Zigzagzigal's Guide to the Huns (BNW)

The Huns fight and win very early on, and are great fun to play. This guide goes into plenty of detail about Hunnic strategies, uniques and how to play against them.

Introduction

Note: This guide assumes you have all game-altering DLC and expansion packs (all Civ packs, Wonders of the Ancient World, Gods & Kings and Brave New World)



Welcome, aspiring leader of the Hunnic people! You lead people of great stamina and skill. Shrouded in the mists of legend and myth, few today know of the Huns' history. Historians are divided on whether or not the Huns are linked to the Xiongnu, who ruled a vast land including the entirety of contemporary Mongolia, but if true, they struck fear into both the world's most powerful empires of the era.

But this much is true: your people are known for one crucial point in history - being the scourge of the mighty Roman empire. From the east they came, dominating the Danube and picking apart those who thought themselves safe. At their height, most of Europe not controlled by the Romans were in their hands. Now, take the reins of your horses. Prepare the rams to burst down the doors of the cities of your enemies. And exceed the achievements of the past. Build a civilization that stands the test of time.



Before I go into depth with this guide, here's an explanation of some terminology I'll be using throughout for the sake of newer players.

Builder Nation/Empire - A generally peaceful nation seeking victories other than Domination.
Early Rush - Also known as a Dagger Rush, Zerging, etc. This is where you attack someone early, typically before they've built a proper defence.
Finisher - The bonus for completing a Social Policy tree (e.g. Free Great Person for Liberty.)
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +1 culture for every city for Liberty's opener)
Puppet Empire - Where a Civilization has a large number of puppet cities, typically to not raise Social Policy costs. The Huns generally don't go for these.
Tall empire - A low number of cities with a high population each. Good for cultural victories and securing National Wonders. The Huns play fairly effectively against them.
Uniques - Collective name for Unique Abilities, Units, Buildings, Tile Improvements and Great People
UA - Unique Ability - The unique thing a Civilization has which doesn't need to be built.
UU - Unique Unit - A replacement for a normal unit that can only be built by one Civilization or provided by Militaristic City-States when allied.
Wide empire - A high number of cities with a low population each.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.

At a glance (Part 1/2)

Start Bias

The Huns have a start bias of avoiding forests or jungles. This helps move your Battering Rams and Horse Archers that little bit faster to whoever you want to attack.

Uniques

The Huns have a complicated unique ability and two unique units, both in the Ancient era.

Unique Ability: Scourge of God

• Start with the Animal Husbandry technology in addition to the normal Agriculture.
  
• +1 per pasture improvement
  
• Raze cities at double speed (2 population killed per turn rather than 1)
  
• Cities founded besides the capital will come from city lists of other Civs (including defeated Civs) in your game, regardless of whether or not you have discovered them

Unique Unit 1: Battering Ram (Replaces the Spearman)

A standard melee unit (for purposes of promotions and Social Policies)
A melee siege unit (unofficial description)

Technology	Obsoletion	Upgrades from	Upgrades to	Production cost	Purchase cost	Resource needed
Bronze Working Ancient era 2nd column (3rd column overall)	Physics Medieval era 2nd column (7th column overall)	Warrior (Ancient Ruins upgrade only)	Trebuchet (100 )*	75 *	320 *	None

*Assumes a normal speed game.

Strength	Ranged Strength	Moves	Range	Sight	Negative Attributes	Positive Attributes
10	N/A	2	N/A	1	No defensive terrain bonuses Can only attack cities (can still deal damage in defence) 33% penalty while defending	300% bonus vs cities +33% defence vs. ranged attacks (Cover I)

Negative changes

• Costs 75 production, up from 56 (+34%)
  
• Costs 320 gold, up from 260 (+23%)
  
• 10 strength, down from 11 (-9%)
  
• Sight of 1, down from 2
  
• 50% bonus vs. mounted units removed
  
• 33% penalty while defending
  
• Does not recieve defensive bonuses
  
• Can only attack cities (but can still deal damage in defence)

Positive one-off changes

• 300% bonus vs. cities

Positive stay-on-upgrade changes

• +33% defence vs. ranged attacks (Cover I)

Miscellanious changes

• Upgrades to Trebuchet rather than Pikeman
  
• Hence, Battering Rams can be built until Physics rather than until Civil Service

Unique Unit 2: Horse Archer (Replaces the Chariot Archer)

A mounted ranged unit

Technology	Obsoletion	Upgrades from	Upgrades to	Production cost	Purchase cost	Resource needed
The Wheel Ancient era 2nd column (3th column overall)	Chivalry Medieval era 2nd column (7th column overall)	None	Knight** (135 )*	56 *	260 *	None

