Hun Hunters? Are they led by Ethan Hunt?

So is raiding a new mechanic? Or did you just march an army the normal way through the lands of your allies. With the idea of attacking the Pesians and taking cities/looting cities like normal?

Armies can enter a special raiding stance while they're moving around (I think stances were added in Rome 2). It lowers army upkeep, gives me some gold, and reduces public order in the province being raided. Great way to make money and draw enemies into a battle. I haven't done any raiding yet, since I'm still in allied land.

I have a military access agreement with my allies, so we can move troops freely through each other's territories. Makes chasing Huns easier.

Raiding sounds like a fun mechanic!

Got another update. Holy moly, things are very much happening now. 414AD:

My forces attacked and easily defeated the Huns. I was particularly impressed with my mercenary steppe mounted bowmen - great work on the flanks. While this was happening, my forces in Britannia began raiding the Britains' land around Camulodunum.

My spy continues to head south, and has discovered 4 new Hunnic hordes! Not all are at full strength, but it was still quite a shock. 2 of these hordes quickly make their way towards my lands, raiding some areas and attacking the city of Palteskja. Rather than waiting for my forces to starve to death, I charged forth to attack the Huns head on. One horde was destroyed, while the other put up a really good fight and limped away after killing 50% of my army. My Hunters were too far south to assist, but have swung back around to cut off the Huns' retreat.

While all this was happening, a Danish agent attempted to assassinate my high priestess. He failed, but she was injured and had to recover - this, combined with the Hun attacks, hit my public order really hard. To top it all off, a plague broke out in Palteskja.

Everything's under control now, but I'm forming a second army of infantry to back up my Hunters. I'm also considering reigniting my war with the Danes - nobody attacks my high priestess and gets away with it.

My cavalry prepare to face their first Hunnic horsemen

My mercenary steppe mounted bowmen on the flanks

The Huns

Battle begins

Chaos. We actually lost very few troops here, while the Huns suffered massive casualties, including their general.

Further north, a second horde prepares to attack my city.

My forces advance through the fire

Both sides take heavy losses. We were quite evenly matched, and my forces had to attack quickly since the Huns' large onagers could out-shoot anything we had. Of the 900 troops I fielded, over 450 were killed. The Huns lost a little over 400 of their 700 troops. A close victory for me.

The world map. The Franks and Alemans are still making good progress in Europe, while the ERE have been pushed right back. My agent in Caucasia will swing west to see how badly the Romans are really doing.

Wow Haz, those Huns sound annoyingly persistent. Glad to hear you were able to salvage victory out of those potentially sticky situations.

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Jun 5 2017, 04:24 AM

Had a much more relaxed time today. Destroyed two hordes, and the rest vanished.

The plague in my lands (the actual plague, not the Huns) cleared up, but not before it was passed along a trade route to my ally in the east. Whoops. Now I'm trying to get a better balance of food/sanitation/public order - I think I've got it sorted, but time will tell.

To the south, my agent found the eastern border of the ERE. They only have a few lands, but they all look quite strong. There are lots of different factions in the south and east, but no good raiding target has really jumped out at me yet.

As for the ongoing raid in Britannia, the Britains still refuse to declare war and attack me. I've assassinated two of their generals, but I might have to kick things off myself. The risk here is that the Franks may take the Britains' side, which would in turn make the Jutes and Geats attack the Franks, and I'd start a bigger war than I need right now.

This post has been edited by hazmick: Jun 6 2017, 04:17 AM

If the silly Britons let you raid with impunity then that's exactly what Khajiit would continue doing. Something will have to give with them eventually.

Mixed day today.

As soon as the winter snow thawed, the Huns returned. I destroyed 2 hordes straight away, while another two attacked one of my armies while it was moving between towns. We managed to fend the Huns off, but not before they killed our general (the best general my faction had). The new general, who took over command of this force, lead a counter attack and finished the two Hun hordes off. My lands are clear of Huns again for the time being, though I really want to find their faction leader so I can assassinate him.

Over in Britannia, I declared war on the Britain faction. I sent a gift to the Franks just before that, and was rewarded for my generosity - the Franks didn't join the war. The Britains put up a rather poor defence, and I won a decisive victory and captured the town of Camulodunum. Now I just need to upgrade my defensive alliance with the Franks to a military alliance, to fulfil one of my victory conditions (I could also take the 3 Frankish settlements in Britannia, but alliance is way easier).

In the south, my agent is still exploring. We found the Sassanids, who seem to have a pretty big empire. My dreams of raiding them may have to be shelved. Not only are the Sassanids themselves powerful, they also control several other factions in the area. It might actually be better if I went to war against the ERE. I'll continue looking for a better target - I need to capture a few more settlements to complete my victory conditions.

