Hunnic invasion: RTW Expansion?

**CrackedAxe** · 12-09-2004, 22:14

Just watched a good epidode of Time Commanders repeated on UKTV History. This was a repeat that I did'nt catch the first time around: The Battle of Chalons, 451 AD. It was the same format as usual, a team from the public playing RTW while commented on by military history experts, but the units were all new to me. Usually in TC we see the same units in the same timescale as in the game.

This recreated Attila the Huns army and its attack on a Roman army. The units contained Hunnic barbarian units, Visigoths (on the roman side) and Ostragoths. They mentioned in the progam that during this time the Huns smashed through nearly all of Europe and into the Western Roman Empire, and threatened Rome itself.

Sound like a future expansion pack?

**Silver Rusher** · 12-09-2004, 22:15

This is definately the most likely.

**djsway** · 12-09-2004, 22:31

Hey how is that show? How do they play the game? On multiplayer?

**lars573** · 12-09-2004, 23:10

Originally Posted by djsway

Hey how is that show? How do they play the game? On multiplayer?

Time commanders uses RTW's engine not the game itself. My impression is that they move around a pieces on a borad and digital units move in accordance. Not being British nor American I've never seen the show myself.

**CrackedAxe** · 12-09-2004, 23:36

Actually it pretty much IS the same as the game, apart from this particular episode, the units and the terrain are exactly the same. Watching it is identical to watching a battle in the game. Thats what surprised me about these new units (Hunnic heavy and light cav, visigoth heavy cav, Alan mercenary cav etc). Did CA create these just for the show? Or are they holding them back for the expansion? It was 451 AD after all.

**The_Doctor** · 12-09-2004, 23:59

I think the x-pack will be about the fall of Rome.

Why do I think that you ask.

Go to Data/text in the RTW file and look at this txt file: scipio_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt

Some names of provinces:
Constantinopolis(That means this campaign must be in the 5th century)
Qal'eh al-Farah(I don't where this is, but it sounds arabic)
Kwarizm(I think that is in modern day Iran)
vandali(Germanic tribe)

**CrackedAxe** · 12-10-2004, 00:06

Well, the battle I described above was 451 AD, fifth century, so that would be right. If you look at the Hunnic invasions of Europe at this time, and the reputation of Attila and the Huns (known as the scourge of God) and their clashes with the Roman Empire, then this definatley seems like the best bet for an expansion pack.

Of course those names you mention will be there, because the map is likely to cover much of the same area.

**Rurik the Chieftain** · 12-13-2004, 02:30

The Huns would be very like the Scythians (many horse archers) but man, it would be fun to seep through and pillage Europe and the Middle East. Especially as nomadic raiders

**CrackedAxe** · 12-13-2004, 09:58

Master of puppets, I think Decisive Battles was a very different show, wasn't it just a documentary? whereas TC is a game show, where members of the public get to fight the battle using RTW. The Huns in that looked very different to the Scythians to me.

**Orda Khan** · 12-13-2004, 18:10

Originally Posted by CrackedAxe

Master of puppets, I think Decisive Battles was a very different show, wasn't it just a documentary? whereas TC is a game show, where members of the public get to fight the battle using RTW. The Huns in that looked very different to the Scythians to me.

Correct. They were actual Hun units, dressed in blue robes with the familiar fur rimmed pointed hats.

As for resembling the Scythians, this should not be the case. Attila's armies had changed considerably from the early Hun horse archer armies. They now included Gothic heavy cav and infantry. There are many references to Hun infantry who 'leaned on their shield' very similar to the later Mediaeval pavise. The horse archers were still there of course but they no longer made up 90% of the army. Attila also had very efficient seige craft, more so than his barbarian neighbours

.........Orda

**CrackedAxe** · 12-14-2004, 13:14

Thanks for the info, Orda. This would make a fascinating expansion, I hope CA plan to take this route as I think they are.

**Watchman** · 12-15-2004, 00:13

The Huns ran into the very same problem as every single nomad empire before and after them who tried to set up shop in East Europe - not enough plains. The Great Hungarian Plain is the westernmost tip of the Great Eurasian Steppe Belt, and every single nomad who stayed on it ended up settling down because there simply wasn't enough grassland to graze the herds on. Sarmatians, Huns, Avars, Hungarian-Magyars... all of them had to give up pastoralism if they stayed there (which is probably why the Golden Horde, well, didn't).

The nomads who stayed on the steppes east of the Carpathians naturally didn't have this problem, and as the Hunnic Empire was still whole by that point Attila could recruit them into his armies, but for the most part the Huns of his time fought like all the other barbarians of the Migration Period.