Huns (BI faction)

[frogbeastegg]

Guide.

[Unregistered]

My plan was to split up the horde and head straight for Rome and Constantinoble right off the bat with some serious sacking along the way.

I re-arranged the stacks so that I had one "strike force" in each of the two hordes consisting of 8 horse archers, 1 general, 5 cavalry, and 6 spearmen. Don't slam the spears, they finally come into their own in BI. Tactic is simple: spearmen attack the front, cavalry sneaks behind the enemy and the horse archers harass the flanks.

I bribed every diplomate along the way and sent them off to strategic locations for later, and put 1 diplomate, the spy and the assassin into the faction leader's stack which was heading for Rome.

I also hired mercenaries like they were going out of style because the minute you settle down, the horde melts into the population.

Pillaging the villages and thrashing the scene in general we arrived like a scruffy bunch of Hell's Angels at Lollapalooza outside the gates. I attacked both cities simultaneously. Cease-fire was forced down my throat for 5 consecutive turns, but eventually I got a window, and they fell like dominos.

Now I squatted the 2 best cities in the game, and had left the rest of the barbarian hordes scrambling for new homes in my wake. They all pretty much decided that the Romans had the best real estate. All my diplomates negociated trading rights with everybody who'd settled down, but strangely enough nobody wanted to by my maps.

While I cranked out spearmen for the garrisons, I sent out my mercenaries to basically pocket the world. The mercs from Rome took the Balkans, and I shipped the mercs from Constantinoble to Greece to sack the ERE and the Sassanids. This has me swimming in cash, which I need to start 2 armies of elites for the final conquest, and that's where I am now. I don't foresee any real complications from this point on.

My final 2 armies will be composed of 12 horse archers, 1 general, 5 cavalry, and hopefully 2 onagers each. Every unit I don't need will get the pink slip because elites are hella expensive.

[Chimp]

That was me, Chimp. Sorry I forgot to log in.

[Chimp]

I can give you the next best thing to give you an overview of what units are available to which factions. Be aware that not all spear units can form the schiltrom or the shieldwall maneuvers. Franks, Saxons and Lombardi can do the shieldwall, and the Ostrogoths, Burgundi and the Goths can do the schiltrom, as far I remember. I'm not sure what the Romans can do, but my money is on the shieldwall.

By the by, as my campaign unfolded I readjusted my army many times. As I began to see the true power of horse archers, I eventually dished the spearmen altogether so that I had 12 horse archers, 6 cavalry (general included) and 2 merc infantry with sapping ability. The horse archers I divvied up in 3 groups to surround the enemy and put them on fire at will and skirmishmode, and the cavalry were the strikers screen for horse archers. I also added a gaggle of souped-up spies to tag along my marauders. First I'd send in the spies to hopefully open the gates [if not, withdraw and try again], the mercs would sap and withdraw, then I'd flood the city from all sides Mongol style. That's the best army composition I've found so far that can do everything, although the mercs are solely there for the sapping, which is less than optimal. I wish cavalry could just unmount and start digging, but I guess that's beneath them. *ga-harr ga-harr*

As for eliminating hordes, the trick is to wait until you have a night commander and attack by night. That way there won't be any reinforcement and you can "just" pick them off one by one.

Do be aware that horse archers can friggin' SWIM, so bridge battles have taken on a rich new dimension as well!

[Dragoncrusader]

Great strategy Chimp.
I tend to agree with you that there is no point in settling down unless it is in Roman territory as you find yourself low down in the tech tree and with a poor economy. I did not invade the two capitals but instead I marched into the heart of the Balkans and captured two good Roman towns Aquinium and Salonika as my base. This gave me two minor cities with stone walls with enough good buildings so that I could produce decent units right from the start. But even so, the economy is poor and you start off with a large minus income and it takes time and some agressive campaigning to get up to a break even point. The horde is just too large to settle down profitably unless it is in a very big city. So keep pillaging!

[Afro Thunder]

I think it also helps to not destroy the Sarmatians and Roxolani right off the bat, because they might just come back to haunt you one day. It's better to bypass them and move on to richer targets (your objectives Rome and Constantinople, and everything in between essentially).

Here's another theory that I thought of a while ago: Sit and wait while the Vandals burn themselves out and other factions get weakened by wars, then move in when the Vandals either find a place to settle or are weakened to the point where they aren't a threat.

