Is it actually possible to maintain peace with the Huns?

[Gerfreckle]

I'm playing with the 12 turns per year mod, so I've had much longer to prepare for the inevitable invasion of the Huns, but I still really don't wanna fight them. I'm playing as the Franks and I'm 130 turns in and have captured basically all of France, the Netherlands, half of Germany, north Italy and Corsica, so I have a pretty large territory to defend. I have four armies spread across my kingdom, two of them with 11 units, one with a full 20, including artillery (this is my main army) and another one of 15 units with no artillery. I've got military alliances with every faction in western and central Europe, and non-agression pacts with many others. I control the largest amount of land in the entire known world...

...but the Huns still think it's wise to attack me.

Early on in my campaign, about 50 turns in, they crossed my borders and were about to besiege a city of mine. I was too far away to deal with them, so I asked for a peace treaty and offered them about $20,000. They accepted, and I gave them another $15,000 to sign a non-agression pact with me. They took it and left my lands to harrass my allies in central Europe, but I didn't get involved.

All was good. I could focus on expanding my kingdom and building up my armies.

...but now they're back.

I took Florence in Italy with my 15 unit army (that has no artillery) and was stationed there when suddenly a full stack Hun army appeared from across the mountains in eastern Italy and besieged Florence. I marched my full stack army after them (which was thankfully very close in northern Italy) and the Huns fled. I foolishly pursued them, thinking they'd be weakened by the winter attrition, and while they were, and in a pitched battle between infantry I'd wipe them out.... I didn't realize just how shockingly powerful their artillery was. Before I could even begin marching my army towards them on the battlefield they'd wiped out half of my infantry. I retreated and reloaded a previous save.

I really hate the Huns.

I know they're meant to be the Big Bad - so to speak - of the game, but seriously, is there any way to not have to go to war with them and attempt to destroy them (which I've heard is difficult since they have unlimited full stack armies)?

[Amogus]

Yes, i was playing as Sassnid in one of my game and they become my friend and when attila is around he signed an allance with me! A FULL MILLITARY ALLIANCE! and not a defensive or non aggressoin i think they liked me cuz i being at war with Eastern and Western Roman empire all the time.

I think because i am not close to the HUNS land and all of my lands are not in Europe which is the place where the huns like to go so no direct confrontation with them ever happened as my empire is mainly in Asia minor, Arabia and Africa.

[Ahyangyi]

I don't know.

In my current Alan playthrough (which is also my first ever playthrough, so saved/loaded a lot during early game) even though I declared war on Huns very early we soon negotiated peace (with they paying me some gold). I was in constant war with ERE, WRE and Sassanids and many minors, which seem to make the Huns love me.

The logic seems to be: they hate everyone, and especially the large guys. I fight everyone, especially the two Roman empires and the Sassanids. So they consider me a natural ally of theirs.

With good relationship and a leader without a wife, I managed to marry one from the Huns with a payment about 1000 gold, which further strengthened our relationship.

I'm on normal difficulty unmodded though, so that might be the difference.

[Ahyangyi]

Also, my settlement is very close to the Huns spawning points -- I started at Thrace and the Caucasus, and now own Dacia, Sarmatia and all land from ERE & Sassanids. Dacia and Sarmatia are probably close enough to their hordes I think, and the Huns are basically grazing in my lands every turn.

[ShrOomz]

The best way to be friendly with the huns is to go to war with everyone they hate. I've had Attila send me alliance offers, but I'm like you. I hate Attila and just went to war with him.

[Finwaell]

lol :D cheating (mods) and you have 4 armies after 130 turns? I play on Legendary no mods and have 9 full elite armies and 4 fleets all 20 stacks by the time the huns arrive as Western Romans :D But I didn't fight them anyway, made an alliance with them and sent them to kill the sassanids who are far worse than the huns :D

[Steve]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.