*Assumes a normal speed game.
**Requires 1 Horse resource

Strength	Ranged Strength	Moves	Range	Sight	Negative Attributes	Positive Attributes
7	10	4	2	2	May not melee attack No defensive terrain bonuses	15% bonus when attacking units on open terrain (Accuracy I)

Positive one-off changes

• 7 strength, up from 6 (+17%)
  
• Does not use up all movement points to enter rough terrain
  
  • The rough terrain penalty only applies to Chariot Archers anyway, so upgrading it will still have no penalty.
• Does not require Horse resources

Positive stay-on-upgrade changes

• 15% bonus when attacking units on open terrain (Accuracy I)

At a glance (Part 2/2)

Victory Routes

Note these scores are a matter of personal opinion based on experiences with the Civilization. You may discover a way of utilising the Civ more effectively in unconventional ways.

Cultural: 6/10
Diplomatic: 4/10
Domination: 9/10
Scientific: 6/10

The Huns should go for a Domination victory, but Science is a viable backup due to extra production from pastures and an extra starting technology giving a minor advantage.

Similar Civs and uniques

Overall

Being the only other Civ that has such a powerful early war advantage, Assyria is the Civ most alike the Huns. The Huns are the better of the two at early warfare, but Assyria has more relevant bonuses to the rest of the game.

Same start bias

Egypt also avoids both forest and jungle. Siam avoids forest but not jungles, while the Zulus avoid jungles and not forests. The Hunnic start bias tends to place them in the temperate parts of the world, similar to India and the Netherlands (which both have grassland starting biases) as well as Poland and Mongolia (which both have plains starting biases.)

Similar to the UA

An early technological bump is somewhat similar to the early Great Scientist of Babylon. Although the Huns have an immediate advantage, Babylon will typically quickly overtake the Huns' technology (and everyone else's) due to the huge science advantage that an early Academy can bring.

The +1 production for pastures plays similarly to Russia's +1 production for all strategic resources. Two key distinctions exist: one, that Russia's bonus doesn't require the resource to be improved while the Hunnic bonus does, two, that all the resources affected by the Hunnic UA can be worked immediately while Russia's are unlocked over the course of the game.

The only other Civ with only a single city in their city list is Venice, but rather than founding new cities with names taken from other Civs, they can't found new cities themselves at all - they can only annex City-States via Merchants or Venice or capture those of other Civs.

Similar to Battering Rams

Assyria's Siege Towers are the only other melee siege unit and comes only slightly later on in the game. Click here for a full comparison between Battering Rams and Siege Towers.

Similar to Horse Archers

Other UUs replacing the Chariot Archer are Egypt's War Chariot and India's War Elephant. All three UUs do not require horse resources unlike regular Chariot Archers. War Chariots are generally faster but weaker than Horse Archers, while War Elephants are slower but stronger. Most importantly, Horse Archers are backed by a second unique unit in the same era as well as a UA which strongly favours early warfare, unlike other Chariot Archer UUs.

Unique Ability: Scourge of God

This complicated set of abilities has a single-minded goal: Raise an army fast and burn the opposition.

Immediate Animal Husbandry

Unlocking Animal Husbandry immediately lets you build pastures as soon as you've got a Worker, taking advantage of the +1 pasture production immediately. It also reveals horses. You're not going to need them right away as the Horse Archer doesn't need horses. However, the pasture will still provide extra production so it's still worthwhile knowing where those wee horsies live.

Animal Husbandry also lets you get a trade route going as soon as you've discovered another city. Don't build a caravan as soon as you can, however - build your army first. You need all the time you can get.

Aside from the technology itself, Animal Husbandry is crucially on the way to The Wheel and Horse Archers. You can get both unique units in just four technologies rather than the five you may otherwise expect, letting you bring out your army early.

A good technology route to take is Mining -> Archery -> The Wheel -> Bronze Working. Mining first helps you to use your workers to maximum potential when built, and grabbing The Wheel before Bronze Working lets you train up Horse Archers on Barbarians.

+1 Pasture production

Above: +2 production for cows and horses. +1 food and +1 production for sheep.

Focus your Worker(s)' attention on cows, sheep and horses as soon as your city is ready to work them. Even the smallest bonus to production makes a huge difference at the start of the game, where production times are often long. If your city produces 10 production a turn, it would get a Battering Ram out in 8 turns (assuming normal speed games). With 11 production due to a Hunnic pasture, it's ready in 7. Saved time equals more units!

Do not neglect to build food improvements, however - it's no good having plenty of production tiles if your city cannot work them!

Double raze speed

The Huns aren't about occupying large chunks of land or puppet empires. They want to bring down nations! Razing cities is a good way to get rid of unwanted unhappiness from less-valuable cities, to concentrate on the better conquests. The Huns raze twice as fast, meaning half as much time being held back by occupied-unhappiness. As unhappiness is one of the main things that slows warmongering down, this is a really useful advantage.

