The Economy in Attila Total War - Questions, Ideas and Research

[Oleander Ardens]

I played now a decent amount, almost entirely on strategic map and I would like to open up a thread about the economic aspect of the ATW. All in all it doesn't seem overly complex but there are some interesting aspects and angles worthy to explore. The vast differences in the starting positions, the various events and the horde mechanic challenge the player in the economic sphere in various ways.

Personally I would advise a short and peaceful campaign with the Sassanid Empire to explore the economy, taking a lot of time to get to known the regions with their ressources and fertility as well as the specific buildings. Especially the fertility in combination with the new local penalty with a negative local food shortage are something to consider in depth. For example as even a slight lack of food on the provincial level causes a -25% reduction in wealth but a very severe one doesn't increase it further provinces with very low fertility can make for deep (military) specialization. On the other hand very high fertility (4-5) can produce a surprising amount of food production or agricultural wealth, increasing the Return on Investment greatly and making those building slots very attractive and imposing thus high trade-offs for military or civil buildings.

The ROI is subject to many modifiers and the fog of war but it is remarkable how big of an impact corruption makes for factions like the ERE or especially the WRE. In the latter case 80% on all but easy with some trade pacts completely alters for example the return of trade ressource buildings vs the rest as wealth generated by trade isn't subject to taxation of corruption. On the other hand a faction like the Geats a direct increase in provincial or regional wealth has a far higher impact on the bottom line then an increase in wood production as trade partners are quite hard to get, corruption is pretty much zero and public order rather easy to protect.