Buildings | Nation management Total War: Attila Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

In this section you will find general information about buildings types possible to place both in settlements and Horde camps.

No matter who you control, you must remember about five things. First, buildings can be damaged by a siege. Damaged buildings works less effective and must be repaired. Second, building can be demolished in order to place another one in its place. In case of settlement it means leaving a region. Third, you can convert a building to another from the same category, for example stall into field. Conversion is expensive and time consuming, but allows you to adapt the settlement to changing situation. Four, many buildings require the right civic technologies to build them. Five, there are no bad and good buildings. There are only buildings that can be of more or less use. If the current ones doesn't suit you, convert them or sell and build other ones.

Agricultural

The name suggests otherwise, but buildings from this category allow you to create food from many sources, not only premises. Most often you will need to choose between crops and livestock, such as sheep or goats. The only exception is Horde which produces food only from animals.

Every faction have three or four development paths of agricultural buildings. All of them reduce public order and increase squalor in the same rate and they cost the same amount of time and money. The difference is in food, money and units. When comparing their statistics, you will see that some buildings offer more food but less money, other more money, but less food, and the rest are somewhere between. Additionally, there is always one building that produces less food, but increases the recruitment capabilities or cavalry training, while others allow you to recruit infantry.

Another thing to know is, every building that produces food gives you money from different sources - some from breeding, other from farming. It is important since technologies, fertility and abilities of governors influence income from a specific building categories. Because of that, the choice between breeding horses and sheep might be dependant not on the buildings abilities, but governor or the ground in specific province.

Settlement

Settlement expansion increases income, growth and public order, upgrades your fortifications, garrison and increase the list of units that you can recruit. At the same time, it drastically increase food consumption and squalor level. Difference is clear to see on higher levels, especially if you compare a small and large city, and it is the main reason for expanding other buildings. V level city has so big requirements that a single farm can be not enough to fully satisfy it.

Because of that buildings from the settlement category should be expanded as last, after other buildings in the region or province satisfy their need for food and sanitation. It might look like it is better to increase the order, but that assumption disappears after comparing pros and cons. For example, a roman city at V level increase order by only five points while consuming 160 units of food. At the same time, IV level city increase order by four points while consuming 100 food. It is the amount produced by one farm at IV level, which means that a single order point costs one building of the same level. If you take costs and time required into consideration as well, then expanding city before expanding a province becomes unprofitable.

Civic

As the name suggests civic buildings serve the citizens. They have many various ways of working, including generating income (most of them), increasing the speed of research or greatly improving order. Most of them require great amount of food - although some of them produce it as well - and increase the amount of squalor in the settlement. Some of them allow you to recruit spies.

When choosing a civic building there are so many factors to consider that virtually each of them is useful in some way. Everything - once again - depends on the situation in the country and province.

Industry

Buildings from this category create squalor and disrupt public order, but generate money. The difference is in amounts and additional profits. There are three main development paths for industrial buildings. First, you can focus only on financial profit which will rise with level of building. Second, you can decide on lower profit, but other bonuses, like lower building costs or more profits from industrial buildings. Three, you can build a construction that gives the lowest amount of money, but allows you to recruit new unit types. Differences in profits between various workshops are large, especially on higher levels, but additional bonuses or units can compensate for it.

The choice, as usually, should depend on situation. Clean profit is good in most cases, but it might happen that a building offer bonuses that in scope of whole province will give you far more money. During war, the possibility to create archers or catapults might be more important than money. If there is a need, like after ending a war, you can always convert a building.

Military

Not every faction has access to those buildings. They also differ in cost, sometimes require food, other time reduce order and increase squalor. Some of them allow you to upgrade your weaponry and armament of formations, and all of them offer new units for recruitment, including artillery. Barbarian countries usually don't need them, as most of their buildings allow for recruitment and upgrading of units. In case of other nations, it depends on whether a building belongs to the category of recruiting, or upgrading. The first allow to increase the amount of formations possible to create, the second can upgrade their weapon or armor.

