It’s 395 AD and you’re in what’s called the Late Antiquity period. The well-known title character Attila isn’t at the helm of the Huns just yet, but will be fighting his way there throughout the campaign. As the Total War franchise progresses with each new title, TW: Attila builds on its predecessor Rome II. And it offers some major improvements to UI and battle pacing. Yet just like all Total War games, the modding community keeps finding ways to make improvements over time. And now is a great time to look back and enjoy some of these community refinements to get the best Total War: Attila experience possible. Prep for battle!
25. Olympian Campaign Camera
Check Out This Mod Camera control is always an area for improvement. Not just for Total War games, but for large-scale strategy games in general. Most of the time these games don’t allow you to zoom in far enough, get in close enough, or get the right angles you need. Olympian Campaign Camera solves that by giving you adjusted height parameters in the campaign map view. You can now zoom further out or get a bit closer to the ground, giving you more options to plan out strategies and a better view of surrounding factions and their activities.
24. Olympian Battle Camera
Check Out This Mod Modder Olympian offers us the same options when it comes to tactical battles, allowing more freedom in terms of camera movement. You’ll be able to get really close to the action if you choose, or you can zoom out for a birds-eye perspective of the fight. This allows for more flexibility watching out for your units during combat, whether you need to focus in on particular parts of your army, or to get a quick overview whether the battle is going in your favor. We’ve all been in both places, I’m sure.
23. More Bold Campaign Borders v2
Check Out This Mod Another quality of life mod to go with Olympian’s camera mods, the More Bold Campaign Borders makes it easier to see province boundaries. Especially when zoomed out, it isn’t always easy to spot where territories end. This can make it difficult to strategically plan out your next moves. Well, not anymore. What’s even better is that the mod is now in its second version, which means full compatibility with newer DLCs & compatibility with other mods shouldn’t be an issue.
22. Natural Water Mod
Check Out This Mod The TW community has given us a lot of ways to improve the game’s visuals. The Natural Water Mod is one such improvement, making water look much more realistic. It’s just incredible, really. It affects all bodies of water on the map including rivers, lakes, and oceans. Water has always been a limitation graphically. But thanks to mods like this, we can get a much more immersive visual experience.
21. Attila: Flora HD
Check Out This Mod You might think graphics for the environment wouldn’t play a huge role in Total War: Attila… but you’d be surprised at how much a visual upgrade can improve how immersive the game is overall. Immersion is one of the biggest factors for modding IMO. This Flora HD mod retextures most of the game’s terrain and flora, giving them completely reworked HD textures. Modder Celticuswas particularly focused on improving Atlantic and Continental climates, so you’ll see the most improvements in those areas. Overall it’s a great visual enhancement that just makes the game look better. Who could hate that?
20. Bright Weapon Textures (no black weapons!)
Check Out This Mod Weapon textures have been upgraded over the years, and we have modder olvkhs99 to thank for that. His biggest gripe was with steel weapons appearing in a darker shade (which explains the mod title). Looking at the side-by-side comparisons, it actually does make you wonder why the swords & axes appear to be totally black. It’s a minor change, but makes the overall look of the game just more realistic. This mod affects most weapons including all Celtic, Eastern, and Steppe swords, along with Germanic spears, Roman Daggers, the shotel, and the khanda (among others).
19. Aztec 2015 Graphics
Check Out This Mod Aztec 2015 Graphics is one of the larger graphical mods out there, making major changes to the game’s scenery. It actually adds 50 different scenes to the game including sunset backdrops, darker foggy climates, and sunny afternoon weather. That’s only three examples, so imagine what you’ll find in the other 47! Seriously, this mod pack is huge. Not only does this improve on neutral environmental graphics, but it adds some lighting effects to battles as well, making large-scale warfare all the more epic.
18. GBJ Blood Mod Attila: The Blood Dark Times
Check Out This Mod Another way to improve battle visuals is through improved blood textures. It’s pretty common for developers to tone down blood textures in some games nowadays. Be it to make their games friendlier to younger audiences, or to make battlefields look less cluttered. But it’s also become common for modders to make adjustments to suit what they like. Total War: Attila is no different with the GBJ Blood Mod. Battles will appear more realistic as there are now 7 new blood textures in the pack. Blood doesn’t disappear from battlefields, either. So you’ll be able to appreciate the aftermath of every skirmish.
