Total War: Rise of Mordor is a conversion mod for Total War: Attila that, in its final form, will let you play through a newly-crafted campaign featuring 19 factions from Middle Earth. You can take your first peek at it now thanks to a public alpha released this week that will hand you control over some of the factions and let you play around with custom units that are based on the ones you'll have seen in the films.

The background story of the campaign will be "accurate to the books", but could still be a while off yet. First, the team will finish off the factions and add custom settlements into the mod. 

The grand strategy and large-scale battles of the Total War series make it ripe for Lord of the Rings conversions, and Rise of Mordor isn't the first to attempt it. Third Age does something similar for Medieval 2: Total War, and it does it very well (making it onto Tom's list of essential Total War mods a while back). But that game is more than 10 years old now, so I'm curious to see if working on a newer title like Attila will help create something better.

You can download the alpha of Rise of Mordor from its ModDB page.

PC games are full of arcane artifacts spurring on ancient civilizations, Nazis riding dinosaurs, and Ghandi nuking the entire planet. Historical accuracy isn’t always a priority, and even the ones that try to get it right have to take some liberties with the facts modern scholarship hands down to us to be, you know, a fun game. But there is a definite divide between games that offer a mere nod to history (or use some vague, pop culture-informed stereotype of it as a jumping-off point) and those that actually put in enough research time to get at least some of the important facts straight.

It’s hard to measure a variable like “historicity” when it comes to games—and yes, that is a real word. Games that put history first tend to wind up overly complicated rather than fun, so I've highlighted genuinely great PC games that go out of their way to include some historical accuracy. In particular, I chose games that accurately and ably depict a facet of history that is often misrepresented or ignored in other, ostensibly historical games.

In chronological order based on their setting, here are the most historical PC games.

Total War: Attila - Most historical game about the collapse of the Western Roman Empire 

Attila pulled Total War’s tired campaign formula out of its slump and gave us a living map that portrayed the cultural, political, and environmental challenges facing Rome in her twilight years. Rather than playing into the stereotype of angry, marauding barbarians showing up out of nowhere to sew chaos, the map really put you in the middle of why these invasions were happening—the oncoming of climate change making northern regions progressively less supportive of large populations, and the migration of the Huns into Eastern Europe.

It was also the first Total War game to model the fact that not all societies have permanent cities, and how tributary relationships could form between cultures as a pressure valve against open war.

Assassin’s Creed series - Most historical depiction of ancient cities 

There is very little about the plot of any Assassin’s Creed game that could be regarded as staunchly historical (though we do get some cool nods here and there—the Siege of Masyaf in AC1 is a thing that really happened). However, they’ve gone to great lengths to depict, in full scale, what it would be like to walk the streets of Renaissance Florence or medieval Jerusalem. From the crowds, to the architecture, to the small details, there is a lot of history to experience just by wandering the environments. My personal favorite is Revelations’ post-Ottoman-conquest Constantinople, perhaps one of the most interesting cities in world history snapshotted at one of its most interesting ages.

Crusader Kings 2 - Most historical modeling of medieval Western European politics 

With expansions highlighting Satanic cults and fanciful, “What if?” Aztec invasions, there is plenty of ahistorical nonsense kicking around CK2 these days. But at its core is a system that does an excellent job of modeling how politics worked in Western Europe from about 1000 to 1400 AD. We take for granted the concept of a nation state in our modern world, but if you lived in Auvergne, France in 1150, you were probably loyal to a person, not a flag or a constitution. All of CK2’s titles have holders, and it is they who interact and play the grand game against one another.

A strong realm can crumble under a weak king just as a poor realm can rise to glory under a great king. And while the hierarchical depiction of feudalism it presents is highly disputed in modern scholarship, excellent expansions like Conclave have added more weight to the lateral bonds that many historians argue were the greater driving force among the nobility of the age.