Double raze speed still stays relevant in the later game. If you manage to snatch a city off an enemy, they only have half as long to take it back. As cities tend to be larger later in the game, this makes a bigger difference. Tall empires are particularly good targets.

Avoid burning down wonder-filled cities or resource-rich cities to destruction. Instead, you can raze them part of the way, then halt the razing to make their population more managable. Unhappiness is the main barrier to warmongering usually, so a city producing more happiness than unhappiness is probably worth hanging on to.

On the other hand, you can raze poorly-placed cities rapidly and found a new city to take their place (taking advantage of the tile improvements already there.) This is a good idea if there's an area with lots of pastures but none of the enemy cities are in range.

As a final note, consider tourism carefully - produce too much and it can actually hurt your efforts! Getting influential on a Civ reduces the population loss hence making it take longer to burn the city down. The culture from Great Works and theming bonuses is still useful, though, just be wary about building Hotels later in the game.

"Borrow" city names

After settling down in Attila's Court, every city the Huns found is taken from another Civ's city list. This is useful because it only takes city names from Civs that are (or were) in your current game.


Above: Second city is Arretium. Sure enough, I'm up against Rome.

Build Hull or Coventry? You're going to be up against England. Apolyton? Expect Companion Cavalry and Hoplites. You don't even need to discover them to know they'll be out there. In a duel map, this will let you know precisely the target you'll be up against, and hence allow you to prepare. Unfortunately, the city is taken randomly from city lists, so you may need to check lists of city names until you have the one that matches.

You're in luck if your second city turns out to reveal America or another late-game focused civ. Conversely, if you find a civ like India which defends well in the early game, that means you may need to bring more units.

Unique Unit I: Battering Ram

First things first, the Huns have no Spearmen. A Battering Ram is not a Spearman. It is an implement of destruction, yes, but it is ineffective against horses. Instead, think of the Battering Ram as a melee Catapult - strong against cities but weak against anything else.

Before I go into more detail of what Battering Rams can do, it's worth pointing out that for purposes of Social Policies, Battering Rams count as melee rather than siege. Hence, Warrior Code's 15% production bonus for melee units will work on them. Build your Horse Archers before your Battering Rams so they can train on Barbarians - Battering Rams can't attack anything other than cities (though they can deal damage in defence) making them useless until you're actually in a war.


Above: Random chance can save you even more time. If your starting Warrior enters Ancient Ruins and discovers advanced weaponry, you've got yourself a very early Battering Ram you could use to take out an enemy before they've even built any defence whatsoever.

Rather than the normal +200% bonus against cities other siege units have, Battering Rams get +300%. They do more damage to cities than Catapults for the same cost, but arrive earlier in the game. That's of considerable strength early in the game - you can often take out minor cities in just two hits.

Remember, as a melee unit, Battering Rams take damage when attacking cities. That's on top of the city attacking back the following turn and the Archer that's likely to be in there. The Cover I promotion (33% defence against Ranged attacks) helps, but generally Rams will die fast if you don't take the city quickly. Be sure to build at least two. Thankfully, being melee units also means they can capture cities - you won't need anything othwer than your Horse Archers and Battering Rams.

Horsemen are your worst nightmare. Without Spearmen, you have no counter to them, and they do even more damage than normal against Battering Rams due to their penalty on defence. Not to mention the high speed they have meaning they can seemingly come out of nowhere. Your other unique unit - the Horse Archer - should scout out for such evil.

Battering Rams vs. Siege Towers

The Assyrian Unique Unit, the Siege Tower, is very similar to the Battering Ram. Click here for a comparison.

Special promotions kept on upgrade

• Cover I (33% defence vs. Ranged attacks)

Seeing as most siege units before Artillery will only ever have a range of 2, they're vulnerable to cities and other ranged attacks. Having a Cover promotion already there will make life easier for your Cannons and Trebuchets, maybe letting in another hit before retreating for cover.

Note that any melee promotions you pick up will not work once the unit's upgraded to a Trebuchet and beyond, with the exceptions of Blitz and Siege.

Unique Unit II: Horse Archer

Above: The second Accuracy promotion was from killing Barbarians, not from a Barracks. Building one wastes precious early time. Also note the ability to move through two forest tiles in one turn, unlike a normal Chariot Archer.

Horse Archers are the least complex of The Huns' uniques, but that's not to say they're weak. They carry four advantages over normal Chariot Archers that work together to make excellent escorts and scouts to your vulnerable Battering Rams.