[Chimp]

How on earth can you guys be in debt with the Huns?! I was sailing in denarii right off the bat.

Look, just sack 'em - don't wage outright warfare and try to eradicate the Roxolanis, the Vandals or any other. Just swoop down and swipe anything that can possibly be pried loose! Get in, loot, get out. You'll have some 20K after the first 4-5 cities at least. I don't stop the money train until I have 100K or my horde has swindled into almost nothing.

My 12 horse archer + 8 cavalry (mostly warlords in the beginning) strategy allows me to pull off wave after wave and never lose more than 50 men per raid tops. Once you've sacked either Rome or Constantinoble and settled into both, there's a couple of hairy turns as you desperately try to boost the garrison before they stop rioting, but then it's on easy street.

[Chimp]

Oh, and another thing. If my memory isn't playing tricks on me, the Hunnic leader starts out with the Night Commander trait. That's one helluva edge right there.

[Elephant]

Hey all, just started the Huns campaign, and I can't believe how much goes on at every turn!

In my first move, I flanked the Roxolani (sp?) Faction Heir with my 2 all-cavalry armies, which was a good warm-up round and helped get me a retinue. I also got an alliance with the Vandals and 1000 gold off of them.

Next turn, I sacked the Roxolani camp (which turns them into Horde) and had my diplomat offer ceasefire and alliance, which would net me 10000 in 2 turns.

Next turn, my Vandals allies attacked the wall-less Sarmatian city, and my army was besides the settlement. Since they will get the town if I joined the battle, I withdrawn and caused the Vandals army stack to be halved with its defeat. When the Sarmatians had their walls up, the Vandals cameback with all their might to besiege the settlement, which gave me yet another opportunity to cause them to lose units by leading the enemy to the weak points of my allies, and congesting escape roots! Unfortunately, the Vandals only lost 20% of their troops, but I am still glad I got the loot.

The Roxolani, which were also seeking new lands, are also starting to fight over Sarmatia. With a bit of luck, I can get the Vandals and Roxolani hordes to fight!

The Huns are so incredibly fun, that I am sure I will have more conniving Hunnic tales to tell by tomorrow. Stay tuned if you are interested!

[PseRamesses]

I´ve played many different games with alternate strategies as the Huns. I´ve settled at C.Roxolani and conquered all of the steppes but the economy is really poor - can´t even field one full army. I´ve tried going for both Constantiople and Rome simoultanuesly which worked but it simply doesn´t "feel" right. I´ve one save-game left which I constantly return too. I started out this game by successfully sent the Roxolani towards the Sassanids, the Sarmatians towards ERE and the Goths + Vandals against WRE. I´ve looted, sacked and exterminated for well over 100 years now and my treasury is close to 500.000d. My tactic is simple:

1. keep moving. The Huns manoverability is their strenght, right?!
2. I sack all barbarian capitols and send all factions with "hording-ability" packing into the west. WRE is in a shamble only holding Rome, Carthage, Sicily and Sardinia. ERE is kicked out of Greece by the Sarmatians and only hold Alexandria, Ephesus, the Islands and Cyrene. The Sassanids has lost all three northern settlements to the Roxolani but haver kicked out the ERE from the Levant and Syria.
3. Once in a while I settle down and thus I loose 1/3 of my standing army. I tech up. Then I get ready to leave the settlement so I raise all buildings which is a nice cash-booster. I only do this with capitols which usually are nicely developed. Now I go hording again AND I´ve gained +50% in horde-size. My current horde is over 15 full stacks.
I´m currently camped in the Saxon capitol and was really keen on spawning the Romano-Brittish but doesn´t have any ships and no ship-building facility. What to do, what to do?

[Shadow]

I started as theHun for my first BI campaign I did what the others did but only sacked capital of both Roxolani and Sarmatians. I then settle in Constantiople but not before I sacked all the ERE cities in greece.

I agree cash is a bit of a problem, so i expand into aisa minor and stopped at alexandria and that solve all my money problems but becareful of the Sassanid they will backstab you after ERE is no longer a threat.

At this point you should be fat enough to buid a few high end army to sack Rome and remove any barbarian horde wandering in the area.

[McDoogle]

I have no clue how to read the rules, and thus I am spamming this forum with discussion instead of strategies.

[Haudegen]

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[The Hun]

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[Elephant]

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[McDoogle]

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[Franconicus]

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[Magraev]

I have no clue how to read the rules, and thus I am spamming this forum with discussion instead of strategies.

