The Huns! How do you feel?

[PeonKing]

So I've started two Hun campaigns, I have to say I'm pretty underwhelmed. It seems like I just end up getting chased around the map by 3-4 stacks of spearmen by early-mid campaign, and financing better units is very expensive. I mean, I can defeat these stacks, but I do take some losses, and I end up just getting chased again before I have time to fully recover. Maybe I'm just not doing it right, but it sort of feels like I'm just surviving going from sacking to sacking, instead of actually getting any stronger. I don't know if it's just that I don't understand how to properly utulize horde building, or if there is a more proper way of getting tributary states, but it's a frustrating campaign. How have your Hunnic campaigns gone?

[Slaists]

Hmm, as Huns, you should be able to destroy pretty much anything the AI throws at you with your tier 1 horse bowmen. That's what I did in my legendary campaign. Even 2 stacks of those pesky spearmen against your 1 stack of bowmen (19 units of bowmen + a general) is likely to end in a heroic victory for you. Just take out the AI's cavalry first (fire arrows); then, try to separate the general from the rest (he usually is slower). Once you kill the general, the rest of the army will be wavering (even on legendary difficulty). Fire arrow them, mix in some whistling arrows for a good effect, surround the lot and they'll run for their lives. I am currently working through a "this is total war" legendary campaign with Huns. Getting close to 425 now.

As to upgrades: I did not go beyond tier 1 bowmen in military tech. Tier 2 are better in their fighting ability but they are slower and much more expensive in upkeep. Speed however is probably the most important attribute for horse archers.

Check LegendofTotalWar's legendary Huns series here and observe how he fights with all horse archer armies: https://youtu.be/Rw86s9GZMnE?list=PL...iFBpeKLkilGXC_

Especially, the later videos since later in the campaign he is fielding all horse archer armies. He switches to tier 2 slower horse archers later though which I disagree with. He starts to get caught by the AI very light cavalry units at that point. Also, he seems not to upgrade cattle fields which give a significant boost to run speed.

p.s. As a tip for Hun campaigning: on turn one, ask WRE to join all their wars in exchange for money. Repeat that every turn until you get in a position to start raiding WRE. Each war Huns have adds to their horde integrity. So, with some 30 simultaneous wars going on you can stop worrying about integrity: just spam agriculture and industry buildings.

Another tip: try to get to Mediolanum before other WRE enemies raze it (and Genoa). The Roman trade route there can yield huge raiding income for Huns. I've seen that route have close to 20K trade turnover and you can have two hordes on the route raiding: one near Genoa, one near Mediolanum. Even when someone/anyone destroys Mediolanum and Genoa the trade is likely to revert to Ravenna and you can raid there.

Yet another tip: if you're attacked, always fight; do not retreat (on the campaign map). If you fight and then are not able to win you can always retreat on the battlefield but you will be able to inflict a huge punishment on the enemy so they're likely to lose their appetite to attack you the 2nd time (on the same turn). If you just retreat on the campaign map, you'll lose your move points and the battlefield withdraw option. So, if you lose the battle, you'll lose your horde.

And, the final tip: try to level up generals to be able to fight night-battles. You'll need 6 cunning for that. That way, you can split over-confident AI stack groups and pick them off one by one at night.

[PeonKing]

I've got the tactical part down pretty well, although it gets kind of tedious kiting every single battle, that's just the way of the horse archer I guess haha. It's the overall 'campaign' strategy, like I've moved onto maxing out my taxes, and then just constantly attacking settlements to keep integrity up. I'm not really sure how I should go about actually strengthening myself, it feels more like I can just tear enemies down, I can't build myself up.

[Slaists]

Most of your battles should go something like this (on 3x, 6x speed):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Integrity

Huns get +1 to integrity from every war they fight. So, declare war on everyone you see that you don't care about being friendly with. Ask WRE to join their wars (for a fee, of course) or anyone else for that matter. Do this starting form turn 1. Currently, I am playing a "this is total war" legendary Hun campaign and I am at war with 30+ nations at all times. My integrity is going up by 30+/turn just form those wars.