But before I cover them, there's a few things you need to know about Chariot Archers, which also affect Horse Archers. Firstly, they lack the vulnerability to Spearmen that melee mounted units have, due to the classification as an archery unit. Secondly, they use ranged promotions rather than melee ones. Thirdly, the Temple of Artemis will let you build them faster rather than Stables. As the Huns, you shouldn't be building early-game wonders, but it's a nice little bonus if you capture it.

No horse requirement

The Huns somehow invented a way of riding horses without needing horses. Maybe they're not actually riding horses but people think it out of fear? Maybe it's a pantomime horse? Maybe it's a dyed zebra? Whatever the explanation, you don't need to worry if you don't start near horses.

While you can build as many Horse Archers as you like, don't go overboard. You've got maintenance costs to worry about, as well as Battering Rams to build. Remember, too, that you'll need horses to upgrade these units later on. But don't worry about those horses in the early game, that's future-you's problem.

+1 strength

There's no base ranged strength increase for Horse Archers, but this small bonus will keep it better defended against Horsemen, Warriors and other threats. All land-based ranged units use their ranged strength when defending against ranged attacks, so it won't be any more resistant against cities, Archers or the like.

No rough terrain penalty

You can move through 2 tiles a turn in hills or forest rather than 1. This means your Horse Archers can nearly always match or outrun melee units as well as your own Battering Rams (thus making better scouts for them.) Just a small boost that'll help amplify the unit's uses.

Accuracy I

15% bonus against open terrain units is useful to take down threats to your Rams faster, but more crucially it'll bring you to the higher tier promotions sooner, with all sorts of lovely bonuses which will still be useful when you upgrade your unit.

One great advantage of starting with Accuracy I is you can make more out of the cap on XP from Barbarians. After level 3 you can't get more XP from Barbarians (that's two promotions after the unit's built, including XP from buildings such as Barracks.) With two promotions on top of Accuracy I, you can get March (heal every turn.) If you build your Horse Archers early, they can farm XP off Barbarians while your Battering Rams are being built.


Above: March promotion, and I'm not even at war yet.

Horse Archers with March can resist attack incredibly well. With higher strength than Chariot Archers and health restored every turn, you can get more hits in before having to retreat and more easily soak up damage that otherwise your Rams would take.

Special promotions kept on upgrade

• Accuracy I (15% ranged combat bonus against units in open terrain)

This is useless once the unit is upgraded, though if you picked up promotions such as Logistics or March, they'll still be good.

Social Policies

If you're playing the long game, you'll probably need a good direction for where to go beyond the days of the Battering Ram. The Huns work very well with the Honour tree but can effectively take certain policies from Liberty, Commerce and Rationalism.

Honour

Opener

While building up an army, you can spare a Horse Archer or two to deal with Barbarians, for culture, experience and City-State influence. Those militaristic City-States are incredibly useful to befriend (particularly as they're your only way to get real Spearmen.)

Warrior Code

A free Great General makes this an excellent early choice (seeing as you can't otherwise get a Great General so early in the game.) Aside from this, it lets you build Battering Rams faster. Altogether, this is probably the best first pick.


Above: Why Honour is viable for the Huns (Part 1)

Military Tradition

Lots of experience for units early in the game will mean you'll have some very powerful units indeed by the end of it. One of the most important uses of this policy is to get Horse Archers some promotions that'll still be useful when they're promoted, such as March.

Discipline

You're going to use more than one Battering Ram, so an extra 15% combat bonus due to them being adjacent to each other can't hurt.


Above: Why Honour is viable for the Huns (Part 2)

Military Caste

While happiness and culture are handy, this policy works best for puppet empire strategies, which the Huns are not for. It may be more worthwhile to go for a different policy unless you're heading to Professional Army.

Professional Army

Much more useful for you than Military Caste which is required for it. Reduced upgrade cost will help preserve your well-promoted units without breaking the bank. Additionally, neglecting Barracks earlier in the game (as they take too long to build when you're going for an early rush) pays off by saving some production time, due to them being faster to put up.

Finisher

The problem with the closer is by the time you unlock it, your Rams and Horse Archers will probably be obselete and you'll likely have a better economy than you did then, thus making gold on kills less useful. If you're fairly tight on cash (or low on production and you need the cash for puchasing units) then the finisher is useful, otherwise it may not be worthwhile diving into the depths of Honour just for it.

Liberty

Take bits of Liberty if your culture generation is strong, you manage to conquer your corner of the world but your UUs are obselete or you're nowhere near an opponent. There's no shame in stopping at Collective Rule for the free Settler.

Opener

The small amount of culture isn't a lot of use when you're focusing on burning cities to smoldering ashes, but that's not the point. The point is this is on the way to the free Settler later on. It could be worth mixing and matching Liberty with Honour policies to aid the early rush.