Expeditions: Viking -  Most historical Viking game

I was impressed immediately by how apparent it was that the designers of Expeditions: Viking put stereotypes out of their mind and hit the books. As my primary historical interest area, I have a high standard for games about the Viking Age, and this one really has you doing a lot of the things a viking ruler would have actually found him or herself doing.

There are kinship-based blood feuds to manage. There is the emphasis on the necessity of presenting yourself as both a strong and a just ruler, not taking for granted that people will follow you based on your name. It even models the effects those notorious raids had on Scandinavia—bringing back captives and wealth that would help build infrastructure and birth three of the most influential kingdoms in European history.

Banished - Most historical game about frontier settlement

Banished is a fairly simple game. I might even argue that it’s too simple, but the mechanics it chooses to focus on are very much the sorts of things that say, an English settler in the 17th Century Virginia Colony would have been concerned with. Keeping your people warm, fed, and healthy are your main goals. You have to use the resources in your environment and trade with distant lands to provide for a growing population. A harsh winter or a disease outbreak can be utterly disastrous and end your whole settlement—as they often did for early European settlements in the New World.

Sid Meier’s Pirates! - Most historical pirate game 

While Pirates! does allow itself to indulge in some buccaneer stereotypes, it also models a lot of the genuine realities a privateer captain during the Golden Age of Piracy would have to be concerned with. A crew is a ragtag collection of malcontents picked up from all across the Caribbean who will only stay with you as long as they feel like there’s a monetary reward in it. The political interplay between the Spanish, English, French, and Dutch is an ongoing conundrum, and you’ll usually be working for at least one of them. And of course, its modeling of naval combat with wind direction, hull size, decks, guns, and even shot type really gives you a glimpse of all the skills necessary to be a naval officer in that era.

Victoria 2 - Most historical game about the Industrial Revolution 

Vicky 2 is probably the most intimidating and inaccessible game on this list, but it deserves its spot for hanging its top hat on aspects of history that often get ignored. The level of literacy among your population matters. More literate societies will become more productive… but they also gain Consciousness, which can lead them towards social movements like communism and demanding an end to slavery, universal suffrage, and labor rights. You know, pesky commoner stuff. It also models industrialization, war profiteering, and the advantages and disadvantages of free markets versus command economies. If you have the patience to learn it, it's well worth the investment.

The Oregon Trail - Most historical game about the Oregon Trail 

An oldie but a goodie. The various iterations of The Oregon Trail that have been released since 1971's HP 2100 version (how’s that for some history!) have all been lauded for their educational value. And with good reason. If a modern person tries to imagine the struggles faced by an American pioneer making the journey from Independence to the Willamette Valley in the mid-1800s, they probably wouldn’t give much thought to how many spare wagon tongues you’d need to bring. But that was the reality, and The Oregon Trail put us in the middle of it. It probably also made us a little more afraid of dysentery than we have cause to be in an era of modern medicine and sanitation, but no game is perfect.

Ultimate General: Civil War - Most historical game about the Civil War  

I know I’ll take my share of hard tac for failing to call out some hex-based, in-depth wargame that features the weight and height of every soldier who fought at Gettysburg compiled from census records, but Ultimate General is the perfect midpoint between attention to historical detail, accessibility, and fun. Its combat engine realistically models terrain, movement, casualties, and morale in real time. The recently released campaign mode even gets into how generals in this era had to prove themselves to the political leadership if they wanted to be well-supplied and have weight given to their strategic advice.

Steel Division: Normandy 44 - Most historical game about tactical combat in World War 2

A truly impressive feat to a military history nerd, Steel Division’s maps are built from actual aerial reconnaissance photographs taken during the Normandy invasion, down to the village layouts and placement of hedgerows. It also features realistic ranges and damage modeling for all of its vehicles and weapons, and even the relative speed and maneuverability of its air units. It limits heavier units to spawning later in a battle to simulate the simple fact that they would have taken longer to get there after first contact with the enemy.

