Attila 1st Impressions

[JeromeBaker]

My first impression was the game is more polished than I tend to expect out of TW games right after release. I have not had any crashes or major bugs occur (that I have noticed). The end of turn speed is ok for me, but does slow down on occasion when my turn comes back around and I have a mission issued.

Replayability seems to be there. I lost steam playing R2 pretty quickly, but I am not as worried about that happening here.

I am playing as the Geats in my first campaign. My quest to ally the norsemen ended up creating a war between the Jutes and the Danes. I ended up allied with the Jutes against the Danes. While fighting the Danes and taking their capital, I noticed the Jutes just up and left as a horde and their capital became a desolute area. This really caught me by suprise as I was counting on their Navy to help me finish of the Danes. Even though I captured their capital, their last stack of the Dane Navy could easliy crush mine.

Then I pretty much bankrupted myself trying to purchase, resettle, and rebuild the desolute area left by the Jutes. (As Jacque stated above it drains about half of your stack's man power and can run 8 to 12k)

I now have mounting unrest, no money to build or add troop strength, and I only have one trade partner left. No one else seems willing to make any deals with me and I have no money to tempt them into diplomacy.

After all this I realized I had ignored the family tree system and my clan seems ready to split down the middle. I have had a lot of fun with the tree so far, but perhaps it would be more tedious if I were the WRE or ERE and had more family members.

So with everything falling apart I mustered the best stack I could and sent them off with my only navy left to raid around Britain. When my naval stack arrived on the other side of Britania I realized I lost most of my sailors and a large part of my army in the 2 to 3 turns of transit. Not sure if this is due to a storm or becuase I didnt hug the coastline when sailing. My ships are so light on crew I am worried I would lose them sailing for home. I think my only option is to take the least defended settlement I can find and replenish my crew and get some more money comming in and then launch raids from my new city to help rebuild my other territories.

So far I would give it an 8 out of 10..... The last time I remember being this hyped playing out of the box was S2TW. My fingers are crossed that the replayability doesnt wear off as I get accustomed to the new additions to the game. At least for now I am really excited to get home and pick up where I left off.