Republic

The bonus for buildings may not be up to much, but +1 production is +1 production. Any boost to that is good, and will let you build more unique units.

Collective Rule

A Settler without needing to focus Attila's Court on building one saves precious production. Also, your second city will reveal one of the civs in the game (see the Unique Ability section for more information.) The new city itself may not contribute much to an early war, but that kind of intelligence may swing the war's outcome.

Citizenship

A free Worker and faster Worker speed helps you make use of the extra pasture production sooner.

Meritocracy

While a fast razing speed means happiness slows you down a lot less than many other warmongers, you need to be prepared for those spikes in unhappiness once you capture cities. Meritocracy doesn't affect occupied cities (cities being razed as soon as they're captured will be of that status) but happiness is still useful.

Representation

A free Golden Age means a good load of cash, production and culture, which is always useful. The double raze speed from your UA encourages you to raze enemy cities and refound them in better locations, so the reduced increase in Social Policy costs from founding lots of cities will still be useful.

Finisher

A Great Engineer, Scientist or Prophet will probably be the most useful options here. The Engineer and Prophet give you a strong potential to grab a wonder or religion respectively that you may otherwise have trouble getting, or placing an Academy down with a Great Scientist helps you keep up with technologies.

Commerce

Rationalism is generally a stronger Social Policy tree than Commerce, so it's often worth going straight to it once it's available rather than finishing Commerce.

Opener

Cash in the capital will support more units, but the main point of the opener is that it's on the way to more useful things. If you're culture's a little on the low side, you may want to skip this track.

Mercenary Army

The main point is a later policy, though a unit with stay-on-upgrade bonuses can be handy for latter-era warmongering.

Mercantilism

This is the main reason for choosing Commerce as a military nation - cheaper unit purchasing. It also adds a little science for money buildings if you're inclined to go down that route.

Wagon Trains

With half-price routes and a bonus to International Trade Routes, this is a good policy if you're low on cash.

Entrepreneurship

Great Merchants aren't the best Great People around generally, but plenty of gold from Trade Missions is excellent when you have a lot of units to upgrade.

Protectionism

Provides lots of extra happiness from luxuries, helping to keep your conquests going for longer.

Finisher

Extra gold from Trading Posts is useful for supporting unit maintenance (or upgrade costs.)

Rationalism

Opener

For those who want to use the Hunnic production bonus from pastures to assist building the spaceship, or just to keep their armies ahead technologically-speaking, the Rationalism opener will help further those aims. It's basically great for everyone, so there's little reason not to get it unless you're often out of positive happiness.

Humanism

Great Scientists are one of the best kinds of Great People no matter the kind of empire; generating more will be highly effective for keeping your military ahead of rivals.

Free Thought

Especially good with Commerce's finisher, but even without it, it's a great way to squeeze more science out of smaller cities (particularly those in jungle areas.)

Secularism

It's worth growing a good pasture city to a tall size for building wonders (especially military wonders and the National Epic.) Such a city will probably have plenty of potential for specialists, and hence you can get lots of science out of the city, too.

Sovereignty

Retrieve some money out of science building maintenance costs, and you can use it for supporting your army.

Scientific Revolution

This is just for the Finisher. You're unlikely to get many Research Agreements going as a warmonger.

Finisher

A free technology is great for nudging your science ahead of rivals, giving you a brief advantage for getting good military units. In the very late-game, the technology route cultural and diplomatic Civs lacks military bonuses, making such Civs particularly vulnerable to this.

Ideology

If you're going down a pure military route, Autocracy is the choice for you. If you want Science as a good backup, head for Order. Order focuses a little less on the military and more on hanging on to cities (which isn't the Hunnic way.)

This guide shows the best choices for the first "inverted pyramid" of tenets (3 from level 1, 2 from level 2, 1 from level 3)

Level One Tenets - Autocracy

Elite Forces

By boosting the damage of wounded military units, you can keep your forces going longer - they'll both attack and defend better.

Mobilisation or United Front

This'll let your cash stretch further and build an army faster with cheap units. The former is particularly good with Commerce's Mercantilism, the latter if you're going down Patronage's route. Gold costs involved make it impratical to take both.

Universal Healthcare

This may seem an unorthodox choice, but as the Huns don't tend to hang on to many cities they conquer, building plenty of National Wonders is easier than it may at first appear. You'll want to avoid unhappiness as even a little will make your units worse at combat.

Level Two Tenets - Autocracy

Nationalism or Total War

You have a choice here. Either hang onto your old formerly unique units or build lots of new ones. The former is good if you have lots of old Horse Archers and Battering Rams you've upgraded up, but go for Total War if you lack units.