[PseRamesses]

I have no clue how to read the rules, and thus I am spamming this forum with discussion instead of strategies.

[dismal]

This is not the place for general discussion...

Anyway, Hun strategy. This is based on an H/H campaign I played, my second BI campaign.

3 relatively easy steps to victory:

Step 1: The Hording Life

First, re-sort your stacks so that you can field 3 invincible armies. These will consist mainly of horse archers with a general or two plus 4-5 units of other cav. (If you know how to fight with horse archers, an army of this type should be mobile and invincible.) Your 3 fighting stacks will do most of the work, the other stack will tag along after them Try to keep them safe and out of the way.

Second, decide where you're going to settle. I took my horde east to settle in Antioch. This had the advantage of avoiding the issue of other hordes. Start heading there, basically sacking every city on the way. If you're heading East, like me, you may want to even go a little out over your way to unleash some other hordes (roxolani, sarmatians). They will generally head west and make life a little more difficult for the romans. If you are heading for Constantinople, this may cause more harm than good.

Third, cleanse a wide area around the city in which you intend to settle. This has three purpose: make a lot of money, eliminate potential rivals (I eliminated the Sassanids and drove the ERE from the East as a horde), make it easy for you to rapidly grow and establish an economy after you settle.

As you can see, I'm not kidding when I talk about cleansing a wide area:



Other tips for life as a Horde:

- Sieges are the big problem. Having a long life as a horde requires losing exceptionally few men in each battle. Horse archers can do this, but not in sieges. You're going to want to wait most of them out. On the plus side, you can generally have 2-3 sieges going at a time

- Mercenaries: I avoided them. I hired a few, but they turn out to be very expensive during the horde years. When I saw the bite they were taking out of my plunder, I disbanded them.

Step 2: Time to Settle Down

Sitting on 200,000+ gold and a wide open Eastern region, I plunked down in Antioch, Sidon and Jerusalem.

My army got very small,and I had lots of places to conquer so I hired up some mercs and began working my way down to Alexandria.

Basically, you can win the game easily building just two units. Upgrade your big cities (in my case Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria) to be able to make upgraded Hunnic Elite Warriors. Nothing can touch these guys en masse.

Other cities should focus on pumping out herdsmen. These aren't as cheap as peasants, but you can't make peasants and they're better garrison troops than the weak low-end spearmen unit. They can fight decently well in a pinch, and can be moved about more quickly. You should mass up groups of herdsmen and have them follow after your couple attacking armies to garrison cities as soon as they fall so your attackers can move to the next city.

Mercs: As I said I hired a few at the beginning to get the conquering jump started. Don't get carried away. While you should have a lot of cash when you settle, it will go amazingly fast when you start to rebuild those cities you sacked once or twice and exterminated again. My approach of building only hunnic elites also ensures you won't quiclkly build an army you can't afford with all your plunder.

Using this approach I was able to convert that gray rebel area to Hun black in relatively short order:



Step 3: Take Rome and Constantinople.

Depending on where you headed at the beginning, you may already have them. But, of course, I didn't.

Constantinople is a simple matter of hopping across the straits of the Bosphorus with one stack of mostly hunnic elite warriors. Then I massed up a second stack and hopped across the Bosphorus and walked around to Rome.

At the time I won the game, I'll bet I didn't have more than 4 stacks total of military defending this empire. One in Rome, one in Constantinople, one in Alexandria, and bits and pieces around the nothern border. I was cashflowing maybe 30,000 per year.

Here's the world at the time of victory:



Interesting to note the ERE has fared far better than the WRE despite the fact I left the WRE alone and pounded the ERE most of the game. I lost Alexandria to a rebellion a turn or two before the end and decided I'd just win the game instead of taking it back.

[Franconicus]

I have no clue how to read the rules, and thus I am spamming this forum with discussion instead of strategies.

[darsalon]

That really is an excellent report. Tried as Huns a little while ago. Cleaved my way into the Italian peninsular and then hit that familiar problem of having the horde go, no armies and money leaking away like anything. I was having to maintain armies on absolutely no money whilst being attacked by the WRE around north Italy all the time.

So time to go east and give the Sassanids & ERE a good kicking for the next game.

[dismal]

That was an H/H campaign, but should work fine on VH/VH.

My next campaign I used basically the same strategy on VH/VH with the Vandals settling in Rome/Tarentum/Ravenna and in worked like a charm.

