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Thread: Tips for playing the Alani?

  1. #1

    Default Tips for playing the Alani?

    Hey,
    I just downloaded the Fall of the Eagles mod and want to start a campaign as the Alani.
    They were the first faction I started a campaign with in vanilla... and I got wrecked

    What I am mainly looking for is any strategy in regards to settling. With other migrating factions I usually just make my way to the designated point of settling and loot any easy prey along the way to finance the horde and the settling process.
    Where is a nice spot to settle with the Alans? In my first attila campaign I thought it might be a good idea to settle in Alexandria (ERE was at war with Sassanids already), a fertile and rich region with a vast countryside to make use of my cavalry. Needless to say I could not withstand the stack spam by the ERE and they eventually destroyed me.

    So any suggestions? I am trying to stay away from the standard settling locations in Italy, Spain, Africa or Britain, because I know them rather well and spent a lot of campaigns in these areas.

    Thanks in advance!

  2. #2

    Default Re: Tips for playing the Alani?

    In vanilla, I kept the two hordes together so that they could hold hands and skip through the ERE, sacking and burning and raising some sweet cash for the tittybar. The bar was in italy, where I fled once the ERE sent a bunch of grunts to bury me. I took Ravena (sp?) and a neighborhood town, then started moving around italy, occupying what I could hold, sacking what I couldn't. Seemed to work pretty well, and was exactly the same thing I did with the Ostros. I've had success with other homeless factions when jogging over to the iberian peninsula for some bullfighting and pillaging.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Tips for playing the Alani?

    I realize I listed nearly every location you didn't want to play in. haha

  4. #4

    Default Re: Tips for playing the Alani?

    With the Alani I find going east is interesting. If you can manage to regroup, avoid or kill the huns, then pillage your way down the Caucasia into either Ere or Sassanid territory. Pontus is usually left relatively open. And if the two regional superpowers are fighting, attack the one that looks weakest.

  5. #5
    Darios's Avatar Ex Oriente Lux
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    Default Re: Tips for playing the Alani?

    You know what I like to do? Wait for the Huns to break off their alliance with the Greuthungians then take Crimea and build your empire there. Give it a try, everyone and their brother are migrating West so stick around on the steppes and take the spoils. Chersonessos is an amazing settlement that also incurs food bonuses due to its vineyards. You have access to the sea there as well as at Olbia so you can get enough food from fishing to offset climate change. If the Huns attack - you have a walled settlement to defend from.

    I feel like I earned the Alan Victory "Steppe Survivors" achievement on Steam)
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  6. #6
    EmperorBatman999's Avatar I say, what, what?
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    Default Re: Tips for playing the Alani?

    I'm curious too about this, especially regarding the viability of possibly facing down the Sassanids. I remember having an incredibly hard campaign against them as the ERE where progress was slow and brutal trying to kill off the puppet states and break into the Persian heartland. So as Alans (a faction that I recall being quite bad at in MP) will have an incredible challenge...but then again I do like the idea of bringing my horse hordes all the way down through the Levant and into the Nile and the Euphrates.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Tips for playing the Alani?

    Quoting myself here:
    Quote Originally Posted by Gwayn View Post
    What worked for me when the game came out and imperium was the devil's punishment for playing:
    Dissolve your alliance (think with the Suebians, can't remember), this will just pull you into unwanted wars otherwise. Trespass through WRE territory but don't declare war: Romans won't declare war on you and everyone else will love you for trespassing. Settle in Spain (get something around 60k gold before for conversion, the more the better) and conquer the whole Iberian peninsula after declaring war on the WRE. DO NOT GO TO NORTHERN AFRICA. I know this is the dream of some people playing this faction (or the Vandals) but desert attrition coupled with long distances and low development of roads makes conquering that place a huge annoyance. Include the competition from the Maurians, Africa and the Gaetulians and general low income from these cities and you are in for a hot fight. Spain on the other hand is an economic powerhouse. Be quick, some of the "vagabond" factions like the Jutes might settle there which means you either have incomplete provinces or a fight with them and their potential allies before you.

    Gameplay on higher difficulties seems to be based around abusing everyone's hate for the Romans. *shrug*

  8. #8

    Default Re: Tips for playing the Alani?

    Thank you all for the input
    It is time for a little update.
    So I decided to go east with the Alan hordes, far east haha. I moved all the way to the eastern side of the caspian sea to join a nomadic tribe (Budini I think) in their war against the Afraghids (?) to avoid conflict with the sassanids. I conquered their two settlements, but the big problem was the lack of money, since I did not come across any settlement during my trek eastwards and I occupied the first settlement I came across. So bad economy was the first problem.
    And quite frankly the second problem was lacking room for expansion. I could either expand north and populate the desolate regions, which would have been way too costly, or I could have gone south and attacked Sassanid vassals, which was risky, but the game is called Total war after all haha.
    Long story short I attacked the vassal, Parthia I think, and brought the wrath of the whole Sassanid empire upon me while only having 2 starter steppe stacks.

    As soon as the mod updates and I've tested the desert factions I will return to a Alani campaign and try a different approach, maybe listening to Darios and settling in Chersonessos, but only after I've sacked and razed a little bit of the western territory of ERE to gain money, weaken ERE and maybe be in a strong position to offer peace.

    BTW Darios, I know that you want some love for the Alans, and I am totally with you in regards to the character and appearance the european steppe factions suffer in the game, but I can really recommend the Fall of the Eagles mod, at least judging from the work they have done on the germanic factions and the Alani You might wanna check it out until CA releases a nomadic faction pack.

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