Attila tips and un-/under-documented features

[Slaists]

Ok but what if the general is super powerful giving big benefits such as better melee and stuff like that? Then the net gain is better than the net loss.

Then you kill him in the battle (as you'd do with any other general). The effect is huge there.

This is especially easily done when playing as Huns. You have to skirmish anyway. If the AI is chasing you, the heavy enemy general will lag behind inevitably: a prime target for your heavy arrows.

For infantry based factions: probably easier to assassinate the general before the battle though.

[Bramborough]

I usually don't try to assassinate a general immediately before a battle. If I expect him to try retreating, I misdirect instead, so that the targeted army can be chased down. Otherwise, I kinda like hitting them with the Fatigue de-buff.

That said, multi-starred generals are a favorite target for my spies as they just run around making general mischief. A broad standing policy of making sure any enemy faction's 2+ rank leaders are continuously in the hospital or the morgue. So it's pretty rare that I go into battle against more than a greenhorn enemy commander anyway.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

OK, I have a suspicion that the Huns spawn new stacks if you knock them down to 1. I can't confirm yet, but twice I was sure I'd got all but one of their stacks, they dropped from fourth to eighteenth and the next turn were back to fourth rankings wise.

Anybody else seen this?

[Hooahguy]

Is Attila still alive? Apparently they spawn more stacks until he is killed, you cant kill them otherwise.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Is Attila still alive? Apparently they spawn more stacks until he is killed, you cant kill them otherwise.

Ah, I looked this up.

Apparently they will continue spawning until you kill Attila TWICE as High King - and he won't become High King until the end game.

So it doesn't matter what you do - the Huns will be around until 450 AD. In view of that the Limes is the only concern for the WRE, both the Rhine and the Danube.

TWC has a bit on this: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...royed-outright

[Paradigmatic]

My experience with the Huns, as the WRE, is that, though at war and spawning stack after stack, being the no 1 military power and having smallish (8 to 12) unit armies in the 3 cities in Pannonia, as well as 2 similar armies in Raetia et Noricum, the Huns very rarely ventured inside my borders.

I don't know if the AI reacts to garrison troops, because those cities also had about 10 to 12 unit garrisons (so the total defending forces in each was around 20 units - so around 60 units in the province).

Basically, the Huns, even under Attila with his epic stacks of epicness, basically ravaged the Germans and left me alone for quite a while.

Most enemy Germanic hordes were similarly always on the borders, but never attacking. The only hordes that did pose problems are those who hated me but were not at war. They'd wander deep inside my territory and eventually declare war (unless I shadowed them with a similar size army).

I believe, the AI basically reacts to a show of strength (at least locally).

[Bramborough]

Same experience with Ostrogoths (and Saxons before that). Huns (and other enemies for that matter) perfectly happy to swoop in and trash a garrison-only minor settlement...but (almost) always stay away from army-defended minors, and walled cities with decent garrisons.

Huns cannot be destroyed during campaign chapters I-IV; their stacks simply respawn. Attila dies a scripted death at the beginning of Chapter V (445AD), and at that point the Hun stacks stay dead when you kill them off, and their faction can be destroyed.

As far as I can tell, Attila cannot be truly killed before Chapter V. I've "assassinated" him tons of times; my agents always had their typical chance of wounding, but always "0%" crit chance for the kill. I've also never seen him die in battle; even if the rest of his army is annihilated and I've gotten "Their general has fallen!" message, his 8-person bodyguard manages to escape.

I've read elsewhere that he must be be wounded a certain number of times (7?) pre-Chapter V, and the becomes actually kill-able...but I don't know if that's true or just "TW folklore".

Footnote: one can get the "Attila the Dead" achievement by merely wounding him...which seems rather anticlimactic to me.

[Slaists]

OK, I have a suspicion that the Huns spawn new stacks if you knock them down to 1. I can't confirm yet, but twice I was sure I'd got all but one of their stacks, they dropped from fourth to eighteenth and the next turn were back to fourth rankings wise.

Anybody else seen this?

Once I played in the North as Longobards and by mistake went for one of the Northern win-conditions outright. Little did I know: it was the spawning ground for Hunnic stacks, LOL. It's the most North East province on the Baltic sea. They probably spawn in other places too but they definitely spawned several stacks there.

As to tips

Benefiting from guerilla deployment units

I have seen many folks say guerilla deployment units are pretty useless (for them).

The trick is, most guerilla units (especially cav) have much longer spotting range than normal units. Some (elite scouts) are able to clear the fog of war from half the field. Here I use them: deploy them (usually I have 1 unit) as far on the opposite side of the battlefield as you can; preferably in some trees. You'll be amazed how much more you can see before the battle even starts (or after it starts).

Here is an example of an elite scout:

http://attila-enc.totalwar.com/#/unit/att_nom_unnigarde

1700 spotting; that's more than 2x for regular cavalry.