Alas my Greek fire couldn't even stop them. (How to fend off a Hunnic Rush?)

[SULOMON]

Just a little story to go along with this thread.

Spoiler :

So I was hosting a multiplayer match and a guy decided to play the Huns. Well I figured it wouldn't be that bad.
I was playing Byzantium and got a nice start with plenty of wine and a religious city state. As I scouted more of my area I discovered I was on a peninsula (pangea map by the way) with a mountain ridges separating me from the rest of the continent. With only 3 gaps open no bigger to 2 hexes as the way to the rest of the continent. I got a fairly good start and an excellent defensive position!
But I had worries when a Hunnic Horse archer appeared on the horizon. The guy said he was just clearing barb camps. But several turns later he declared war and horse archers swarmed across my borders. I had gold at the time and bought a Dromon. My city attack plus my archer and Dromon did tons of damage to his horse archers. A single battering ram appeared and I nearly killed it but it retreated. I bought another Dromon while my capital built more archers. His horde of horse archers were being burned away but the battering ram from earlier appeared. And on the next turn he clicked a second before I did and so fell the great city of Constantinople.

Besides just not allowing the Huns into multiplayer games what strategies are there to counter an early rush? It seems like civs with early UUs would be easier to defend with but those horse archers could probably just kill the melee UUs fairly easily. It seems like Babylon would be good since they have a nice archer UU and the walls of Babylon UB. So what civs and strategies/ tactics are good for countering a rush by the Huns.

 

[Silverfuturist]

If the Huns are allowed in the game and they are next to you... I suggest bribing them to attack somebody else. Offer them lux, gold per turn and so forth so that by the time they get around to attacking you, maybe you have xbows or something. The other option is to have all the players declare war on the Huns, 3 players (maybe even 2) doing a comp bow rush on them should take them out.

The problem is that horse archers are too cheap, too mobile, too strong and require no resources. On top of that throw in a ram which can kill a capital all by itself at the beginning of the game if the Huns get a ruin upgrade and the capital is undefended. If they get that upgrade they will be rich from bullying city states, they can buy a settler on move 9, do mass upgrades, etc, it is nuts. The extra hammers from stables might mean they can outproduce you as well. If you have a capital that is exposed, you are simply dead if they are next to you and the player is good, assuming they want to rush you. Even if you survive, your development is so far behind you lose the long game.

If people insist on picking civs and the Huns are allowed, then pick a civ with a start bias that offers safety - like Inca or Russia... sometimes fortified Jags in woods/jungle can defend if the Huns have no sight.

 

[Smote]

If you have horses yourself, chariots work well. Make sure you get them quickly. If you don't, follow the above suggestion .

 

[Kyp Durron]

I prefer simply, dont allow huns.

If in public games, guys who play huns generally just rush, and if they lose the rush they quit.

This is also true of people who play spain, if find no wonders, they quit.

 

[Smote]

Generalizing the above response, don't play with people that quit games. Singling out a civ is silly when its the players that are the problem.

 

[avl8]

You want strategy?

You should ally the Huns from the moment you meet them.
Befriend, trade, declare on someone else with them. Its much cheaper than next strategy, but it requires simple diplomacy skills. If you lack diplomacy and cant convince people, get next strategy as your main one against Huns.

Get your composites/spears and get to #1-2 in military strength. Huns will get another victim and you get your time. And if they are stupid, they will just sink their resources trying to get through bows/spears. You will also take some gold from CS and support your economy. During medieval and later eras their rams and archers are no longer strong enough to pose a treat.

 

[Kyp Durron]

Generalizing the above response, don't play with people that quit games. Singling out a civ is silly when its the players that are the problem.

Generalizing that response, dont play public games at all.

 

[CraigMak]

Generalizing that response, dont play public games at all.

That guy speaks the truth, Huns and Spain players are generally the worst kind, quick to troll, quick to quit. They're just picking a massively OP civ looking for a free win with no effort.

In response to the original question. Composites and horse men can work well vs the huns. But as Silverfuturist said, if they are a good player you are most likely just dead. They're that OP. Horse archers dominate the game up until xbows or pikes come out.

A good rule of thumb for any game is no huns, no spain, PERIOD.