Total War: ATTILA: Complete Campaign Guide

A campaign-first guide to Total War: ATTILA: how its survival-focused systems work, which factions to start with, opening moves for the big campaigns, battle tactics, DLC, and the mistakes that end most first campaigns.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the crossplay update (September 17, 2026); the last gameplay patch predates that. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Status in 2026

ATTILA is a finished game (2015) with occasional technical patches:

• July 4, 2023: a compiler upgrade for modern CPUs, a fix for crashes on CPUs with more than 32 logical processors, and the removal of integrated in-game chat (Creative Assembly recommends Discord instead).
• September 17, 2026: a small update so cross-play works correctly across platforms. If anything breaks after updating, verify game files in Steam first.

Quick Start

• This is a survival game. The grand campaign starts in 395 AD. Climate change slowly lowers farm output across the north, the Huns arrive from the east, and the Western Roman Empire is falling apart.
• Food and sanitation run your provinces. Buildings cost food, and cities need sanitation or they'll get plague. Watch the province panel, not just income.
• Public order is fragile. Religion, food shortages, taxes and squalor all hurt it. Revolts are common.
• Don't overbuild. Every building has upkeep in food or money, or adds squalor. Many players build fewer, better buildings.
• Hordes can settle or keep moving. Migrating factions (Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Alani and others) can travel as hordes and settle later.
• Razing is a real option. You can burn a settlement to the ground. The region becomes ruins that anyone can resettle at a cost. It's a key tool against the Huns and for creating buffer zones.
• Fire is deadly in battle. Fire arrows and incendiary missiles set buildings and units on fire and wreck morale.
• Minor settlements have no walls. Only provincial capitals (and some settlements after upgrades) have walls. Minor towns are easy to capture and easy to lose.
• Winter hurts armies. Armies in enemy territory or outside supply take attrition, especially in snow. Plan campaigns for warmer seasons.
• Politics matter. Keep your family and court happy or face a civil war.

Core Campaign Systems

Provinces and settlements Each province has one capital and usually two or three minor settlements. Many buildings (especially in the capital) apply bonuses province-wide, so plan the whole province together. Food and money are pooled faction-wide, but check each settlement's own sanitation in its tooltip, since squalor is tracked per settlement.

Food

• Food is shared across your whole faction.
• A food shortage hurts public order everywhere and causes attrition for armies.
• Farm output drops over time in the grand campaign as the climate gets colder. Plan to get more food from the south or from trade.

Sanitation and squalor

• Every settlement upgrade raises squalor. Sanitation cancels it.
• If sanitation is negative, public order drops and disease spreads more easily.
• Plague spreads between armies and settlements and kills population and troops.

Fertility and climate

• Each province has a fertility rating. Over the course of the grand campaign, fertility in northern provinces falls as the climate worsens.
• Land abandoned (ruined) regions recover slowly. Good fertile land in the south becomes very valuable.

Religion

• Main religions include Christianity (with Latin, Arian and other branches), Zoroastrianism and several pagan faiths.
• A population of a different religion from your state religion hurts public order. Temples and state religion changes can fix this.

Politics and family tree

• Generals and governors come from your family and noble houses. Each has traits, loyalty and Influence.
• Influence lets you do political actions (secure loyalty, arrange marriages, adopt, assassinate).
• A disloyal general with a big army can start a civil war. Keep loyalty up or keep that general's army small.

Technology There are two tech trees: Civil (economy, order, food, sanitation) and Military (units, armor, sieges). Faction scholars and buildings raise research speed. Early on, prioritize food, sanitation and order techs.

Hordes and Migration

Migrating factions can live as hordes:

• A horde has no settlements. It makes camp (encamp stance) to build buildings inside its army and grow.
• Hordes can raid, sack and raze settlements without taking them.
• When a horde takes a settlement, it can choose to settle down and become a normal faction.

Tip: Settle when you find fertile land and a defensible border. Migrating forever is fun but hard to sustain.

Faction Picks

Faction | Difficulty | Why play it

Eastern Roman Empire | Medium | Rich, with strong armies, but a long border. A good "learn the economy" start

Sassanid Empire | Medium | Strong cavalry and a clear enemy (Rome in the west, Huns in the north)

Franks / Saxons | Medium | Settled barbarian kingdoms with room to expand

Visigoths / Ostrogoths | Medium-Hard | Classic migrating hordes; pick your new home

Western Roman Empire | Very hard | The legendary survival challenge. Many provinces, very little money, enemies everywhere

Garamantes (free) and DLC factions | Varied | New cultures and starts

Beginner pick: the Eastern Roman Empire or the Sassanids. Save the Western Roman Empire for a later campaign.

