Huns (BI faction)

[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.

[Avicenna]

Any quick smart ideas on how to minimise the loss of your horde when you settle?
If you take a strong town, you need to use good troops but if you want to settle you lose the good troops.
Has some clever person come up with a solution??

Like other people have said, besieging multiple settlements is a solution. Another thing you could do is take Constantinople, occupy it, raze the buildings the to ground and become a horde again. This makes it vulnerable to recapture by the Huns and gives you a replenished horde to take on the Romans with.

[Garvanko]

Wrong. I had my faction leader reduced to only his unit doing this. The answer lies in sacking anything worth sacking. Make much money before choosing to settle 100,000 - 200,000 denarii. Buy plenty of good units, Hun Elite and Heavy cav then raise all buildings and return to horde. Your new hordes will be unstoppable.

Interesting.

Im not too keen on hording though.

Just started a Hun campaign and quickly got an Alliance with the Roxolani - didn't want them on my backs so soon. Went straight for the Sarmatians, attacked with seven full stack army's and played a slow 'degraded' battle - took about half an hour, as I tried to kill off the entire faction. Which I did, including the family members. So imagine to my surprise when they horded straight after that!


What does it take to kill off factions that can Horde? Do you have to kill them off in the field?

Any how, I sacked the place, and went straight for Constantinople and Thessalonica. Seiged, and attacked both on the next turn. Culture penalty and economy was sorted as soon as I took Athens a few turns later. Placed forts around the surrounding area and sought trade rights with anyone who was willing. I'd already got an Alliance with the Sassanids on turn 3 or 4.

Now i think I'll work on the ERE a bit more. No need to go west for the moment - its a minefield, with the Vandals, Goths and Sarmatians all hording. Best avoid it, and let the WRE crumble like we know it can. Ive taken the city across Athens (can't remember the name), and will try to grab Kydonia before I plunge deeper into Asia Minor.

Hunnic Elites, eh? Haven't used them yet, so my apetite has been wetted.

Playing H/H, as usual. Roll on the conquest!

[The Hun]

What does it take to kill off factions that can Horde? Do you have to kill them off in the field?

Yes you do. I saw Sarmatian reduced to just Faction Leader and he took Arles!!!

I went east at first and sacked all ERE and Sassanid and killed Sassanid straight away. Then I returned and pushed Roxolani and Sarmatian before me and let them liven up europe. I finished off ERE and then began on WRE. I have not seen WRE crumble at all, in my campaigns they keep reappearing. Even this last campaign they have appeared in silly places after only having Sicily. It seems odd they have capacity to generate wealth when at war with everyone and they manage to take strong towns too easy. Anyway, they have two provinces , I killed Saxon, Marcomani and Celts before I got bored with rehording factions, so I took Rome to finish.

[Garvanko]

Well, anyway, the Sarmatians went ahead and killed themselves off in Western Europe. Shouldve just died when I 'killed' them.

I am pounding the ERE. Taken Ephesus, Ancyra, Sidon, Tarsus and Antioch. Took Caesarea, but it rebelled back to the ERE with golden Plumbatarii and Onagers etc. Left it alon while I moved in on Persia. I only need 15 provinces, plus Rome, and Ive got 12 already.

So Ive decided to hold at Antioch, and attack the WRE Italy. They look a bit weak there..

My favourite unit so far - Hunnic heavy Cav. They just roll over everything, and are well supported by the Hunnic Archers and Elites. You don't really need Infantry with the Huns, even though I like the variety.I'd have liked a specialist archer unit (I love archers), but its not a problem.