Before the battle | Battle Total War: Attila Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

Weather

Attacking side can choose when the battle begins. It means it picks weather during combat as well. Weather is picked randomly by the game and can be changed only three times. It gives four possible weather states in total - the first one and three latter.

Weather drastically changes condition on the battlefield. Rain makes any burning attempts much harder and reduce the effectiveness of burning arrows. Fog limits visibility of formations, due to what it isn't clear from the beginning what units are where. Third possibility is dry, which means perfect conditions for fighting.

Battle can take place both during day and night. Night battles require having a general with at least 5 level of cunning and for obvious reasons visibility is limited. During night you won't see the whole battlefield, which will be marked on the tactical map. It will force you to use reconnaissance to find enemy forces.

Large army, small army

If two armies are involved in an attack, and total amount of their formations is larger than twenty, you will face a choice before battle. You can lead a small, standard army, or large one. This decision will determine how many formations will be standing on the battlefield. If you select small army, at the same time you will be able to lead only twenty formations. If one of them is destroyed or run away, another will walk on the map in its place. If you select large army, the amount of formations on the battlefield will increase to forty.

For example, you attack with two armies with twenty formations in each. You select a small army. At the beginning whole first army will be present on the battlefield. But if one of its formations will fall or run away, a new formation from the second army will immediately walk on the battlefield, so that the total amount of formations still be twenty. If another formation dies, another reinforcement will enter the battlefield and so on. But if you choose large army, immediately after the battle begins formations from second army will start showing on the battlefield and they will do it until all twenty of them are present.