Opening Moves

Eastern Roman Empire

• Fix public order and food first. Several provinces start with religious unrest.
• Keep strong garrisons in the Balkans; the Danube frontier gets raided.
• Use diplomacy to stay at peace with the Sassanids early.
• Build up money through trade and ports.

Western Roman Empire

• Most veterans cut losses: abandon or raze overstretched outer provinces rather than defending everything. Britannia is the common example.
• Merge weak armies to save upkeep. Your starting army count is more than you can afford.
• Watch loyalty. A civil war early is almost always fatal.
• Keep the Italian heartland safe first, then expand back out when you have money.

Migrating barbarians (Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals)

• Grow your horde by camping in safe territory.
• Raid and sack rich Roman towns for money, then keep moving.
• Pick a fertile area to settle (North Africa, Hispania and Gaul are popular choices).

Battle Tactics

Unit roles

Unit type | Role

Spear infantry | Holds the line, counters cavalry

Sword/axe infantry | Damage dealers against infantry

Skirmishers and archers | Soften the enemy, set fires with fire arrows

Cavalry | Flanks, charges into the rear, chases routers

Horse archers | Harass and kite; Huns and eastern factions rely on them

Artillery | Sieges and breaking enemy formations

Rules for winning field battles:

• Hold the center with spears, flank with cavalry, and charge into the rear when infantry is locked in melee.
• Use fire arrows early in the battle to damage morale.
• Fatigue matters. Don't run everyone across the map.
• Kill enemy generals. A dead general causes a big morale drop.

Sieges:

• You need siege equipment (rams, ladders, siege towers) to attack walls. Building them takes turns.
• Burning a city is effective but destroys buildings you want to capture.
• In defense, block gates and hold choke points. Towers deal damage automatically.

Against the Huns: They have huge numbers of horse archers. Use your own missile troops, spears in tight formations, and fight in forests or towns to break their range advantage. Razing your own border regions to deny them loot is a legitimate strategy.

DLC Overview

DLC | Type | Content

Age of Charlemagne | Campaign pack | A separate later-era campaign (769 AD) with Charlemagne and the Franks

The Last Roman | Campaign pack | Belisarius and the Roman reconquest campaign

Empires of Sand | Culture pack | Desert kingdoms such as Aksum and Himyar

Celtic Kingdoms | Culture pack | Celtic factions in Britain and Ireland

Viking Forefathers | Culture pack | Scandinavian factions (Danes, Geats, Jutes)

Longbeards | Culture pack | Longbeards, Burgundians and Alemanni

Slavic Nations | Culture pack | Anteans, Sclavenians and Venedians (February 2016)

Garamantes | Free | A free faction added with the Slavic Nations patch

Several blood and cosmetic packs also exist.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Building everything. Buildings eat food and add squalor. Build for a purpose.
• Ignoring sanitation. Plague will cripple your armies.
• Spreading too thin. Three decent armies beat seven weak ones.
• Neglecting loyalty. Civil war is a disaster.
• Leaving minor settlements empty. Most have no walls; raiders take them easily.
• Campaigning in winter. Attrition kills armies before battles do.
• Trying the Western Roman Empire first. It's among the hardest starts in the series.

Advanced Tips

• Raze to deny. Razing your own frontier stops the enemy from getting free land and loot.
• Pick tech to fix problems. If food is a problem, go for food techs. If public order, go for order techs.
• Manage family. Marriages and adoptions can secure loyalty and good generals.
• Use sea transport. Moving armies by sea is fast, but be careful of naval battles.
• Mods: Steam Workshop mods like Radious and Medieval Kingdoms 1212 AD are popular. Check each mod's page for compatibility with the current version.
• Multiplayer: in-game chat was removed in 2023. Use Discord for coordination.

FAQ

Is Total War: ATTILA still updated? Only technically. The latest was a small crossplay fix on September 17, 2026. There's no new content.

Which faction should I start with? The Eastern Roman Empire or the Sassanid Empire.

Can I play as the Huns? The Huns are not playable in the base grand campaign.

Is ATTILA harder than ROME II? Yes. Food, sanitation, climate change and the Hun invasion make it much more of a survival game.

Why does my population not grow? Food shortages, low sanitation or disease. Fix those first.

Why was chat removed? Creative Assembly removed integrated chat in July 2023 for player safety and pointed players to Discord.

Is the Age of Charlemagne DLC worth it? It's the most popular DLC. It's a whole new campaign in a later era.

Sources

• Total War: ATTILA on Steam
• Crossplay Update (Steam, 2026-09-17)
• Total War: ATTILA Game Update (Steam, 2023-07-04)
• Slavic Nations Culture Pack release (Steam, 2016-02-25)
• Total War: Attila on Wikipedia