I've been too busy with n*r*i* stuff to do any retro reviews over the past few months, but I've been playing a lot of Attila so I thought I'd dump my screens, plus the mods in case anyone was interested. I was playing at a whole bunch of different settings, from everything except models/textures on lowest, to everything on max, to a few 4k screens.
Vanilla:
Age of Justinian AD527
Intended as a port of the Last Roman DLC to the full vanilla map, the mod has unfortunately been downgraded due to the author having problems with the DLC units not working properly. Sadly, that means most of the units and tech trees are basically the same as vanilla. I played an Ostrogoth campaign, which has some unique mechanics like being able to recruit WRE units from Roman buildings, but these were too effective as a steady anvil and more cost-effective than their Germanic counterparts of the same tier, so you're really just playing as Romans with barbarian family members. The balance of power in this campaign makes it good for players who want to start as ERE without being on the defensive from turn 1, or players who want to face a more challenging Roman foe, but everything else felt too similar to vanilla.
Age of Justinian 555AD
Set in the twilight of Justinian I's reign, the mod hews a little too closely towards the vanilla WRE experience in that the Roman factions start in too weak a position and with too many inherent debuffs that don't really fit the era (why does Roman Britain have a -10 public order from immigration?). I played a Sassanid campaign with the intent of going head-to-head witn Constantinople, but the historical Roman characters were dead within 5 turns and by the time I killed the Gokturks, the eastern empire was already 90% rebels. Still, admirable attention to detail (mixed with fantastical nonsense like Artorius) plus great custom models & textures.
642 Dark Ages: Rise or Fall of Islam
Set in a bafflingly overlooked period, Dark Ages has a lot of great custom art and a solid campaign setup. From the opening turn, the Dark Age kingdoms are pretty hostile to Rome but too busy fighting each other to turn their attention to Italy, whilst Rome and the Sassanids are in a precarious position as they try to hold off the Islamic invasion. This means plenty of challenges and opportunities on all corners of the map, and the established powers can remain a threat for a long time - without snowballing into an unstoppable force within 20 turns. The English translation is a bit awkward and the author is a huge queen who threatened to remove the mod if he didn't get enough reddit points, but it's a pretty good campaign.