Possibly most notable of all, though, is that it does an uncommonly good job stressing the importance of ground-based reconnaissance on the battlefields of World War 2, and the idea that engagements could be won or lost based on which side had better information.

IL-2 Sturmovik series - Most historical combat flight simulator 

I think most flight sim enthusiasts remember the first time they tried to do a backflip in IL-2 and saw the screen start to fade out, wondering if there was something wrong with their monitor. Not only are the controls and handling in this classic historically accurate, but it simulates the effects G-forces have on a fighter pilot maneuvering at high speeds. Force too much blood into your head and you’ll experience redout. Force too much into your feet and you’ll experience blackout. In addition, the titular IL-2 was depicted in meticulous, 3D detail and the combat missions presented plausible scenarios.

Verdun - Most historical World War I shooter 

Move over, Battlefield 1. Verdun sets out to accurately depict trench warfare on the Western Front, and does a pretty good job of it for a multiplayer shooter. Its inaccuracies are forgivable sacrifices to scale, rather than in the details. it would be very difficult to get enough players on a single server to really depict some of the bigger battles of The Great War, and a lot more time was spent waiting around hoping not to get blown up by a shell than was spent taking aim and firing at the enemy—which isn’t really fun if you just have an hour a night to jump in the mud with your buds. Particularly impressive is the detail that goes into the uniforms, with items as small as buttons being painstakingly reproduced from period photographs.

Kerbal Space Program - Most historical game about the space program 

With its science-based modeling of orbital mechanics, propulsion, and aerodynamics, Kerbal Space Program is a great platform to teach about the history of spaceflight. In fact, the developers at Squad agree, and are working on an official Making History expansion. But if you don’t want to wait, the community has already beaten them to the punch. A number of mods, including the Historical Missions Pack, allow you to experience launches spanning from the first German V2 rocket tests all the way up to SpaceX and beyond. 

Deus Ex series - Most historical game about… the future?

So this one is mostly my own speculation based on observation of current trends, rather than anything backed up by in-depth scholarship. But I’ve always been impressed with how well Deus Ex depicts what I see as humanity’s likely next steps. Huge strides are being made in brain-computer interfaces, prosthetics, and artificial intelligence, while advancements in fields like spaceflight and laser swords are becoming increasingly hard to come by. Were I a betting man, I’d put my money on the assumption that we’ll see the world of Adam Jensen come to pass long before the world of Captain Picard.

Creative Assembly recently announced Total War Sagas, a spin-off series meant to “focus on a specific point in history, as opposed to an era as seen in the tentpole Total War games,” but with the same level of detail as the bigger releases. Like Fall of the Samurai or Napoleon, these aim to cover eras already touched on by Total War, but putting a particular facet of the age under a microscope or detouring from the existing timeline. It's a fantastic idea, seeing as some of the smaller and more focused campaigns for Rome II (Imperator Augustus and Caesar in Gaul, particularly) were actually much better executed than the Grand Campaign.

Here are some smaller-scale conflicts that deserve their very own campaigns.

The Cimbrian War

Place: The Outskirts of the Late Roman RepublicTime: c. 115 - 100 BCEBase game: Rome 2

The first large-scale clash between the Latin and Germanic civilizations, the two main components whose melding would eventually bring about Medieval Western Europe, took place just a generation or so before Julius Caesar set events into motion to transform the Roman Republic into an Empire. A group of tribes from the unexplored northern frontier (which the Romans would refer to eventually as Germania) appeared seemingly out of nowhere and initially struck a number of stunning blows against Rome, handing them their worst defeats since they faced Hannibal in the Second Punic War. It was only through the actions of the legendary Gaius Marius that this invasion was repelled and Rome itself was saved from sacking or possibly even conquest.

If that had happened, the name Caesar would probably never have made it into the modern consciousness. The invasion also helped to inspire the Marian Reforms—Marius reorganized the army, creating the legions that would conquer much of the known world.

