Characters | Court and state authority Total War: Attila Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

Basic statistics

Every male character has three basic statistics describing him - authority, cunning and zeal. Their level varies from 1 to 10, where 1-2 gives the character penalties, 3 is neutral and from 4 above bonuses starts. Additionally, level 6 unlocks a bonus for each trait, like commander's aura in case of authority.

Most characters start with statistics at level 3. Inborn weakness or wife statistics can lower it, they increase thanks to skills, household or by randomly gained traits. Because of that, penalties for low statistics are pretty rare. Much more frequently characters will get large bonuses for them.

Authority is an important statistic both for general as for governor. Authority increase or decrease morale of commanded formation, and from level 5 above gives bonus to commander aura. Thanks to that, generals formation will hold longer on the battlefield, which will have positive impact on rest of army fighting in the same line. Governor will profit from bonus to public order of maintained province.

Cunning has impact on maintenance cost of province, which isn't very useful as province usually don't generate large costs. Later in the game more money will corruption consume and it is almost impossible to fight it. High cunning will be much more useful for a general, as it not only increase defense of formation - which is especially useful combined with high authority - but since level 5 allow you to fight battles during night both on land and sea. Also, it lowers the upkeep cost of army, which in case of large armies, especially elite ones, can give a great relief to the budget.

Zeal is a statistic useful only for general, as it increase army integrity, attack power and damage of commanding formation. From level 5 it also increase recovery speed of army special abilities. High zeal level is especially useful when you decide to take ransom from defeated armies, as it reduces the negative impact of such order on army integrity.

Rank

Each male character and a agent starts with one rank, and can gain up to 10 of them. Every rank character gets two points that can be distributed on skills development, which in total gives 18 points. Ranks are gained by being active - governors for managing a province, generals for winning battles, agents for completing tasks given to them. Rank has no influence on loyalty, base statistics level or any other mechanical aspect of gameplay except for abilities points. But it is a clear indicator that shows how capable and dangerous a character is. Fighting a general with first rank shouldn't be troublesome. But when facing a general with rank seven, you should be much more careful and respectful towards enemy.

Age, influence, loyalty

Age is exactly what name suggests and rise by one point every four turns. It does not affect mortality of characters. A family member can die at age two, twenty or eighty, immediately after birth or live longer than his grandsons. Age is important only in case of children. A family member can have an important position or get married only after reaching eighteen years. A that point he receives his traits as well. It might happen that after sixty four turns from the birth of heir you will decide to find another one as he appear to be full of serious weaknesses. Because of that, it is hard to plan family growth in long term. You will never know what traits will descendants have and if they won't die prematurely or at a bad time, in both cases from natural reasons.

Influence is a resource that allows character to plot intrigues, it is used for buying offices or during random events or political conflicts. Gaining influence depends on the sex of character. Men can gain it from traits, but mostly they must have successes as governors, generals or holding various positions. In other words, the more battles a general has won, the greater his influence. Remember, that it is a resource that is gathered and spend, so influence level will change during game. It is important as solving political conflicts is mostly about using influence, and the less the ruling family has it in comparison to other nobles, the lower will the dominion factor be. So you must control, how much influence you gain and spend each turn. Influence might be decisive when selecting a general to send to battle. It might happen, that one of family members will need to quickly gain influence, but his army won't be large. It will force you to choose - send other, stronger general and allow him to gain influence, or a weaker one, but in greater need for influence.

Women gain influence through traits. Sometimes it's one point, other times two, in some cases even six per turn. It is an important reason why you should quickly find wives for all members of your family. Thanks to that they will be able to start gathering influence early, which they will spend on intrigues or will gather them to increase dominion. You don't need to rush with getting daughters married. Women can gather influence and plot intrigues without having a husband. Because of that, you don't need to worry if all children in your family are women, and all governors and generals in country are from outside the family.