Religion

You must learn the difference between two things - religious influence and religious osmosis. Religious influence increase public order in the province for the presence of official religion. It doesn't need to be in majority, and the amount of its followers doesn't need to rise. The presence of its followers in the province is enough, at least 1% of them. Religious osmosis increase the followers of specific religion linked with a building.

That is the main difference between religious buildings, if there is more than one in category. One of them, like German sacred grove, will increase order in the province based on the official religion, but will increase order independently from it as well. The second one, like German menhir, will have lower impact on the order, but will increase the amount of followers in province.

In case of settlements that are the residence of a religion - like Constantinopolis - it is possible to build the residence of leader of that religion. It is very expensive and require lots of food, but gives great bonuses to public order, religious influence and religious osmosis.. Additionally, it allows you to recruit priests and increase the limit of them in country. You should invest in it, of course after gathering the required resources first.

Sanitation

Increase sanitation, depending on building either only in the settlement or in all settlements in province. It influence public order and growth as well, depending on building type. In both cases the cost of maintaining them must be paid with money, not food. Sanitation buildings are a valuable addition to every province and should be build wherever it is possible. Usually one is enough, in some cases you should invest in two. They cost so little that profits from settlement should be enough to pay for them.

Port

As the name suggests buildings of this type can be placed only at the sea and they can be divided based on their application. War port allow you to build better ships, trading port generate profit and fishing port feed the province citizens. In province near sea it is possible to build all port types, but in provinces that are mainly land you should specialize. If a province is near enemy territories, you should buy a war port. If it has great lack of food, a fishing port will be better. In other cases trading port will be best. Most of them lower order and all of them generate squalor.

You can apply a division based on the radius of profits offered by each port. War port will be useful only in province in which it was build, since only there you can create larger fleet with new, better ships. Food from a fishing port will be exported to provinces with low production and make life easier to other exporters. Money from trading port will be useful everywhere on the country territory, even outside its boundaries as bribes.

Resource

Most buildings from this category has only one development path. Some, like wood based, don't have any penalties. Other, like silk industry, offer bonuses to specific building types, but reduces public order and increase squalor.

Rest of buildings offer two development paths. One of them offers more resources, the second less, but gives other unique profits instead. For example, when playing as barbarians and upgrading iron smelter, you can set your path to ironsmith that creates lots of iron and gives more money from industrial and agricultural buildings, or you can plan to place grand forge, which reduces unit training cost and increase the limit of formations possible to recruit during one turn. Both those buildings have the same penalties to squalor and public order, so the choice between them depends on what you need more - money or cheaper and larger army. There are no bad choices here, only some not right for current situation.

No matter the situation, all buildings from this category increase production of trading resources. Minimum is 20, maximum 160 per building. The only exception is gold, that is instantly changed into money.

Undeveloped land

Amount of people required for taking an undeveloped land depends on its place in the queue and if the target is a small or large city. In general, the more far away in the queue territory you want to take and the larger the province in which it is, the more population surplus you will require. So, when taking new lands, you should start with smaller settlements, that require less work and resources. One population surplus can be gained very quickly, but four is a hard task. Additionally, you can place a building that increase growth on a newly acquired territory, thanks to what future surpluses will be gained quicker.

Second factor that you must watch for when taking an undeveloped land, is sanitation. If a settlement has it at negative level and there is no place for a new building, you have two options - demolish an existing one, which is not always possible, or take a territory for building a new one. It is especially important in settlements with developed cities and workshops, where squalor level is usually very high.

Third factor is resource, especially iron or other that can be used for something more than trading. If a source isn't exploited because of lack of place for a building, another undeveloped land should be taken in a settlement that has access to it.

Ruined building

Abandoned settlements after reclaiming consist only of ruins. Their amount depends on number of buildings that were there before destruction. Their only purpose is blocking space. In that they are not different from undeveloped lands, the difference is they show during siege. Similarly to undeveloped lands, they require population surplus for removing.

The only exception is the first ruin, of the settlement. It can be rebuild without the need of cleaning the area first. The rest require population surplus.

Wonder

Technically speaking it is not a building but a famous object found on the province territory, like Vesuvius in Italy. It cannot be destroyed and it gives various bonuses to province, in most case financial ones.