Here's some shots from the Hun battle in which my general was killed:

It's over, Hunakin, I have the high ground.

The first half of the horde emerges from the misty treeline

A short while later, and the battle is won

The Hunnic survivors make their escape

I hate losing a really good general like that. Those Huns are becoming troublesome! You have already killed a pile of them, and they just keep coming with more.

I definitely prefer that place to Mustafar!

Wow, it looks like your archers really did a number on the Huns before they even reached your line. But I can see your own guys have definitely thinned out by the end. That must have been some battle!

That's right, run Huns, the exterminators are here!

Anybody here ever use peasants in a battle?

I have. They are not my go to troops, but they have their uses. I have had my cities under siege with only a general and some peasants inside. So I would sally with the general going out the gate facing the enemy, and send all the peasants out at the other side of the city. My general would then ride around the besiegers, maybe clip a unit or two of them, then gallop off. Once I got someone to follow, the general lead them around the city wills. That gives the towers a chance to soften them up. Then I would get the pursuers back to where I had the peasants waiting. I would mob them with the peasants, and the general would turn to attack as well. In this case the sheer numbers of peasants cause a penalty to the enemy's morale. With the general added in, that would usually quickly rout the attackers.

Some people will also use them for arrow sponges. When going up against an army they know has a lot of archers, they will put a line of peasants before their regular troops. The peasants then just soak up the enemy's arrows, with the hope of using them all up. I never did that though.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 8 2017, 09:24 PM

This was just the application Khajiit had in mind. In this one's Briton campaign, he basically has no soldier units in his cities on the British Isles. Yet these tiny little rebel armies pop up and need to be smacked every now and then. With generals and peasant units.

What I do for rebels behind the lines is I create small 3 unit low-tier cavalry units that I put in every two or three cities, along with a general. When Rebels crop up the general rides out with the 3 cavalry units and takes them out. If the rebel army is big, then I will bring in two or three of these rebel-hunter groups in from all around.

Given that you are playing the Britons, instead of using cavalry use chariots. They have a high value in auto-resolve, so you can just auto-resolve the battles and then repair them afterward. You just need to build blacksmiths in your cities to recruit them.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 8 2017, 10:31 PM

Aww but then Khajiit doesn't get to watch them try to flee after he crushes them!

Khajiit and his Britons are taking over cities like crazy! Most of northern Europe has fallen under the blue and white Stag Banner. We are still working on taking out the Gauls and Germans but each of them only have a few provinces left. The Julii have been surprisingly quiet, even when one of our small war parties was forced to retreat from a Gaulish territory onto their land down in the Iberian Peninsula. One big problem Khajiit is running into is the lack of generals/governors. This one is thinking about taking his governors out of his lands on the Isles and distributing them among the cities on the front lines that are in need of Governors.

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Jun 10 2017, 01:48 AM

The Britons are fun to play. But they get more difficult as the game goes on. At first you have to choose between going south against the Gauls, or east against the Germans, or weaken your focus by trying to do both at once. Defeat Gaul and you once again have to choose between continuing south into Spain, or south east into Italy. While likewise defeating Germany just opens up wider spaces in the east. So the more you expand, the bigger your issues become.

Exactly. Khajiit is thinking about leaving two German provinces in the east as a buffer against the factions farther east. If he doesn't meet his short campaign victory conditions (Destroy or outlast Gaul, and hold 15 provinces) after wiping out the Gauls, then he will focus on the Iberian Peninsula, which will mean betraying the Julii at some point (if they haven't already attacked by then).

Another day, another 2 hordes of Huns wiped out. Fortunately these might be the last I need to deal with, as the Huns offered me a peace treaty - which I accepted. I'd love to wipe them all out, but I don't have the manpower to keep playing cat & mouse all over Germano-Sarmatia.

With the Hun menace pacified, I can now move some of my forces southwards towards new lands. I might have found some isolated factions that I could conquer, but sooner or later I'll need to attack the Sarmatians or one of their puppet states. Not looking forward to that.

Also having trouble with the Franks. I need to make a military alliance with them, but there's no option to do so. I'll take a deeper look into their other allies/enemies to see if there's a conflict of interest that's blocking my progress. If that fails, I'll have to declare war on the Franks (who are the most powerful faction in the world right now).

Congrats on dealing with the Huns. Hopefully you figure out the issue with the Franks. Going to war against them sounds like a scary proposition!

Welp, had to quit for bedtime. The Julii, after all this time, finally declared war on us. Our first action against them was getting rid of an army that had gotten too close to one of our cities. We trounced them and sent them scurrying back across the boarder to their land in the Iberian Peninsula. Those guys are kind of scary. They fielded two ballista units (which Khajiit made a priority target for his chariot archers when they revealed them), and the light infantry actually did some damage to my chariot archers with their ranged attack.