How to fight the Horde as Franks?

[EmperorBatman999]

So I'm planning on starting a Frankish campaign and I want to know how to battle hordes that'll inevitably be heading my way. Any help would be appreciated.

[blackwatersix]

Cavalry. lots and lots of cavalry, just the Raiders will do. You'll spend most of your time chasing the hordes down anyway, so cheap light cavalry is the way to go. Add some levy spearmen to engage the foot units at the start of a battle so that your light cav can smash into them from the rear.

My very first BI game I used the Franks, and it was the best BI game ever for me. I just used lots of cheap units and I ended up pushing all the way into the steppes, down into the Caucasus and into Jerusalem. Crusades several hundred years too early LOL

[shikaka]

In BI it is easiest to hold river crossings/bridges.


Also, the hordes are not necesserily going your way! In my current WRE game I didn't encounter any, even though the sarmatians, goths, huns, vandals and roxolani are in horde mode for at least 20 turns.



In the frankish roster all heerban units (sword, axe, francisca) are great, the hunters are quite ok archers. You lack quality spears though, so an army with heavy cavalry is a nasty thing to see. (the huns and romans have a few armies with lots of family bodyguard)



If you are really unlucky and receive more then 1 horde, you can still show them a finger and relocate to Iberia/Carthage/Italy as a horde...

Strange thing is that my favourite frankish unit is horde only (horde chosen sword).

[HanatielHawk]

Create one full stack army with your best troops and finish off hordes one by one, as hordes arent as strong as a full stack professional army you can finish them off very easily.

[shikaka]

Also I forgot to add, that a spy helps.

If you identify stacks with family members (often they are all in 1 stack!), and you kill them off in 1 day, the faction will die and you don't have to kill the whole lot.

[blackwatersix]

Also I forgot to add, that a spy helps.

If you identify stacks with family members (often they are all in 1 stack!), and you kill them off in 1 day, the faction will die and you don't have to kill the whole lot.

That's kinda hard. Often like one or two escape...

CAVALRY. LOTS AND LOTS OF CHEAP, FAST CAVALRY.

[KnightOfPortugal]

The Huns are the nastiest of the Hordes. You'll smash their infantry to bits with your excellent Frankish infantry, but they got annoying horse archers, heavy cavalry and tanks (seriously, bodyguards in BI are monsters!) In my WRE game, I can usually take on four Hun armies before I really need to replenish my men. Also, you can go horde mode as the Franks yourself! Only make sure you have the highest level city you can get, because you won't get that many hordes from one normal city.