The Roman component of this roughly 15-year campaign, which could fit well with a month-to-month turn timer, would likely focus on the character of Marius, just as some past DLC campaigns have put the lens on Caesar, Augustus, Marc Antony, or Belisarius. The Marian Reforms could be adapted into a specialized tech tree-type system, representing possibly the turning point in Roman military history. Like most great men of ancient Rome, Marius had more than just the invaders to worry about. There was plenty going on at home, and rival generals with different ideas of how to achieve victory seeking to usurp recognition as being Rome’s savior. Having allied armies that aren’t necessarily on the same page as you while fighting a common enemy could be very interesting if the AI is done well.

On the barbarian side, we see a similar opportunity. While allied, the two main tribes involved in the invasion, the Cimbri and the Teutones (the latter is where the word "Teutonic" and the modern German-language name of Germany, "Deutschland," comes from) were not a united nation. Marius was able to triumph thanks in part to the lack of coordination between them. Tribal politics could be a large focus as you try to hold a large, powerful, but unwieldy coalition together. There were also some smaller tribes involved in the invasion that could present unique challenges, either as player-led factions or diplomatic considerations, such as the Ambrones and the Celtic Helvetii.

The year 1066

Place: The North Sea Region (Particularly England)Time: GuessBase game: Attila (or Medieval 3 if that comes out any time soon)

The year that changed English history forever, 1066 saw three claimants (leading three potentially diverse and unique factions) to the crown of England engage in a three-way struggle that was as dramatic as it was unpredictable. William, Duke of Normandy, had a Papally-sanctioned host invading from the south with continental heavy cavalry. Harald Hardrada of Norway sailed from the Northeast with a host of viking-descended warriors who still fought much like their pillaging ancestors. Caught in the middle was Harold Godwinson, the Anglo-Saxon nobleman who had been chosen by his own people to defend the status quo.

With a campaign map modeling the British Isles in serious detail, it would be possible to plan army maneuvers through the hills and woodlands of England in a way the series has never allowed before. And since the entire war took place in the space of one year, turns could potentially represent mere days rather than years or seasons, giving new weight to the weather system and the passage of time in general. 

Minor factions would also be plentiful. Though he didn’t go to war historically, Svend II of Denmark was another potential claimant when Edward the Confessor died in 1066, by his descent from Knut the Great—a viking who did in fact take over and rule England for a time. There’s also the matter of the independent Scots to the North, some unconquered Welsh realms to the West, and a large number of Irish tribes that dwelt on the disunited Emerald Isle at the time. And this is all not even mentioning the King of France and his contentious relationship with William back on the mainland.

The Inca Civil War and Spanish Conquest 

Place: Andean Region of South AmericaTime: c. 1527 - 1580 CEBase game: Empire/Napoleon

When the 11th Sapa Inca, Huayna Capac, died in 1527, the large and complex Inca Empire was sent into chaos. A succession conflict sometimes called the War of Two Brothers kicked off between his sons, Huáscar and Atahualpa. They chose a terrible time for it, too, since conquistadors from Spain were about to show up bearing guns and smallpox. Choosing to play either of the two claimants would mean having to defeat your brother and unite the empire in common cause to withstand the greatest threat it had ever faced. The Spanish would find themselves vastly, almost comically outnumbered, but with a technological edge (and an uncontrollable secret weapon in the form of European disease) that they would have to make the most of to achieve victory.

Very few games model the epidemiological impact of the Columbian exchange on American natives properly, and this era would be a perfect place to do so. Much as the changing climate gradually makes the map less arable in Attila, an Incan player would have to contend with catastrophic population and economic collapse from the introduction of smallpox, typhus, and other diseases as the campaign progressed. Internal politics would also be a rich source of new mechanics, as the Inca (who were completely excluded by the original Empire: Total War) are today considered to have been the largest and most sophisticated empire in the Americas at the time of European contact.

