So, it is not so much greed that motivates expansion, as fear. So, when my neighbor decides to acquire more acreage than I have, he becomes more powerful than I am, and it's only a matter of time before he is going to send his vicious thugs stomping all over my green and pleasant pastures. The resource that fuels manpower is land. In this cultural economy, what really counts is sufficient manpower to fuel armies. Atilla is also in the house, sweeping across Europe, scattering tribes who, lo and behold, turn up on my doorstep, brutalized and angry, looking for a new Eden. With Rome on the decline, the nomadic and barbarian tribes (of which I am one) are looking to assert dominion over their section of geography. This is a world in which borders and 'homelands' are fluid concepts, even at the best of times. They are all, to a greater or lesser degree, bellicose bastards. My home of Saxony is surrounded by Gauls, Jutes, Angles and, of course, Romans, as well as a motley of menacing near-neighbors, from hairy Picts to the ever-prickly Burgundians. But most games provide some reasonable excuse for invading neighbors and behaving like an aggressive SOB, and rarely is this more true than in Attila. When I play strategy games, I enjoy building tight little empires that no one cares to fuck with.

I began playing my preview build as the boss of the Saxons, happily existing in a verdant corner of Northern Europe. This is a game set during the fall of the Roman Empire, when the pattern for the next 1,500 years of competing fiefdoms was just emerging. You see, once you become a king, the attraction of slicing out a little more land for your realm becomes not merely obvious, but pretty damned urgent.

Or, at least, I didn't get it, until I played Total War: Attila for a few hours. They get to enjoy the obeisance of nobles and courtiers, can turn their power to building great churches, formulating the basis of law and order, dabbling in the pleasures of prancing courtesans.īut what do we find them doing? Clomping around in muddy fields making a lot of noise about glorious feats, swinging claymores at foreigners and wading through the dreadful gore of comrades. Like, they own a massive chunk of Europe. We'll go see a few medieval kings and ask them a simple question, one that they probably haven't heard before: Why the hell can't you guys just chill out and relax and stop invading each other? Once my time machine is properly operational, you and I are going to jump in and take a little trip.

Attila total war map