Strategy to Destroy Hordes?

[caspian]

I've been playing BI for a while now and the hordes are really getting to me. The only game when I lasted was when I concentrated in the east, away from hordes.

I rarely see a "Faction Destroyed" for these factions. How do you guys wipe them out?

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Very simple. Use forts to block their paths and engage with nightfighter generals. If a nightfighter is not available fight on bridges. Hordes are weak and will rout easily. You need 4 command stars before a general becomes a nightfighter so if you haven't got one yet start cultivating!

All you need is an army of 25% of their numbers of reasonable quality (or mercs) to ensure victory. With a nightfighter you can engage a single enemy stack even if they have multiple stacks in the vicinity. ie fight at night and they won't have reinforcements unless their reinforment generals are also nightfighters.

Only after all their generals are killed will you get the faction destroyed notice assuming they are horde and have no cities.

[snevets]

Cavalry.

[Drusus Magnus]

When playing the ERE:

you know those two crossings over the Danube? Try to get two stacks there asap. Try to get 10 eastern archers in each army. Fill the rest with a general, comitatenses, and maybe some cavalry to pursue family members that are routing. The archers will always slaughter half a stack before it gets to your side of the bridge, and the comitatenses will easily hold.

This is a bit of an exploit, but: when you're about to conquer a faction that can become a horde's last town, try to kill all the generals in the battle, but then leave so you "lose" the battle. The city will rebel and the faction will be destroyed. If you conquer the town in the same turn the faction will horde and receive like 5 additional generals. Then the real problems begin.

[Mount Suribachi]

Very simple. Use forts to block their paths and engage with nightfighter generals. If a nightfighter is not available fight on bridges. Hordes are weak and will rout easily. You need 4 command stars before a general becomes a nightfighter so if you haven't got one yet start cultivating!

All you need is an army of 25% of their numbers of reasonable quality (or mercs) to ensure victory. With a nightfighter you can engage a single enemy stack even if they have multiple stacks in the vicinity. ie fight at night and they won't have reinforcements unless their reinforment generals are also nightfighters.

Only after all their generals are killed will you get the faction destroyed notice assuming they are horde and have no cities.

Yep, nightfighter is crucial in order to fight the hordes one stack at a time.

Also, make sure you've got 4-6 units of light cavalry to combat their numerous horse archers. I tended to chase them down with my own HA to engage them in melee, then once the enemy HA are stationary and engaged, charge with heavier cavalry such as Sarmation Cav or general in order to take them out.

[Quillan]

Toxic hippos are wonderful for chasing enemy horse archers and routing generals. They're as fast as the horse archers and faster than the generals. They have some armor and better weaponry than some of the horse archers, too. I also cannot overemphasize the Night Fighter trait. That's the only thing that's letting me hold the Danube in the game I'm currently playing.

[gmjapan]

Only ever once destroyed a horde and that was with night-fighting as Saxon.
I made a shield-wall "fort" out of Keel units and filled it with archers and the general. I had some cav units for chasing and keeping HA away so that I arrow superiority at all times.
But it was still gruelling stuff - alot of the horde units might be throwaway but sometimes I cant even make a dent in them.

I dont play BI anymore :( because I hate the endless cycle of horde - kill - horde - kill - horde that happens. I just cant be bothered with it at all. Like if they could only horde once or twice each at most maybe I'd go back. I also dont like how so many places are already established, I prefer creating my own empire (and I dont like all the Large walls!). And you have to go to war to expand - even to get one extra city. Oops! /rant off.

[Cras]

I make full cavalry armies.. they crush the horde armies with ease

and even without night fighting capacity, I have managed to crush 3-4 armies at a time

[x-dANGEr]

I read some posts saying that killing the family members will do it. Is that right? Anyone? (If it is right, you can prepare your Assassins for the party before they come to you)

[Quillan]

That will do it, yes. The likelihood of assassinating them all is really small, though, because the leader and heir are inherently tough and the others tend to be in armies. A more likely bet would be to kill some through assassination and others in battle. If they ever lose all their family members, the faction will be destroyed.