The Spanish side would likely focus more on agents and clever maneuvers to topple the already wobbly Incas indirectly. Playing both sides of the civil war to weaken your enemies overall could be one path to victory. Gaining native allies (hey, look: minor factions!) was another key tactic the Spanish used to further their conquests in this period. Perhaps the most decisive historical moment of the conflict was the Spanish's capture of Atahualpa (who was victorious in the civil war), which could also be a campaign milestone. With roughly 50 years to play, a season-based turn timer would give us a meaty and exciting campaign.

 The Crimean War

Place: The Black Sea regionTime: c. 1850 - 1860 CEBase game: Shogun 2

Around roughly the same time that the events of Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai were kicking off in Japan, one of the largest European wars since the days of Napoleon broke out in Europe. The causes are disputed, but much of the fighting revolved around the decline of the Ottoman Empire, and who had the right to claim what from its carcass. On one side was the Russian Empire under Nicholas I (and later Alexander II after the former’s death from natural causes). On the other was the Ottoman sultan Abdulmejid I, Napoleon III of France, and none other than Queen Victoria herself leading England. There was also involvement from the Kingdom of Sardinia (a predecessor to modern Italy), and various minor powers in the region comprising ethnic minorities that either had, or were in the process of, breaking from centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule—notably the Greek Legion that fought on the Russian side.

The tech level would be similar to Fall of the Samurai, with the main difference being that we’re talking about large, industrialized European armies on both sides. You’re not going to be mowing down a lot of sword infantry using gatling guns, because your enemies have gatling guns as well. Weaponry had come a long way since Napoleon, but was still recognizable in those terms. Smoothbore field guns, cavalry charges, and disciplined line infantry were still the main tools of warfare. The maritime theater also lends itself well to exciting naval battles, and the Crimean War saw the first use of ironclad warships.

Spanning a roughly 10-year timeframe, a month-to-month turn cycle would make the most sense. As this was a relatively contained conflict fought by multiple, world-spanning empires, interesting campaign mechanics could be introduced to model bringing in imperial resources at the cost of political capital or popularity at home. The Ottomans, in particular, would have the added challenge of managing minority populations emboldened by successful revolts of decades past and yearning for their own liberty.

With Game of Thrones' seventh season fast-approaching, it's getting harder to avoid casting and story spoilers by the day. I've already re-watched season six in preparation (and will almost certainly do so again nearer the time), which is why I'm looking for other GoT-themed entertainment to quench my make-believe medieval murder fest desires. 

If that's you too, you may fancy a trip to Westeros by way of Total: War Attila, as the Seven Kingdoms Development Team has updated its Thrones-inspired Seven Kingdoms mod to include the Free Folk, the Night's Watch, House Hornwood, and 15 new characters. 

All of which means you can recreate that infamous Jon Snow scene in Battle of the Bastards, which is shown below around the 1.38 mark. 

Here's the full list of 15 generals that the mod's Beyond the Wall update introduces:

• Ned Stark
• Rickard Karstark
• Euron Greyjoy
• Greatjon Umber
• Kevan Lannister
• Loras Tyrell
• Roose Bolton
• Theon Greyjoy
• Davos Seaworth
• Larence Snow
• Styr Magnar of Thenn
• Mance Rayder
• Tormund Giantsbane
• Alliser Thorne
• Jeor Mormont

More information on Total War: Attila's Seven Kingdoms mod can be found this way—including download and installation instructions.

Make War Not Love is a three-way strategy game throwdown between Company of Heroes 2, Total War: Attila, and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 to see which of them can ring up the most players between February 14 and February 20. (The competition starts and ends at 10.00 AM PST.) Prizes will be awarded to the leading game every 48 hours, and at the end, the victor will claim the spoils in the form of faction-specific digital content. And if Total War: Attila comes out on top, Creative Assembly will make the upcoming Slavic Nations Culture Pack free for everyone.

