The life of a nomad is lonely and dangerous. This became clear during the hours I spent in the last week playing a pre-release version of Creative Assembly's upcoming strategy game Total War: Attila. Disappointingly, playing as the Huns was not a possibility in the preview version, but I wanted a taste of the migratory life, and thus decided I would lead the Ostrogoths to victory against the other cultures dominating the late fourth century. I knew little of the Ostrogoths, but a life without borders sounded terribly appealing.

What I didn't know is that by 395 AD, the year TW: Attila's grand campaign begins, the Huns had already subjugated the Ostrogoths. It was not an easy situation to inherit, particularly given how new the mechanics of migratory peoples was to Total War. I began as a horde, but I chose to settle quickly into an abandoned settlement and sent my two pre-existing armies out to conquer. Such settlements aren't blessed with full fertility, so I knew that I wouldn't be filling my food stores as quickly as I'd like, but I presumed my fledgling village might provide some sustenance for the years to come.

Fortunately, I had kept my armies healthy and well-equipped in spite of my decision to choose mostly civil technology. The revolutionaries attacked Nisibis, but I had a good array of troops on hand, as well as three so-called deployables: a firepit and two sets of stakes, which you can place on the ground as defensive measures. I deployed those at the obvious chokepoints and braced for the assault. The prototypical Total War battle ensued, featuring over a thousand men locked in heated skirmishes. The rock-paper-scissors relationships between units are easy to understand, so as always, good positioning and battlefield management are what win battles. Well, that an bit of AI exploitation; the preview version of TW: Attila features many of the same AI troubles that previous games held. In this case, enemy troops were more than willing to stand in place while arrows rained on them from my archers and defensive towers. It was nice to win, but it didn't feel like a fair fight.

Another recurrent problem in Total War games is the array of performance problems and bugs that usually emerge. A preview build may not represent the final experience, but playing Total War: Attila was a sluggish affair, both on the strategic map and within battlegrounds. It also goes without saying that I was still invested, turn by turn, in the future of my empire, not a surprise in a series known for absorbing players for weeks, months, and years. As for the Huns, well, I didn't even encounter them during my time as the Sassanid. The Ostrogoths, on the other hand, are only a memory now--both in real life, and in my struggles to maintain my might in Total War: Attila. I wish your own empires all the best for when the game is fully released on February 17.