Loyalty describes a character attachment to the ruler. It especially important in case of male family members and other nobles. Women and other nobles are always completely loyal. Minimum level of this trait depend on personal loyalty, which is between 3 and 9 points. It can increase or decrease through events, intrigues or connection between characters. For example, being a heir increase loyalty, but having more influence that the ruler or rivalry with foster siblings decrease it. Low loyalty is indicated by a red ring near character image on the family tree screen. When loyalty drops to zero, a character will leave the kingdom, which in the end will lead to civil war. A character, that has betrayed will still be visible in the family tree, but it will be impossible to control it. You will be given information which country he joined as well.

Loyalty is especially hard to maintain in a large country, where ruler must constantly use influence, and you must control large amount of family members and other nobles. In such situation there will constantly be conflicts and quarrels that lower loyalty. But you don't need to keep it always on maximum level. It will be enough it will be above zero, for safety around 5 or 6 points. Loyalty can be effectively increased for 25 influence points by the secure loyalty intrigue.

Traits

They can be divided into two categories. In first group there are traits inborn or gained during game, passively increasing or decreasing capabilities of character, army lead by him or maintained province. Amount of traits per character in theory is infinite, but in practice usually closes around ten. Your influence on what traits a character has is limited. Sometimes you can gain them in political conflicts, a great victory, tremendous loss or from a decision made after battle, but in most cases they are being given randomly. So if a heir to the throne becomes sterile, probably it has nothing to do with your actions.

Second group of traits are various active abilities that character can use in battle. They are inborn, only men have them, they cannot be improved and you can't buy new ones. Not everyone has them, and a character can have maximally two of them.

Traits are very important when giving positions. Characters that have two active and one passive ability that increase morale of armies are natural candidates for becoming a general, while a noble that increase profits from agricultural buildings that he manages should become a governor. The problem starts when analyzing negative traits, but here there is a simple rule - a governor can have penalties to managing army, and a general to managing province. It is the worst with statistics, like authority. Low level of that statistic is troublesome on every position. Remember, that you can improve it with abilities, so zeal on level 2 or 1 shouldn't be reason to forget about a candidate. At least until you find someone better for his position, what shouldn't be that hard.

Despite appearance, negative traits can be of use as well. For example, if you want to keep high dominion level, out of favor or arrogant traits that diminishes influence each turn will be perfect for a general not from your family. Amorous trait, that increase chance for having bastard children doesn't necessary have to be a weakness if adopted member of the family have it and he will born few daughters. Bastards generate influence and can plot intrigues, so they can prove to be useful. A trait that reduces chances for having children can be useful if for some reasons you don't want a specific person to have them.

Household

There are three household categories - apparel, tems and companions. Their task is the same - they offer various bonuses to character. A character can have only one household from each category and changing him last one turn. Households are collective for all family members and other nobles and can be bartered between them. You will get new households in random way during the game.

Each household offer from one to three bonuses useful both for governors as generals. Their size varies - sometimes it is +3% to military research, other time -10% to new units recruitment. There are more specialized bonuses as well, that can offer, for example morale bonus during night battles in desert. Households should be picked up by function and current situation of character. Their variety is their advantage, as the easiness of changing them, so if needed you can quickly adapt to situation.

Wife

Differences between male and female members of family have been described earlier in this chapter. In case of wives important thing is that her trait influence her husband and can have both positive and negative impact on him.

In difference to household, wife cannot be as easily changed. To change her, first you must use divorce intrigue, and then seek wife or arrange marriage in case of women. Difference between those two action is very important. With arrange marriage you choose which noble a woman will marry. When seeking wife, the fate will decide who will be the wife. You cannot accept the candidate offered by the game, but you won't regain influence spent on searching her. In other words, you can use even 100 points and still not find the right wife for your general or governor.

Because of that having daughters might prove to you to be more profitable. If they have positive traits, you can marry them with best nobles from outside your family. You know advantages and disadvantages of both characters, so chance of making wrong decision is drastically smaller. Husbands of your daughters will become part of the family, so their influence will increase dominion level, and in case of lack of a male descendant, you can point one of them as your heir.