[Avicenna]

Also, you've got to get them within the turn. If you get them down to one or two family members and end turn, they'll pop a few more up, unless they're stupid enough to engage your troops, of course. The huns did that to me once. Kept attacking my stack in the same turn, and they got destroyed. Had to attack with the last 3 family member as well, for some reason, even though they had 2 more stacks.

[x-dANGEr]

But I read that their family members are easy to assassinate because they are in the field.. But anyway, I think 4 assassins (Well trained) can do the job. And it isn't hard to get them high subterfuge, just go around killing enemy assassins and rebel captains.

[Quillan]

Well, two nights ago while I was trying to finish off the Vandals, I had an 8 subterfuge assassin near a stack that only contained the Vandal faction leader and heir. With 8 subterfuge, he had a 16% chance to take out the faction leader and a 14% chance to take out the heir, with no other troops in the stack to lower the chances. Granted, they might well have possessed traits or ancillaries that increased personal security in addition to being the faction leaders, but I didn't even try. I just killed them in battle.

On a side note, killing them in battle has driven me NUTS. On at least 3 occasions, I've managed to destroy the bodyguard unit of the faction leader of the Vandals and Huns, only to have the general escape the battlefield alone. One turn later, he's back up to 19 bodyguards. Give him a full year and his bodyguard unit is nearly full strength. In all of these cases, I didn't have a unit of toxic hippos around that could chase him down. You really need a unit or two of super fast cavalry to keep these guys from escaping.

[Mooks]

For some reason the general of a bodyguard is the last person to fall or near the last.

[Conqueror]

They usually fall last because they have more hitpoints. A lucky onager hit with flaming boulder can torch the general with a single shot though.

[gmjapan]

They usually fall last because they have more hitpoints. A lucky onager hit with flaming boulder can torch the general with a single shot though.

I cant hit buildings with flaming onager pots so it would take more than a bit of luck to hit a little man on a horse!

[cegman]

I cant hit buildings with flaming onager pots so it would take more than a bit of luck to hit a little man on a horse!

I dunno but seige engines always seem attracted to generals so it might not be luck that does it.

[Drusus Magnus]

The annoying thing is, when you keep one cav unit away from the battle to keep it fresh so it can chase the winded bodyguard unit, and you place it so the bodyguard unit runs towards the edge of the map where your cav is hiding, your cavalry goes head on to it, then allows it to pass and THEN it begins chasing it...qfhdqsjfqkjfhqkmgbsqfqfq!!!

[Quillan]

I'd like a few of you guys to try something, and tell me if this is the way the game works or if I just fell victim to something buggy. I was just playing a Hun campaign. I had three stacks of hordes rampaging across northern Italy (sacked Mediolanium and was heading over towards Massilia) when I encountered a small rebel force in the passes. I pushed it back and attacked it again to wipe it out. The force consisted of 1 foederati cavalry (the general), 2 levy spearmen and 1 peasant unit that was understrength. I put two horde horsemen on each flank to harrass them. The foed cav tried charging the 2 on my left, which retreated, then it went after the ones on my right. The thing is, in the middle it changed into wedge formation. My horse archers on the right wouldn't retreat from it in wedge, at least until AFTER it had made contact. I got disgusted and turned off the, but I've been thinking about it.

I suspect the game bases it's targeting on the center of the unit, and it probably bases the retreat when in skirmish formation on when the center of an enemy unit comes within a certain distance of the center of your unit. Since the horde horsemen are in horde formation (rather widely spaced at that) and the wedge is very long, I'm thinking the center of the unit is too far back to trigger the horse archers to retreat. If this really does work, just form your cavalry into wedges and you should be able to cause some casualties on those horse archer units.

[Wardruid]

You can always bribe them. IF your have the money that is.
If not set forts on roads in the direction of said horde, fill them with Cavalry units (melee and missile). The hordes tend to attack anything so these will buy you time.

[Marshal Murat]

I had one, a very extensive one, (cool all the same)

I had a horde of Franks before my Western Empire, and the lands of Greece had fallen to the Goths. I decided to funnel them into Greece. I attacked their cities, drove them through Illyria, with two generals running parallel, built forts, bought mercs, and garrisoned. Soon, Greece was Frankish, and I had two lines of forts between Italy and Dacia!