17. Cinematic Combat – Radious Version
Check Out This Mod As the Total War series suggests, it’s all about fighting the wars. Watching large-scale battles unfold is what it’s all about – giving you that long-awaited satisfaction after all the planning and strategizing for lord knows how long. And what better way to make those fight scenes all the more epic than to improve the animations? With the Radious Cinematic Combat mod you can increase combat animations from 40% to 100% – making it much more entertaining to sit back and watch these battles unfold. Units will use more natural movements instead of the boring default stabbing motions you commonly see. But this is a mod you have to experience to appreciate.
16. Return To Glory (Animations Mod)
Check Out This Mod You can improve battle animations even further with the Return To Glory animations mod by Petro. This mod aims to not only make battle animations more realistic, but much more cinematic as well. So basically, it’s all the more fun to watch your armies engage in combat. Return To Glory makes a lot of changes though, like removing ridiculous decapitation animations, improves cavalry charges, and offers some different combat styles for heavy infantry units. It also adds a lot of variation to the unit movements during battle sequences, making everything more interesting and exciting to watch.
15. More Detailed Unit Stats Tab
Check Out This Mod Beyond camera angles and improved graphics, there are also tons of mods out there offering more specific quality of life changes. As time goes on, some games just don’t age well. Mods help. The “More Detailed Unit Stats Tab” mod by wesloo is one of these handy additions, making battles easier to play through. Making decisions on strategy games is all about maximizing the information you have. And for some reason, some information was removed from the unit stats menu in Total War: Attila. This mod brings those stats back, making attack bonus vs. infantry and cavalry, range, and rate of fire numbers available for viewing. Although some information may spill out of the menu borders due to the size, it’s a small cosmetic price to pay for being able to make better battle decisions.
14. Sebidee’s Unlimited Governors
Check Out This Mod Another area for improvement is the limited political and diplomatic mechanics of TW: Attila. Though many improvements have been made as the Total War series grows with us, these diplomatic systems always feel like they come second to battle-related gameplay. One limitation that particularly annoys fans is the governor limit, forcing most of your generals to remain idle. Well this mod allows you to place governors in each of your provinces – and while it does make the game a bit easier, it makes much more sense as well.
13. Fertility +1
Check Out This Mod With harsh winters creeping from the northern regions of the map, large portions of the map become infertile throughout the campaign. This poses a new challenge. You may find yourself wandering through snowstorms, losing men before the battles even begin. Modder DeliciousCrackers thought that making most of Europe inhabitable by mid-game was a bit… much. Which prompted the Fertility +1 mod. What it does is increases the fertility level of each province by 1, making it less likely that larger portions of the map will become useless throughout your campaign. Another mod that might make the game a bit easier, but it creates a new balance that makes different strategies feasible through the course of your playthrough.
12. Tower Nerf Mod
Check Out This Mod Certain mods aim to rebalance battle mechanics. And it seems like most TW: Attila fans are in consensus when it comes to defensive towers. They can be particularly brutal in Attila, wiping out large portions of your armies from a distance. Thanks to Magnar, we’re given a nerf which reduces their range and cuts the damage in half. Neat! Don’t get me wrong: they can still be quite deadly, they’re just not so overpowered with this mod.
11. Ammunition Refill
Check Out This Mod Another cool battle enhancement, this time giving improved archers. Another mod from Magnar, created because he thought it just didn’t make sense that missile units would become practically useless once they ran out of ammunition. Well Ammunition Refillmake it possible for missile units to replenish ammo, but keeps them balanced. Ammo replenishment also has a time penalty. Archers will not be able to move for two minutes while waiting for support to bring them a fresh batch of arrows. They won’t be completely thrown out of the battle, but you’ll have to wait before they become active again.
10. The Long Night
Check Out This Mod Any Total War fan will know that once you’ve exhausted all obvious means to boost your interest in the game, there are always overhaul mods that give you a completely new experience. The Long Night is an interesting take on this. It calls itself “half alt-history and half fantasy”. Set in 7th century Europe, most of the northern lands have been rendered inhabitable due to the ice age that has plagued the land for the last century. Most of the fertile land belongs to either the Roman or Sassanid Empires. And with the northerners forced to move south for shelter, war is inevitable. This mod features an eternal winter setting, new events like a demonic invasion (which explains the fantasy aspect of the mod), and even new units to explore. Lots of fun to be had here.
