Creative Assembly has taken pains to model that climate change they mentioned and, as the years roll by and Europe goes through a period of cooling, harvests will suffer and people will starve. I want to say that it isn't all bad news, that while there is a lot of bad news for Romans, other civilisations are on the ascendancy, but there is more bad news still to come. Bickham says that city populations will decline, armies will suffer attrition and, unsurprisingly, sick soldiers fight very poorly. They can be spread during sieges, by friendly armies, by enemy armies or even along trade routes. If you don't keep a city clean, it may suffer disease.' These diseases don't just fester, either, but spread. It's now directly related to the health of your city. 'We've decoupled the squalor/sanitation balance that we had in Rome 2 from public order.

'Diseases were a key feature of the period,' Bickham continues. Meanwhile, on the continent, everybody is ill, and a miasma of some sort hangs over several cities. Saxons who, despite their rumbling stomachs, are clearly in a stronger position here. You've almost got to figure out what you can afford to lose.' His trip north to the Roman city of York ends with him abandoning the settlement altogether, illustrating a new razing mechanic where the settlement's suffering citizens take what they can and leave almost nothing behind except, hopefully, a buffer between them and the advancing and very hungry Saxons. 'We're designing this experience for the real Total War veterans. 'Playing as the Western Roman Empire is going to be a very challenging game,' he explains. In a presentation where he swoops his view across a sickly and shrinking empire, communications manager Al Bickham says his Romans are making the best of a bad situation. It won't just be Romans fighting Romans.Д®xactly how difficult depends, of course, on whose historical boots you shoehorn your way into. They're keen to frame it as both an evolution of the imperfect Total War: Rome 2, as well as a grimmer and potentially more difficult prospect. We've had Rome 2, with its glorious celebration of this great empire, now this is a wonderful way to close that chapter, with the dawn of the Dark Ages.' The setting will likely remind fans of the Barbarian Invasion expansion for Rome: Total War, with its great hordes migrating across the map, but Creative Assembly is trying to emphasise how different Total War: Attila is to its predecessor. Lead artist Pawel Wojs describes it as 'Fitting. It's a merry way to introduce the latest in the Total War series, but developer Creative Assembly seems rather keen on the idea of tearing everything down. This is the End of Days for us.' Attila was the scourge of God, the punishment for Christian sin and decadence.' Contemporary Christian authors were seeing disease, were seeing climate change, were seeing Attila coming down on them, and they thought 'This is it. These were things that people were writing about at the time. Historically, you've got this idea of the Seven Seals being opened, you've got the four horsemen personified by Attila and his hunt. 'Rome is beset on all sides, even from the inside. 'It's a very apocalyptic game,' says senior battle designer Simon Mann, describing how even the eternal city of Rome itself is at threat. In time, Attila will be coming and to the newly Christianised people of Rome, he may as well be the apocalypse incarnate. They lack the armies they needs to defend their territories and the years ahead will bring disease, famine and ruinous invasions. Their empires are not only surrounded by would-be invaders just waiting for their chance, but now even more vulnerable to the power plays of their own people.

Theodosius, the last man to rule both the eastern and western halves, has died, dividing control between his sons. The great power that stretched from the Middle East to the fringes of Scotland is now collapsing. It's the year 395 and Rome is in trouble.

Rome 2 vs atilla