Money

Playing a conventional campaign, you can get quite a bit of cash from subjugated nations especially if you help them expand. Playing "this is total war" style does not have this income option.

The other tip I already mentioned: get to Mediolanum asap and raid the trade route there until either someone destroys the city or your treasury is around 400K large.

Third tip: just build econ structures in your hordes: Yurt builder is great as it gives cash + growth; sheep farms give food + cash; etc.

Fourth tip: don't upgrade your horse archers (avoid researching the tech that does just that). Tier 1 horse archers are all you need. The later ones get slower anyway and having tier 1 horse archers as the bulk of your army saves a ton in upkeep.

And another one: do not raise your taxes to very high at the start of the campaign. That will stifle your horde growth. At the beginning try to have more or less balanced budget from turn to turn and build from the money you get from sacking. Raise taxes only in emergencies or when you are confident you do not need extra growth. By that time though, you'll be rolling in cash even on normal taxes.

Campaign strategy

Don't be afraid of those multi-stacks following you. If they get too close: attack with your nightfighter generals and destroy them one by one. Otherwise, if they attack: always defend and only retreat from the battlefield if you're out of ammo before the enemy breaks. Other than that: sack and raze everything you do not subjugate. Avoid winter-areas until you get the tech giving you snow immunity.

[PeonKing]

This is all great information, one last question. When do you chose to raze areas? That growth bonus is great, but I'm not sure if I should just go around razing every town I encounter or keep them alive to 'farm' them?

[Slaists]

This is all great information, one last question. When do you chose to raze areas? That growth bonus is great, but I'm not sure if I should just go around razing every town I encounter or keep them alive to 'farm' them?

Unless I'm playing "this is total war" I raze only the territories that reduce a faction to the appropriate size of 1-region which allows me to subjugate them. This still leaves a lot of regions to be razed.

Of course, don't raze outright anywhere. First, sack, then raze. Leave outright razing for the AI.

[AnonMilwaukean]

My strategy as Huns on a Hard campaign I won was:

Encamp all hordes in the desolate area you begin in, with your hordes just across settlement boundary lines such that they can reinforce each other without incurring rivalry bonuses. Often, this means taking the three initial hordes to the corners of adjacent settlements. Then, have one of the hordes build troops while the other two build Yurt Builders to get high growth. Those two, with their high growth, should have few troops but a large number of income producing buildings as soon as you have the growth and income to build them. Then sit a while and earn money and tech up towards better income buildings and growth buildings. The point of this phase is to turtle up and earn money while maintaining as few troops as possible. Ideally, one of the three hordes will be a full-stack, while the other two have just maybe a couple units each (note: every horde should have at least one non-general unit to prevent losing the horde if the general is assassinated).

Eventually, you will be attacked. Weather the attacks and add troops as needed to the other hordes. As this happens, you will eventually get enough growth for a 4th horde. Get a 4th horde going and protect it as much as possible. Get the 4th horde to have some income producers and give it some troops. Until now, you should have been encamped to maximize growth and income. Once the 4th horde is stocked with a couple of units and a decent income level, add more units to the 3 non-full-stack hordes and take all 4 hordes and move West.

At this point, your goals should be different. Hopefully, you'll have enough income-per-turn at this point that you can go for a while without encamping again (though you still will want to to avoid winter attrition or replenish combat losses). All four hordes should move as a single unit at this point, always within reinforcing range while still trying to use settlement boundaries to avoid rivalry penalties when possible. The objective now is to head west and start razing settlements. So take the four hordes, move west, and raze what you can, avoiding prolonged sieges.

Why west?

Well, TW:Attila has a number of mechanics that encourage the historical approach. Firstly, you have a morale advantage over Roman factions, which would be lost going south against the Sassanids. Secondly, south indeed would bring you up against the Sassanids, who are best avoided unless you really feel like facing overwhelming numbers when you don't have to. Thirdly, going north-west takes you into areas that will have winter attrition even during the spring by the time you set out. And going south-west brings you close to the Sassanids as well as takes you on the route of least settlements to raze (North Africa has few settlements and long, desert distances, far from ideal). So due west is the best course, using the Med. Sea to guard one flank and provide a winter-attrition-less path to follow while going into the Roman areas where your morale advantage will allow you to better raze the many settlements there.