Lightning Warfare

Horse Archers eventually promote into Landships, Tanks and Modern Armour. A tank army with all those old promotions you earned so long ago (stuff like March will still be useful even if Accuracy is not) is a decent way to end the game in your favour.

Level Three Tenet - Autocracy

Clauswitz's Legacy

You've got to time this right, so if you're not ready to start an attack when you have the culture to unlock it, get a pre-ideology Social Policy instead. Together with Lightning Warfare, you can quickly take out one or two remaining capitals.

Level One Tenets - Order

Order is a good choice for Hunnic players seeking to turn the extra starting technology and pasture production into a Science victory.

Young Pioneers

Production bonuses are useful whether it's Domination or Science you want.

Double Agents

You need to preserve a possible Science advantage. Seeing as all the early war makes many players hate you, you're best off using Spies as anti-Spies rather than Diplomats.

Hero of the People

An odd choice it may seem, but boosting your Great People rate will lead to more Great Engineers, something the level 3 tenet Spaceflight Pioneers takes advantage of. If you get any Great Engineers at this stage of the game in the Order ideology, keep them around until then.

Level Two Tenets - Order

Five-Year Plan

More production! You'll need all you can get. Unfortunately, this doesn't boost Pastures, but a boost is a boost.

Workers' Faculties

You may be a little behind on the technology part of the space race even if you're one of the only Civs with a production bonus of some kind. Hence, a late-game boost to science generation could swing the game in your favour.

Level Three Tenet - Order

Spaceflight Pioneers

Now you can use those Great Engineers that Hero of the People helped to gain (not to mention the free one from this tenet.) It's not easy winning through Science with the Huns, but you're nearly there.

Religion

The Huns are more concerned about puns about Random Access Memory than religion typically, but if you do found a religion, here's a few decent choices to make.

Pantheon

Note that highly-situational Pantheons (including most faith Pantheons) aren't listed here, though picking up a faith Pantheon is a good idea to get a religion going more easily.

God of Craftsmen

Another production bonus. With the Liberty social policy tree and +1 production for pastures, you may very well have the best production in the game (at this stage, at least)

God of the Open Sky

You're already focusing on pastures, so why not +1 culture to that +1 production? Saves you having to build Monuments to start natural border expansion in cities.

Messenger of the Gods

Science is always a useful thing to have.

Faith Healers

This is great for healing up units rapidly after they've taken out a city.

Founder

Tithe or Church Property

Cash means more units. Tithe is generally the best all-round choice for money, but if you have or are up against a wide empire, Church Property may be more useful.

Initiation Rites

A decent source of gold for Civs like the Huns which are likely to struggle to have a strong religion and hence can't consistently make use of Tithe or Church Property.

Follower

Pagodas

Happiness is crucial for warmongers, even ones like the Huns which make heavy use of razing rather than keeping what they take. After all, you can't raze original capitals. Pagodas offer two points of local city happiness with no maintenance cost making them excellent for solving this problem.

Mosques

Mosques offer less happiness than Pagodas but more faith. Unless your faith output is very low, Pagodas will usually be a better first choice.

Asceticism

One of the easiest religious beliefs to get happiness from, all you need is your religion to be dominant in a city of at least size 5 with a Shrine. It's easier done than said.

Cathedrals

Half as good as Pagodas (ignoring the Great Art slot which isn't very useful for the Huns) but the same faith cost, making this only useful as a backup option. Peace Gardens and Religious Centre are probably better choices if your faith output is very poor.

Guruship

Not particularly useful until the medieval era, but production is production nonetheless. Handy for maitaining productive superiority a bit beyond normal.

Holy Warriors

A good place to dump excess Faith. If you get this particularly early, you could even support your Horse Archer/Battering Ram armies with faith-purchased units.

Religious Community

A favourite of mine. True, it aids tall empires the most, but if you're going for the spaceship as a backup strategy, you'll probably have a couple of cities that will eventually find this very useful.

Enhancer

Religious Texts or Itinerant Preachers

Here's some faith-free ways to help spread your religion, so you can focus on other things.

Just War

If you like to mix faith into your conquests, this is for you. Just War's 20% bonus against same-religion enemies gives you a powerful edge.

World Congress

You won't be pleasing many people, so your role in the World Congress may be limited, but here's a list of the decisions and brief notes on importance of some. Ones missing depend greatly on the situation you're in. Voting choices may vary depending on your game (for example, if you get lots of Natural Wonders, Natural Heritage Sites may be worth it)

Arts Funding

Medium priority
Vote no

Cultural Heritage Sites

Low priority
Vote no

Embargo City-States

High priority
Vote no

Voting "no" is because of the fact you'll likely rely on City-States for International Trade Routes (as probably everyone will hate you and hence your routes aren't safe otherwise)

Historical Landmarks

Low priority
Vote no

International Games

Medium priority
Vote yes if you can spare enough production - the happiness for even bronze level contribution is useful, and one-off city state boosts are good for militaristic City-States

International Space Station

Medium-High priority
Vote yes if you can spare the production

Natural Heritage Sites

Low priority
Vote no

Nuclear Non-Proliferation

High priority
Vote yes if you have plenty of nuclear weapons, you lack uranium and other players have them or you're the only player with nuclear weapons. Vote no otherwise.