The Slavic Nations pack, announced today, adds three new factions to the game—the Anteans, the Sclavenians, and the Venedians—each of which can be used in single and multiplayer campaign modes, as well as custom and multiplayer battles. I've never heard of any of them, but according to the Steam blurb, the Slavs as a whole are a hardy and mobile people [who] range far and wide across the blasted Steppe to recolonize and bring new life to abandoned earth.

When conflict occurs, they release withering hails of poison arrows on their foes, it says. Whether through diplomacy or conflict, they offer the perfect counter to the Hunnic threat, and introduce a number of unique ways to play Total War: Attila in both Campaign and Battle.

Total War: Attila will be on sale for 75 percent off during the contest (and is actually on sale now as part of the Steam Lunar New Year Sale), cutting the price to $11/ 7.50. It will also be available to play for free from February 18 to February 20, if you want to give it a shot without over-committing. Win or lose, the Slavic Nations Culture Pack comes out on February 25. Find out more about how you'll get down in Slav-town at the Total War Wiki.

Attila may have hammered the last nail into the coffin of the Roman Empire, but the game that bears his name has restored the Total War series to greatness. Attila, following on the heels of the bloated and at times incoherent Rome 2, could have gone in the same direction. But instead, it went in a far more daring and appropriate direction. It turned into a game about destroying traditional Total War.

This weekend I revisited Attila add-on campaign The Last Roman and tried out the new Age of Charlemagne campaign. It felt like I'd fallen into a time-warp to 2003, when I played Medieval: Total War day and night, to the detriment of sleep and school. Early morning gave way to lunchtime in a blur of hand-to-hand combat between thousands of medieval warriors, careful court politics, and the painstaking work of empire-building. When I went to bed at night, I was thinking about the offensive waiting for me the next morning.

It's not that Attila is a throwback to the good old days of Total War, however. It's quite the opposite. Typically, Total War follows a predictable arc: start small, make a few strategic expansions, leverage your newfound power into an empire. The trick is making sure you don't get knocked off-course by competing powers, but everyone is basically playing the same game.

Attila doesn't work like that. There's really only one faction that is still playing traditional Total War: the Sassanids in Persia. Everyone else is playing something new, and far more volatile, than a traditional Total War game.

The Romans are playing a survival horror horde-mode where their enemies will never stop coming and the protagonists are starting to fall to infighting. The internal politics that never quite came to fruition in recent Total War games, and were so abysmal in Rome 2, start to matter a great deal as successive Roman leaders struggle to maintain internal unity among generals and governors who all think they could do a better job.

The barbarians are in the early stages of a Civ game, exploring a dangerous new world and dueling for the best places from which to start a new empire. Cities burn, and depleted empires grapple with battered tribal armies for control over the ashes.

Nothing this dramatic ever happened before in Total War. Each of those games did a good job of making it look like the world was coming undone as armies fought pitched battles and cities and fortresses changed hands time and again. But all the damage was temporary and easily fixed. That city you burned to a cinder 5 turns ago? With a few easy investments, it was on the road to being a thriving trade and manufacturing hub!

Attila changes the rules. Barbarian factions can pack-up their entire nation and take to the road once again, leaving their permanent settlements a ruin behind them. Conquering armies have the option of annihilating cities and towns rather than occupying or looting them. As the number of settled regions decreases, and the wealth they created bleeds out of the game, the ability to recover and rebuild also starts to vanish.

By the time the Attila campaign grinds to a halt, the world has been transformed. Parts of it are ruined beyond repair, swaths of war-torn wasteland that used to be civilization.

Life after Rome

If the story of Attila had stopped there, it would have been an impressive reinvention for an old series. But the expansions continue to build on that foundation, each one capturing a new moment in the death of the Roman world and the transition into the Middle Ages. It also tells the story of how Rome goes from being a political reality to an increasingly vague notion of power, order, and progress.

The Last Roman campaign takes place almost seventy years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, as the Byzantines hurl their waning strength and their greatest general into a doomed effort to recover the lost empire.