I relentlessly pounded the WRE and the greek part of the ERE while in horde mode, until I settled with around 250,000 cash and lots of rebel grey where the romans used to be. In the west, you will get more competition from other hordes and factions. The goths plopped down right next to me in Mediolanum, which I would have liked to own, but elected to coexist instead. The Alemanni and the Franks took advantage of the swath I had cleared and soon showed up on by borders.

With the Vandals, you have the advantage you only need 10 settlements though. I never even had an economy, just used my horde money to pump out enough units to take the cities I needed and a few more.

[Mangudai]

I'm on my second Hun campaign vh/vh. My strategy is very similar to PseRamses and Dismal. Also I modded the formation for hun horde hosemen so that they have square formation like most units. I hate that round inflexible horde formation.

I made the Rhoxiliani and Sarmations my allies and left them alone. I offered alliances for money to the Vandals and Sassanids. I sacked the Lombardi, Burdundi, and Frank capitals turning them to hordes. Then I offered each of these factions a ceasfire for money and an alliance for money. They all paid me twice. I bought maps from ERE and WRE for about 3000 apiece then I went to war with them. I also bribed about 6 diplomats.

I build 3 superstrong cav armies like others do and treat the spears as tag alongs. I have some armies with 2 spearmen following the main armies separately. The cav armies can lay siege and build siege machines. The spearmen catch up and then storm weakly defended cities.

I also put the horde herdsmen to use as scouts. They have a good line of sight about the same as a spy. It's very handy to have 1 herdsmen scout a path before moving your main army. Even though the other hordes are my allies, they tend to break treaties if you block their path. I use herdsman to shadow the vandals just to keep an eye on them and similar functions.

I'm going to borrow PseRamses idea and only settle briefly in Rome the first time. I'll try to upgrade lots of units at a blacksmith recruit a few, and then horde up again hopefully with a much bigger population. Then I'm going for the middle east.

[Quicci]

I have no clue how to read the rules, and thus I am spamming this forum with discussion instead of strategies.

[dismal]

Playing Last Man standing - "Just me, Atilla, and Rebels"? This might be fun, but would be definitely time consuming

I did not fin the courage to start playing the Huns yet, so far I've tried ERE only and Paganized whole Asia and Africa

After I had finished turning the East rebel gray, I thought about going back and doing the same to the ERE in Greece, but I was kind of tired of plundering and ready to finish out the game.

One of the interesting aspects about life as a horde is that turns can be completed very quickly. It takes very little "real life time" to move the horde around, but the game time goes by fast. There just isn't much to do besides move a few armies and agents and hit the "next turn" button.

You shouldn't fear playing the Huns. They are actually very easy if you know how to fight with Horse Archers (if you played a Parthian campaign on RTW then you probably know this). Probably, the only way to struggle with them is settling down too soon.

[Mangudai]

I have no clue how to read the rules, and thus I am spamming this forum with discussion instead of strategies.

[Mangudai]

I have no clue how to read the rules, and thus I am spamming this forum with discussion instead of strategies.

[Plaguelion]

Interesting ideas, odd strategies...

I took a more conservative approach.