As you go west, you also will encounter less-armored cavalry... in my case, I relied on horse archers, particularly the Hunnic Devil Cavalry. Because of this, the last thing I wanted was heavily armored horses that will shrug off arrows and force my horse archers to constantly move (Sassanids have tons of cataphracht-type units, and ERE has a few, too, in its stacks). My forces were generally composed of melee cavalry and mounted archers, with only the economic hordes having a few foot troops in them. The main army being what it was for me, I used it to spear-head the attack against the largely foot-bound opponents I encountered, using ammo up and withdrawing if the remaining troops were too strong to take on with melee cavalry. So long as you move as a 4 horde unit, it should be okay to withdraw unless you are expecting heavy resistance after you end your turn. Because of how withdrawing/retreating works, use your main army to do most of the fighting, and if it must retreat, move the rest of the hordes to it to protect it from getting attacked by too large a force. Personally, this is how I preferred to go it, especially after they buffed Hunnic horse-archers last patch to make them viable. But, you could go with a more foot-bound force that uses the superior cavalry to augment it rather than the other way around.

At this point, you should hopefully have razed a fair number of places. Don't get greedy with razing, though: continue razing settlements one-at-a-time with just the main army, as it is likely that more and more factions will start declaring war as you attack their friends and culture-sharing neighbors. Should you suddenly be faced with a lot of enemy armies at this point, consider finding a place you already razed and back-tracking to it to encamp and hopefully disperse the enemy stacks a bit. And, in a real emergency, take the whole lot of hordes and encamp in the biggest non-enemy faction you can. The ERE is useful for this, as if you encamp in the settlements surviving north of Constantinople, this will prevent anyone who doesn't have military access OR isn't already at war with the ERE from coming after you. Enemy AI's rarely trespass against those bigger than them, so if the ERE is friendly to you, or is at least neutral, consider sheltering in their territory for a few turns if you need to encamp to raise income again or to replenish units in peace.

By now, you should almost have a minor victory. Continue methodically razing one settlement at a time while also adding more units to the other hordes as need be. Ideally, those economics-focused hordes should never be full stacks, but keep adding to them as you go west. Never have them as full stacks, though, as you can always recruit mercenaries in a pinch and then disband them when danger has passed.

Finally, once you razed enough settlements for a minor vic, withdraw a ways and finish recruiting the number of units you need to trigger the minor victory. Then you will have the minor vic.

After that, continue as you already have for the other victories, building what you need and trying to avoid going into the Sassanids unless you absolutely have to. Desert attrition, large enemy forces, and long distances between settlements mean the Sassanids are your least favorite target. Europe should continue to be your playground until you absolutely must find other places to raze.

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Hopefully all that helps. That was my approach for a Hard campaign. Whatever of it works for you, great, and whatever doesn't, just ignore. Particularly the army composition situation: while I prefer melee cavalry feints at the enemy to make them get out of loose formation and become easy targets for my horse archers, there are other ways to go, especially since Hunnic infantry is surprisingly decent.

Again, hope all that helps.

[Anhur]

For me the Huns are all about horse archers (tier 1 with upgraded speed from cattle farms). I have nothing else than them + the general in my stacks. One stack usually can destroy 3-4 attacking AI stacks (even stacks containing cavalry). I also always (unless I'm razing) end the turn in encampment stance. That way, if you're attacked, you'll replenish losses before your turn starts.

I have one specialist stack that has some infantry and onagers for walled cities though.

[Anhur]

It's all about attacking the enemy's morale, not trying to outright kill them. First: rob the enemy of mobility (lure away and kill its cavalry). Then, go after their missiles and the general. Don't be afraid to charge in, taking fire at will off, if an opportunity presents itself. Hun tier 1 horse archers have a 40 damage weapon which works well to kill missile units. Once the general of the first stack goes down, the whole AI army starts to waver so a few fire allow volleys + whistling arrows mixed in send the whole lot running. Fire at will off again: catch the routers. The reinforcing stacks will be wavering from the let-go and will rout in short order too.