Once again, each side is playing a game according to different rules, but the situation is reversed. Now Belisarius and his Eastern legions are the outside invaders, moving like the barbarians of Attila once did, able to conquer but not to settle and build. The usurpers of Roman land have become settled kingdoms trying to build new societies, and it's the returning "Romans" who are the relentless, destructive outsiders.

Attila solves problems that have bedeviled Creative Assembly's games for years.

Age of Charlemagne ends the saga, and it's not quite as daring as the previous campaigns, but it's not supposed to be. Its structure hearkens back to the original Medieval Total War, where you have a group of fully-fledged, heavily-armed kingdoms all vying for supremacy. Nobody is starting from the bottom. Charlemagne is on the cusp of controlling the greatest Empire since the Romans. The Lombards occupy the old Roman heartland of northern and central Italy. The Caliphate of Cordoba is entrenched in Spain and technologically advanced compared to its neighbors. When these powers go to war, they're doing it with professional armies and vast wealth at their command. Just like the old days.

But things have changed. Age of Charlemagne borrows from the Paradox playbook by introducing two new concepts that tie into the diplomatic game. The first is scripted events that can have immediate ramifications for the strategic balance. Early in the campaign, the Lombards are pressed by the Pope to return the city of Ravenna to Papal control. To refuse is to risk war with the Franks and Charlemagne, but to comply is to cede an important imperial possession. The Lombards have to choose how to respond to this crisis, and what kind of risks they are willing to run.

If push comes to shove (and stab, and bludgeon), Age of Charlemagne doesn't want the action to become too much of a Dark Ages rugby scrum. A war that drags on and on with rising losses causes "war exhaustion." Public order declines, armies become demoralized, and nobles and retainers begin to think of treason. After fifteen years, "Total War" has finally found a way to control and contain its own anarchy, and turned the diplomatic game from a half-baked distraction into something that determines the structure of a campaign.

It's the Total War equivalent of spiking the football in the endzone. Attila began by reinventing Total War as we have always known it, using daring faction design and new game mechanics like razing settlements to bring the grim darkness of the fifth century to life. It ends with a campaign that is almost entirely traditional, closer to Shogun and Medieval than to Rome and Empire. Yet it solves problems that have bedeviled Creative Assembly's games for years.

Before Attila, the Total War series seemed like it might be out of ideas just as it was almost out of viable historical settings. It could refine old ideas but not substantially improve them. It could embrace new ones, but botch the execution so badly that the point was entirely lost.

Attila tore all that down. And here at the end of the Age of Charlemagne, something new and exciting is rising to take its place.

The Hun-ish strategy game Total War: Attila is about to add three new playable factions— the Aksum, the Himyar, and the Tanukhids—as part of the Empires of Sand "Culture Pack," which is set for release next week. The expansion will also add new campaign and horde mechanics, events, some big new Religion features, and more than 50 unique units.

Befitting their origins in "the harsh deserts of Africa and the Middle East," each of the new factions enjoys a +2 Sanitation bonus in all regions, +15 melee attack in desert battles, and immunity to desert attrition. The Aksum and Himyar may also choose from two separate main religions, each with its own building chain, tier-five barracks, and victory conditions. Each religion also has an increased impact on diplomacy, meaning that players must "choose their religion carefully based on who they wish to ally with." 

The Tanukhids, as a horde faction, can't select from multiple religions but do have their own unique benefits, including a new building tree and the "Legendary Raiders" trait that reflects their "hyper-aggressive" style.

The Empires of Sand Culture Pack is set to go live on Steam on September 15, and can be preordered now at a ten percent discount off the regular price of $7/ 5. That same day, developer Creative Assembly will also release an update to Total War: Attila that will add "free additional playable faction content" for all players. Details about that update will be revealed ahead of its release.

