Um... how do I stay strong-ish when my Horde settles?

I've just started my first horde campaign in BI (don't know why it took so long to get round to playing one...). I chose the Vandals on VH\M.

I pillaged across the WRE settlements of Europe,waiting out each siege. I then sacked and then re-sieged and settled three towns in Iberia. My whole army vanished as the horde melted into the population. Had there been anyone to fight me, I'd have been in big trouble. Should I have hired mercs along the way? Is there any way to settle and still retain some small army?

Also, how do people prefer sacking cities? Assault or starving?

Fortunately, I'm back on track, having conquered Iberia, it's about 402 (funny, by this time my ERE campaign had been won!) and I'm sending out troops to capture Sicily and Sardinia - this is the most fun I've had in a campaign of RTW or BI, because (finally!) the other factions are doing things (the Huns have Greece, the Sassanids are taking the ERE apart, the Roxolani, Saxons and Alemanni all have nice holdings, and the Berbers even took Carthage and Lepcis Magna).

Yup - similar thing happened to me when I played a Horde for the first time in the ongoing Vandal PBM here:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=67642

The first town I settled in (Cordoba), I scarcely noticed the troop loss. Then I freaked when I took the second (city to the north of Cordoba). So I used some of the remaining horde units to march on Carthage and focussed my two settlements on cranking out troops. Money then started to be a problem when Carthage fell and troop upkeep exceeded income.

But it is an interesting aspect of being a horde. I guess you have to "pacify" an area before settling so that you don't need so many troops. And you have to sack a lot of towns to build up the war chest to cover you in the transition after settling.

If I were to try it again, I guess I might only settle in three places first - Cordoba, Carthage and Rome - so I would never be completely without horde units until I had taken to Rome (via Carthage).

I also have a vague idea that could you completely settle and then voluntarily "re-horde" but I am not sure if that is true or, if it is, how to do it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by econ21

I also have a vague idea that could you completely settle and then voluntarily "re-horde" but I am not sure if that is true or, if it is, how to do it.

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If you have just one settlement captured, I think you can re-horde again by clicking on the form horde button on the settlement's detail scroll. If the settlement was only just captured, you need to wait another turn. If I recall correctly, and it's been a very long time since I looked into this, you won't necessarily get another massive horde army though if you still have a horde a previous horde army on the move. In that instance, I think it considers the size of your existing horde army before adding the additional units to it. If on the other hand you had no horde army at that point, you get a nice big horde army again (size of settlement can obviously play some factor in the size of the horde.)

Thanks, Professor, that must have been what one player was meaning when he said settle in Cordoba for a bit and then re-horde.

BTW, that strategy sort of implies that you don't need to hold Cordoba at the end of the game - just have held it - which is another thing I vaguely recollect. But the Vandal victory conditions seem to imply you do need to hold Cordoba at the end.

I'd say you're supposed to have at least 100k before you settle, so you can take financial loss for a while. You use the money you gained by sacking cities to sustain your weak infrastructure when you've settled. Recruit armies with that money and keep conquering cities until you have enough taxpayers so you stop losing money. 100k goes a long way.