Hordes

[raphael]

How do i completely defeat them? i took all their settlements and now they are hordes and i cant seem to kill them off, as in there will always be 1 or 2 armies with <100 men. Any help here?

[Chelchal]

It really comes down to what their armies are composed of. If it's primarily infantry, I try to send in massed cavalry and missile cavalry led by a general with the night fighting ability and ground them down one by one. Another is to somehow coax them to attack a settlement you are confident of defending with a relief army readily on hand. Sally forth and grind them down with the help of the relief army. When they're whittled down to size, combine the garrison with the relief army and attack the besiegers so long as they can't link up with another horde stack. Lastly, defend bridges with heavy troops and plenty of archers and missile cavalry. Bar none, this is the best method to deal with horde stacks. Make sure you have reserves because your defenders will take a beating!

[raphael]

Thanks Chelchal! but how do you remove them from the map after you defeat all their stacks? they are down to like <500 men an army, but always escape with a few

[Chelchal]

Thanks Chelchal! but how do you remove them from the map after you defeat all their stacks? they are down to like <500 men an army, but always escape with a few

At that point, you'll have to encircle them on the campaign map. If they're really weakened, you can break off armies into all cavalry detachments, restrict the fleeing hordes' zones of movement and finally close in and destroy them when they're fixed in place.

Or better yet, let them wander off and bother someone else. Unless the hordes are blundering about deep in your interior, why waste troops against a basically defeated enemy? The only reason I can think of is go gain chevrons if you are really sure of victory.

[Flavius Vegetius Renatus]

they are down to like <500 men an army, but always escape with a few

Simple, just chase em down.

[raphael]

well they are depleted to the point of every unit card except the general is single digit

[underworld965]

The ostragoths (forgot what their actual name is) were annoying me with this. I destroyed their main armies and then dispatched 12 heavy cavalry (in detachments 4) from my 2 dacian armies and continually attacked them till they were all exterminated.