Only problem in this case are wives of other nobles. Your knowledge of candidates is limited. You know their traits, loyalty or influence, but you don't have a full view of their statistics. After accepting a person to the circle of other nobles, it might happen that a newly appointed general, whom you wanted to marry with one of your daughters, already has a wife. What's even worse, you won't be able to do anything about it until he becomes a member of your family, as only them are able to plot intrigues like divorce. It is not a problem when the wife has positive traits. But in case of negative traits, first you will have to adopt a noble, then divorce him and finally arrange marriage. Which might not work as not all characters can be together/

Office

Every country has a set of smaller offices. Countries varies from each other with the amount of offices, their structure and possibilities offered by them. All offices have a common application - they give various bonuses to characters.

To pick a office, a character must have right age, rank and spend a specific amount of influence points. Additionally, he must have worked at all previous offices. After making a choice, you must wait one turn. Sometimes office is given automatically, sometimes you must resolve a political quarrel. If you succeed, a character will gain profits from a office for several turns.

Offices can be held by male members of the family and other nobles, but not by candidates. It is important as bonuses are useful not only to governors and generals, but sometimes for whole country as well. Because of that, when choosing an official, then main benchmark should be his current position and not being or not a part of ruling family. Although every office allows to gather influence, the cost of taking it is usually much larger that potential profits. A character will lose more influence to get an office that he will earn from it. It is important as it secures additional tools for dominion manipulation, To increase that indicator, you can appoint as officials only other nobles. By doing that, their influence will drop, and thus your dominion will increase.

Remember that a ruler is a office as well and he gets several profits from it. The type of profits depends on nation.

Skills

Character skills can be divided into few categories. In first you will find skills increasing basic statistics of character - authority, cunning and zeal. First two have impact on province management, the third is important only when leading armies. Because of that, some skills, like wolf that increase zuel, might be ignored in case of some characters, or bought only on level one when they are needed for unlocking access to more useful ones. If a skill offer more bonuses, like legend that increase all three statistics, then you should buy it at least at level two. Although there will be none profit coming from zuel increase for a governor, but increase of two other statistics will be more than enough to compensate for it.

In second category you will find skills useful only for commanders, such as war chief and despoiler. For obvious reasons governors shouldn't buy them at all or only on first level. Governors are getting new levels very slowly, so it would be a waste to use their points on skills that they will not be using.

Third category are skills inborn of each character. It is the only category in which you can find skills that are useful only for governors, that doesn't offer any bonuses for generals. For obvious reasons governors should develop them to level two and generals ignore them. In this category you will also find skills that have impact on whole country, like sage that increase speed of research. Such skills should be bought no matter who the character that possess them is.

In last category you will find skills that are useful both for generals and governors. Here the most important thing is what a skill actually offer. Crow increases cunning, which is useful both for general and governor, and additionally it decrease the price of buildings. So it is a double profit for a character that manages province. Hunter on second level gives +10 bonus to food in managed province, which with tremendous consumption (high level buildings use even 70 food) makes that skill useless, especially for generals Infantry commander will be similarly useless for a governor of province in which no armies are created..

It all limits your freedom when selecting skills for a character, especially when it comes to governors. It is actually a good thing, as it allows you to save points and buy only those skills that are useful or lead to useful ones. With the right managing a character with highest rank should have few not used points. At least a governor, general will probably use them all.

Variety of skills forces you to think about specializing your governors and generals. Let one of governors have all skills that lower recruitment cost and let he manage a border province, where new formations are constantly trained. Another one, who will have skills that lower corruption or increase profits from building, should manage a calm, rich province, which generates the most gold from taxes. Thanks to that, you will have governors prepared to specific tasks and you will be able to move them around provinces if needed. In case of generals, it all depends on what type of army they lead. Some skills have a positive impact only on infantry, other cavalry or war fleet. It shouldn't be a problem since you should invest in large, varied armies anyway. Because of that, most, of not all skills bought by a general should sooner or later come in handy.