On VH/VH,come on is there any point of playing anything less, i started out sacking the town next to my horde then i sent my agents out. after a quick overwhelming victory over a roaxlani field army and a quick siege of there capital, i decided to extort them of most of there money then move into greece. by the time i had reached samartae, the sarmatians had been evicted by the vandals. i quickly resacked the city. my horde caught the attention of the Vandals who were a cross the river. after a quick battle on the bridge where i slaughtered a stack or two, then was forced to retreat because of bad positioning. next turn my diplomat crossed the river and managed to get a ceasefire and several thousand denarii.
Next was the goths, i sacked their capital and sent em packing west. They only moved one city over and quickly regained there position in Dacia. i then moved south, i bypassed sirimium, too well defended and i was in the mood to siege it and give the ERE time to build up defense in Greece. So i rushed Thessalonica, Athens, and constantinople. I sacked all three cities, made a ton of money, somewhere around 80k. i then decided to get sirmium, but to my utter disappointment, it still had a huge garrison and the sarmatains and vandals were passing through the region. so i turned around and took constantinople and thessalonica. Settled in the both.
Now my problem was replacing horde army with a real army. income was a serious problem during this period and only through tedious micromanagement of cities did i stay above the green. My other problem was a ERE counterattack. One stack landed from anatolia and took Athens when i was busy recapturing thessalonica, the ERE also brought a large merc army from Sirmium to harry me. My rear guard quickly dispatched the Merc army, i then dispatched my rear guard to besiege Athens. It was a long ordeal mostly because i was forced to disengage once due to a flanking force sent by the ERE in Sirmium, but quickly i went back to work on athens. When i was with in two turns of taking the city a large stack was dropped off by a ERE Fleet and i was forced to deal with the Garrison and the reinforcements in a large sallying attempt. Key word attempt. it turned into a bloody rout. for some reason i still dont understand the enemy stupidly walked up a hill that my cav were securely on top of. once the army got half way up, i ordered my cav to charge, it was like an avalanche, even the catafractii roman general was quickly routed and the remnants were chased back through there gates. it was beautiful, the ratio of kills was somewhere around 2% of my army was killed to 97 % of there army was killed. Well needless to say the city was mine. i exterminated the populace and took about 20k in loot, then came the real problem... Three cities settled, no more horde units. quickly i went about setting up an army. by the time i had garrisons ready only Athens was making income, luckly it covered the other two cities. I realized that i was in desperate need of another city, a city that could be held with out a large garrison and would bring in a good net profit..... My eyes drifted across the aegean to Crete.. Kydonia was weakly defended and i could conquer it with fewer than 300 men. i so i made a small fleet and sailed to it and took. 15k loot, 1500 income per turn. Then came a shock... Roaxlani horde moving across my northern border... they were my allies now so i wasnt afraid they would attack i was more interested in who had ousted them..i figured out a turn later when three gothic stacks casually walked to constantinople... the first stack obviously the vanguard had a family member general and two heavy cav merc, i simply hadnt the men up there to push them back so i improvised. quickly i had Horse archers rush up from thessalonica, i then rushed out half of my garrison in constantinople to make a ambush for the stack.... a turn later i found constantinople under siege and my ambush still waiting. they had bypassed it, so i linked up the ambush party and the reinforcements, bought to two units of veterni and counterattacked the enemies seiging party. it was a heated battle they started out in a crescent formation and charged by small relief force with the garrison rushed to there rear. i charged their center with my Horse archers and cav. i had the veterni follow but they were too slow. i killed there general in the first minute then punched a hole through there center and linked up with my other army and set up a line. My veterni put up a good fight but were soon slaughtered, i didnt shed a tear, hadnt the time plus they arent cost effective so what do i care. my punch through their middle had left them in two pieces. one piece was slaughtering my veterni , the other was coming around to attack me. So i slaughtered it, then moved on to the other piece. put the entire army into a bloody rout. no one escaped. after the battle i retrained and waited for the next wave... it didnt come the other two stacks pussed out and ran back home. which puts me in my current dilema. The real question is which way to i march, i can move north and Butcher the Goths for their attack on my capital or i can move west and take salona and sirmium, or i can jump the Aegean and take anatolia...

Tips:
1. Don't buy mercs; mercs, while they look nice and mean on the strat map are completely useless unless you are trying to break into a city. In which case you should buy some veterni and have em scale the walls, but i usually send them on sucide missions once they have secured the walls. Mercs arent cost effective and i would suggest only buying them in moments of great need. Plus there upkeep is insane and if you sack a city with em in your army they steal a nice portion of your loot. not to mention, if you are a horde you will have to pay upkeep for them!!
2. Infantry; With hunnic infantry i have had a few bad experiences and with all honesty i wouldn't rely on it at all. your spear men are very prone to rout at the first sign of a real fight.
3. Cavalary; This is where the Huns really shine, your cavalry is probalby some of the most verastile in the whole game, with tons of heavy horde cav and HA how can you go wrong. Brush up on HA tactics.
4. Agents; use em, assassins are a pain but when you need em they are nice. Diplomats are essential. You need to extort nearly defeated armies, and you need to establish a trading network with your neighbors. You also need Allies. dont be afraid to haggle and try multiple offers to reach your aims, even if the gains are small you will find it to be time well spent. Spies are also essentially, the possibility of having a spy open a towns gate for you to charge through is too useful to simply neglect this facade of the game.
5.Micromanagement; Micro manage everything! your armies, your cities, your agents, your diplomatic situation, and your money. Detailed information on cities is essential.

[Australianus]

I have no clue how to read the rules, and thus I am spamming this forum with discussion instead of strategies.