9. Total War: Rise of Mordor
Check Out This Mod There probably isn’t a single Total War game that doesn’t have a Lord of the Rings overhaul mod. Based on the popular Third Age LotR mod for Rome II, the same team has moved their project to Total War: Attila for a more updated LotR experience. Since it’s based on LotR, you’ll be able to play either as men, elves, dwarves, or orcs. All units have been retextured to fit the theme so you’ll be getting a completely immersive LotR Total War game. It’s pretty wild, honestly. Unfortunately, the original mod didn’t come with a playable campaign. However a submod has recently been released called The War of the Ring, which is a nice addition along with TW: Rise of Mordor.
8. Kingdoms Of Westeros
Check Out This Mod Another common Total War conversion theme is Game of Thrones. Total War: Attila gets its very own Game of Thrones mod as well, in the form of Kingdoms Of Westeros. Unlike Rise of Mordor, Kingdoms Of Westeros actually includes a completely playable campaign converted to fit the world of Westeros. While the mod is still in the early stages of development, it’s currently the best GoT mod for Attila out there. Feedback has been positive so far, and if you’re not planning on playing it right now, it’s probably a good idea to bookmark it for future updates.
7. Unofficial Attila Community Patch
Check Out This Mod With most mod-capable games, it’s always a good idea to check out the Community Patch when available. Community Patches are typically compilations of tweaks, balances, and changes that have been agreed on by most of the community to be beneficial to the overall vanilla game. The Total War: Attila Community Patch is a great source for this kinda stuff, from graphical upgrades to gameplay mechanics. It includes most of the bugfixes that the community has deemed to be “must haves” so it’s generally a better way to experience the game as a whole. Highly recommend this one.
6. Forgotten Realms
Check Out This Mod If you’re looking to refresh your Total War: Attila experience without straying too far from vanilla, Forgotten Realms is a great way to do so. The mod doesn’t make drastic changes like other previous overhauls. But it makes enough balance & visual tweaks to keep gameplay exciting. With Forgotten Realms you have 28 unlock factions available, including new general models, individual traits, and unit rosters for each. Battle balances have also been made, with increases unit speeds and makes battle more fast-paced than in vanilla.
5. Fall of the Eagles
Check Out This Mod Fall of the Eagles is for the hardcore realism and historical accuracy fans out there. Modder Dresden claims that these two points were his primary focus when creating the mod. Dresden is actually a veteran Total War modder, which should be enough to trust that quality won’t be a problem here. The mod focuses on unit and battle changes, making massive changes to unit textures so they’re more appropriate to the time period. Certain battle mechanics have been altered as well, but still with realism and historical accuracy in mind. And there are also a couple of submods available for faster or slower battles, so you can decide for yourself which you prefer and they’re all available on Steam.
4. Radious Total War Mod
Check Out This Mod Radious has also become popular in the Total War modding scene, mostly for his overhaul mods for Rome II. He took a stab at overhauling Total War: Attila as well, and the result has been pretty awesome. As with all of Radious’ other mods, major rebalances are made here. Including changes to the campaign AI, diplomacy, battle systems, and unit stats. Worth checking out if you’ve got the time and want something fresh.
3. Medieval Kingdoms 1212 AD Base Pack
Check Out This Mod The 1212 AD campaign project has been in the works for over 5 years and is still not finished (as of this writing). What’s making it take so long? The intensive internal testing, as this was initially only made available to content creators and close friends. At first… With the recent public release, you can be sure that it will give you a relatively fleshed-out experience in TW: Attila, even though it hasn’t totally been finished yet. The campaign already includes 57 playable factions, over 4,000 retextured units, and even new scripted events to keep the campaign engaging. This one’s big, trust me!
2. Warring States: Roman Civil War
Check Out This Mod Warring States is yet another mod that doesn’t stray too far from vanilla, but makes an interesting change to the campaign that has a huge impact on how it plays out. What it does is splits the western empire into 7 different factions that are currently engaged in civil war amongst themselves. Warring States: Roman Civil War also places a large focus on an updated auxiliary system, allowing each Roman faction to make use of different auxiliary units based on their region.
1. Terminus Total War – Imperium
Check Out This Mod Imperium takes Warring States even further. This time both eastern and western empires are split, except they’re divided into allied factions. An alt-history campaign that offers 42 playable factions, 14 of which are completely new. The mod also includes over 100 new units to explore and hundreds of new generals/faction leaders to maximize. Overall, Imperium adds loads of new content while sticking pretty close to vanilla gameplay. Almost like an unofficial expansion pack. If that’s what you want out of Total War: Attila then this is the mod to start with.
