Catholic while Eastern Roman Empire is Orthodox. However, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Schism split]] occurred in the 11th century. This error was corrected in the release version, as both Roman factions' religion are renamed to Latin and Greek Christians respectively.[[note]] Although the formal split happened many years afterwards, there were already various differences in the church in the west as compared with its eastern counterpart. [[/note]]