Scholars in Residence

Medium-High priority
Vote yes unless you're in the lead technologically speaking

Sciences Funding

Medium priority
Vote yes

Standing Army Tax

Very High priority
Vote no

World's Fair

Low priority
Vote no

Wonders

Until the time of Battering Rams and Horse Archers is over, the Huns absolutely shouldn't be building wonders. It's a waste of precious early-game production you could be using to conquer places. However, as the game pans out, you may have an opportunity to sneak a few in. Here's a pick of the best.

Medieval Era

Alhambra

A free promotion goes well with all the XP boosts you'll get with policies to make your newer units stronger.

Notre Dame

Warring in the midgame? The happiness bonus from Notre Dame will help ensure your happiness doesn't fall into negative values while you're razing cities.

Renaissance Era

Leaning Tower of Pisa

If your intention is to head down the Order ideology for a Science victory, this is a good wonder to build to assist in generating Great Engineers. Otherwise, ignore it.

Industrial Era

Big Ben (Commerce Only)

If you're heading down the Commerce path to Mercantilism, Big Ben is another bonus to cheap unit purchasing.

Brandenburg Gate

If you have this and Alhambra in the same city, along with all three XP-granting buildings, you can immediately get promotions like March for new melee units.

Modern Era

Kremlin (Order Only)

If you want science as a backup plan but want to win by war, taking Order and building the Kremlin is a decent route to take. A free Social Policy and huge bonus to building armour units is a great wartime advantage.

Neuschwanstein

An excellent wonder for supporting conquests, this turns Castles from a fairly unremarkable defensive building into a maintenance-free source of happiness, culture and gold.

Prora (Autocracy Only)

Provides more happiness to help support conquests. Plus a free Social Policy.

Atomic Era

Pentagon

You may be promoting your Horse Archers and Battering Rams all the way up to Tanks and Rocket Artillery. Help take off some of that cost burden, meaning more money for buying new units.

Information Era

Hubble Space Telescope (Scientific Huns favoured)

If you're going for a science victory and you think the benefits of this wonder offset the opportunity costs of working towards Spaceship parts, go for it.

Pitfalls to Avoid

t's easy to waste precious turns early in the game, or make a poor tactical decision. Here's a few pointers about mistakes likely to be made in playing with The Huns.

Barracks building early on

Barracks provide promotions to new units. However, they cost the same production as a Battering Ram at the same technology. Think about what you need more: Taking down that city much faster or taking it down slightly faster? Alternatively, use the time saved to attack sooner before they have a chance to defend.

Early wonders

You're leading a militaristic nation. If you want wonders, you plunder them off other players. Anyway, the benefits of early-game army-based wonders don't outweigh the cost (The Statue of Zeus costs the equivilant of over two Battering Rams. A mild bonus vs. cities or a huge one? Your choice.)

Mad rushes for horses

Don't waste precious early turns moving your first Settler near Horses, unless the spot is generally just better than your starting position. Horse Archers don't need horses, remember?

Overconfidence in the first attack

A good defending nation like Ethiopia or Babylon could make an early rush harder than normal. If you lose lots of Horse Archers and Battering Rams, you may be undefended back home...

Overconfidence after winning the first attack

Unless you're playing a duel map, there's still a long way to go for victory. You probably won't win before your unique units are rendered obselete, so use the immediate advantage of a second capital city (starting locations tend to have some of the best city spots) to help keep you from falling behind other nations.

Expecting to take others off guard

Pretty much every human player will know you intend to win the game early. Hence, they'll prepare. Expect to face a lot of Archers.

Burning down everything

World Wonder-rich or resource-rich cities, or cities with good Natural Wonders are probably worth hanging on to. Raze them part of the way to reduce unhappiness from population if you have to, but burning down really good cities will hurt you more than it'll help you.

Annihilating Attila: The Counter-Strategies

Attila is a huge threat in the very early game, more so than pretty much anyone else. The key to playing against him, therefore, is to outlast his unique units.

Playing against the UA: Scourge of God

The Huns place a lot of emphasis on pastures. Early discovery of horses together with +1 production means that such areas are desirable for them to expand into. However, it's also a weakness; taking good pasture spots leaves them with much diminished production compared to what they could achieve. And if they do take those spots, remember that pillaging their pastures hurts them harder than pillaging other resources.