Attila up there is just over the moon that Creative Assembly are holding a free weekend party for many of their historo-strategy-murderising games. He's also ecstatic about the big sale they've laid on to accompany it, where the likes of Total War: Attila, Total War: Rome 2, and the older games where the titles are reversed are available for cheap. He's so happy that he may even stop killing people for-oh, he's started killing people again.

Creative Assembly are celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Total War series, see. In addition to offering free weekends and sales for *deep breath* Shogun 2, Napoleon, Attila, Rome 2, Empire and Medieval 2, they've also released new 'Gold' editions of Medieval: Total War, and of the very first in the series, Shogun: Total War. These package the games and all expansions for 6.99 apiece.

Elite Hunnic Lancers aren't the lithe fighters you might expect from a steppe nomad army. I wonder if their lightly clothed compatriots—launching arrow barrages at a gallop behind—envy the elite barding and glittering metal helmets. I suspect not. The bowmen are merely harassing and fragmenting the enemy line. The elites must use the chaos to close distance with the Roman artillery without being flattened. For me, it's a simple double-click. For them, it's a mad dash through a storm of arrows and flaming rocks.

They'll get it done. Some will fall as they skirt the enemy line, but but there's plenty of free space between the bulk of the Roman force and the trebuchets. It's a clear day, and dry, which means the cavalry will get maximum purchase on the terrain. They'll hit the poorly armed artillery crews at around 40 miles per hour with lances levelled. There won't be many survivors.

There's no time to watch the charge. Horse archers need careful management if they're going to tempt the well-drilled Roman footsoldiers to break formation. I order them to focus fire on lesser-armoured enemies, with fire arrows where possible. It's a race. I'll lose a battle of attrition—my archers can only carry so many arrows—but if I can force a route there will be no escape for the enemy.

It takes longer than it should for me to realise that the rain of rocks has stopped. The elites will be tired after their long artillery-smashing charge, but the Huns are born riders, and relentless. I order them to move in an arc that takes them over a nearby rise, giving them a downhill dash to the enemy's exposed back. They flow over the contours of the map beautifully, maintaining rough cohesion as they wheel for the final charge.

What's a spearman to do? Step forward and the horse archers feint back at a speed you can never match. Your unit is crouching beneath a raised shield wall being hammered relentlessly by flaming missiles. Your artillery has fallen silent, your archers are struggling to stack up casualties firing at the Hun's spacious formations, and you don't have enough horses to drive off the entire horde. You need emplacements—stakes, stone walls, cannon—but those are hundreds of miles away, in Rome. Here there's just an open plain. And an unstoppable enemy.

And a thunderous sound, behind you, growing louder every second.

The Attila Assembly Kit has been released for Total War: Attila, and Steam Workshop is now up and running properly for the rather good strategy title.

The tool is available for all those with Total War: Attila in their Library, and I've pasted instructions below on how to get hold of it. It's not difficult, but always nice to know, right? The Assembly Kit includes DaVE, for editing the database, BOB, for processing raw data, TEd, for creating siege battlefields, and Terry, the campaign map editor.

There's also a terrain raw data pack, meaning modders are able to choose which battle maps load for set campaign map locations. If you want it - and you'll need it to use TEd and Terry properly - you'll need around 60GB of free space to house it. If it's bigger it means it's more worth it, right?

The tools are very similar to those on previous Total Wars, but if you're new to modding - or need a refresher - it might be useful to take a look at Attila's wiki. In fact, it's probably useful for anybody, regardless of experience level.

How to download:

Hover over the LIBRARY panel in steam and select TOOLS from the drop down menu.

Select Total War: Attila Assembly Kit BETA

Double Click to begin downloading. Be sure to install The Assembly Kit to the same HDD as Total War: Attila.

To get the Terrain Raw Data pack, right-click the Total War: Attila Assembly Kit BETA and select properties . Click the DLC tab and select Terrain Raw Data to begin downloading. The Terrain Raw Data will expand to near 60GB on your HDD, so only download it if you feel you need it. It will be needed to use Terry and to use TEd fully.