here are a few questions about BI

[Quirinus]

I find that hordes don't just sack settlements that they are currently at war with. They tend to just sack anything in their path, if they have to go to war with everyone else in the world to do it.

About the shield wall, I suppose it's like a defensive phalanx-- it lacks to offensive 'punch' of the phalanx, of course, but I think it protects better.

[gaiusmarius8]

I have played BI, I turned my Franks into Hordes then took Rome out from the Italian Peninsula. Ive managed to repel the Sarmatians and Vandals, the Huns are no where in sight. If you have the choice of hording and you are in Hun/Vandal/Roxolani/Sarmatian way, go with it, but sell all buildings to collect as much money as you can.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

I have played BI, I turned my Franks into Hordes then took Rome out from the Italian Peninsula. Ive managed to repel the Sarmatians and Vandals, the Huns are no where in sight. If you have the choice of hording and you are in Hun/Vandal/Roxolani/Sarmatian way, go with it, but sell all buildings to collect as much money as you can.

I find thats a useful tactic with many barbarians - the number of troops one can get from a horde is immense and can be used to move to better lands than the poorer areas that the Barbarians reside in.

With some factions though, such as the Sarmatians or Goths, you may have no choice but to horde if you wish to combat the Huns with any level of sucess. They always seem to charge down in that direction, and a moving to safer regions can help prevent getting engaged in a losing war.

[gaiusmarius8]

The problem with hording is.. That when you take a city, it always loses money. So I Exterminate the Populace and take big cities lol.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

The problem with hording is.. That when you take a city, it always loses money. So I Exterminate the Populace and take big cities lol.

No city does ever lose money - its the size of your army which is causing the cash drain. Although hordes do not demand payment when they have no settlement to call there own, the moment one is captured they request their wages which is an epic drain on any captured location.

Exterminating the populace is inadvisable unless the populace is seriously unhappy - the more people in the city, the more people there are to pay taxes to you and fund your remaining horde. Although the system makes out that larger cities contribute less to your economy than smaller cities, this is not the case - more military upkeep is deducted from large settlements before the figure is shown to you, often making its contribution look a lot smaller than it actually is.

[Quirinus]

That's the challenge to being a horde faction I suppose-- the first few turns of settling down will be a huge financial drain, so just make sure that you've sacked enough cities to stock up on cash before you settle down.

One tactic that I find helps with reducing this drain is targeting a few major adjacent cities in a region and coordinate their capture, so that you will have a bunch of cities making money right from the first turn of settling down.