As an early-game aggressor, the Huns' army is likely to be bleeding their coffers dry. Hence, in the Classical and even Medieval eras, they may lack the gold to upgrade their units. Good time for some payback...

If that's not enough, the Huns will tend to anger everyone early on, something that lasts throughout the game. Hence, placing sanctions upon them through the World Congress is rather easy.

Playing against Battering Rams

You'll hate these if you play against the Huns. They can wipe out your capital in just two hits. As such, fighting them is always your top priority.

The Cover I promotion Rams have cancels out vulnerability in defence, but 1 less strength than a Spearman and no defensive bonuses means Archers are still better against them than they are against non-unique Spearmen. Archers work well in defence as you can easily position them out of harm's way.

Probably the best way of taking out Rams, however, is through Horsemen. With a good amount of movement, a melee attack and 12 strength, Horsemen can easily outrun them and smash them to pieces. With no Spearmen, the Huns cannot easily stop them.

In the Huns' own lands, Battering Rams are completely powerless, except for flanking bonuses and blocking your way. They can't attack you, so you can safely ignore them and focus fire on their other units.

In a prolonged war, tech towards Construction. Masonry on the way will give you Walls so your cities can take an extra hit by Rams, and Construction's Composite Bowmen give you a unit with a higher damage output than their Horse Archers.

Playing against Horse Archers

While Horse Archers have slightly more defensive strength than Chariot Archers, they still lack defensive bonuses and are vulnerable to attack. Spearmen don't have a 50% bonus against them, (unlike the bonus they have against Horsemen,) but are relatively cheap and have enough strength to deal with them. Ranged units of your own may work even more effectively.

If you're up against Horse Archers with Range or Logistics (the latter of which allows them to move after attacking) it may be hard to catch up with them. Horsemen do decently well at this task.

Strategy by Style

Warmongers - Either Horsemen or Swordsmen will do fine in defence for you. When you've defeated their Rams, taking the offensive is a good idea as their defence is likely to be weak. Alternatively, attack the Huns at their weak point in the late Classical to Medieval eras.

Builders - Composite Bowmen will be your salvation. Work with your fellow builders to prevent anyone falling to the Huns so they're little threat later in the game.

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Civ-specific guides, in alphabetical order

All 43 Civs are covered in in-depth guides linked below. In brackets are the favoured victory routes of each Civ.

• America (Domination)
  
• Arabia (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
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• Austria (Cultural, Domination and Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Babylon (Scientific)
  
• Brazil (Cultural)
  
• Byzantium (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Carthage (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Celts (Cultural)
  
• China (Domination)
  
• Denmark (Domination)
  
• Egypt (Cultural)
  
• England (Domination)
  
• Ethiopia (Cultural/Scientific)
  
• France (Cultural)
  
• Germany (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Greece (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Huns (Domination)
  
• Inca (Scientific)
  
• India (Cultural/Scientific)
  
• Indonesia (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Iroquois (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Japan (Domination)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Mayans (Scientific)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Morocco (Diplomatic)
  
• Netherlands (Diplomatic, Domination and Scientific)
  
• Ottomans (Domination)
  
• Persia (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Poland (Domination)
  
• Polynesia (Cultural)
  
• Portugal (Diplomatic)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Domination)
  
• Shoshone (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Siam (Diplomatic/Scientific)
  
• Songhai (Domination)
  
• Spain (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Sweden (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Venice (Diplomatic)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

[thorsson64]

Thanks for this. Playing Civ again for the first time in c. 10 years and fancied a pure Dom game. I ignored religion altogether, but would note that this placed some stress on happiness. If I try it again I would make sure happiness was higher up my priorities.

[Falchion]

Thanks!

[Zigzagzigal]

In Civ 6, Sumeria, the Aztecs and Nubia are among the best for an immediate early rush.

[Falchion]

Hi zigzagzigal!
For civ 5 the best early war rush civs are huns and assyria right? How about civ 6 civs that are similar in this regard?

[Zigzagzigal]

Yes. You won't need any units other than your two UUs for early warfare.

[Oraps513]

can battering rams capture cities?

[Zigzagzigal]

I think when all city names are exhausted, it starts taking from city lists of Civs not in your game.

[Oraps513]

if you're playing 1v1 against Venice as the Huns, does the borrow city names part of the unique ability work?

[C0untzer0]

Angkor Wat may be worth grabbing, it helps you expand to get resources with fewer cities.

[Light]

I found that using 2 march horse archers and 4 battering rams was very hard to attack the enemy units with. I didn't have the problem of killing the units, but I had the problem of being in 4 places at one time.