Attila the Hun, the Scourge of God
The Battle of Chalons (also known as the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains) is a battle that occurred in Gaul (modern France) in 451 AD. It features in Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion as a historical battle. You take the role of a Hunnic army as it takes on a combined Western Roman and Gothic army.
Description[]
Battle objectives
- Destroy or rout all enemies.
The fate of a once mighty Western Roman Empire hangs in the balance.
For years, Attila the Hun, supreme commander of a terrifying nomadic horde, the man known as the 'Scourge of God', has plagued the continent of Europe.
City after city has been sacked, tribe after tribe destroyed as Attila's peerless horse warriors have relentlessly crushed any foolish enough to stand against them. Even the still-powerful Eastern Roman Empire quails before the relentless Hunnic horde, paying huge sums in tribute for the Huns to just stay away.
The Romans of the Western Empire have looked on with growing horror as the Huns, with their scarred devilish faces, thrust down through Roman-occupied Gaul. Burning, looting and pillaging as they draw ever closer to the unprotected, rich cities and soft, fertile farmlands of central Italy.
The Roman general, Flavius Aetius, has raised an army to oppose them. Having also persuaded his erstwhile enemy Theoderic, King of the Visigoths, to join him in repelling the invaders, Aetius marches to relieve the besieged city of Orleans, offering battle nearby at Chalons.
Attila and his host of Huns must crush the Roman force which stands between him and his destiny as master of an entire continent.
Units[]
The Huns are outnumbered in this battle by the Romans, who have nearly double the amount of melee units the Huns have. They have around the same amount of cavalry, though not as much missile cavalry, as well as their carriage ballistae, which is a surprisingly capable missile unit. The one thing the Huns have going for them is that their infantry are veterans, with silver veterancy and silver buffs to their attack/defence (+2 each), so even though they lack numbers, they are superior soldiers than the Romans and Goths.
Attila the Hun (Huns)[]
The Hunnic army is composed mainly of cavalry of all types, from horse archers to light to heavy cavalry, and a few units of spearmen and heavy infantry. The army breakdown is as follows:
- Warlord x1
- Steppe Spearmen x2
- Steppe Swordsmen x2
- Steppe Heavy Spearmen x1
- Hunnic Heavy Cavalry x3
- Hun Lancers x1
- Tribal Cavalry x2
- Hunnic Archers x1
- Hunnic Elite Warriors x3
Flavius Aetius (Romans)[]
The Roman army is composed mainly of heavy infantry and spearmen, with many units of cavalry, including horse archers and carriage balistae. The army breakdown is as follows:
- Imperial German Bodyguard x1
- Limitanei x2
- Foederati Infantry x2
- Comitatenses x3
- Auxilia Palatina x1
- Golden Band x1
- Scholae Palatinae x2
- Foederati Cavalry x2
- Mercenary Alan Horse Archers x1
- Mercenary Alan Nobles x1
- Catholic Priest x1
- Carriage Balistae x1
Theodoric I (Goths)[]
The Gothic army consists only of four units: two of heavy cavalry, one of horse archers, and one of spearmen. The army breakdown is as follows:
- Warlord x1
- Goth Noble Warriors x1
- Goth Horse Archers x1
- Gothic Spearmen x1
Tactics[]
The battle starts as two battle lines, with the Huns facing the Romans and the Goths on the side. There's two hills to the right, one close to the Romans and the other behind the Huns. The Goths are slightly away from the Romans, the furthest away from the Huns, while the Roman infantry is forming their front line with cavalry on the flanks. The other thing is that the Hun infantry start off on yellow 'winded' stamina, so they'll generally fight and move slower than the Romans. Four units of the Hunnic cavalry, consisting of their light cavalry contingent, is hiding behind the trees to the left, hidden from view.
The first thing that the Huns should do is start moving their infantry to the hill behind them. There's a better defensive position on the hill and the Romans will have to run all the way across the battlefield to reach them. The Hunnic mounted archers should also try to kill off the carriage ballistae, Mercenary Alan Horse Archers and any other ranged unit, like the Goth Horse Archers, but they're still a little while away. Taking out some of the lighter armoured melee units such as the Limitanei and Foederati Infantry will also be valuable, as the horse archers of the Huns are their most important unit in this battle, and ammo is limited.
The Hunnic light cavalry should be placed in the forest to ambush the Goths as they come past. Their spearmen will decimate the Hun light cavalry, but if executed right, the light cavalry can tear into and rout the Goth Horse Archers before they can deal much damage, though trying to kill the Goth general is not advised, since most of the light cavalry will rout before sufficient damage can be done to the general or kill it.
The Roman heavy cavalry will end up engaging the Hun heavy cavalry and Attila himself, though using the Hun spearmen combined with the heavy cavalry, the Romans can be driven off with limited losses. Through all this, the Hun mounted archers should be peppering the Roman cavalry and infantry. The Hunnic Elite Warriors are excellent cavalry units, with an excellent melee stat should one of the Roman cavalry catch them, but they have a lot of arrows to use and they should try to be used until empty before they are made to fight as melee cavalry.
The lighter Roman cavalry, such as the Foederati Cavalry, can be taken out relatively easily by the heavy cavalry of the Huns, and if an opportunity arises to fight and possibly kill the Roman general during this point, it should be taken, as the morale damage can be invaluable to surviving this battle. All the infantry should be left alone by the cavalry for the most part, unless already engaged by Hunnic infantry, until the Roman cavalry has been destroyed. While outnumbered, thanks to their buffs and veterancy, the Hun infantry can stand up to and beat the Roman infantry, so the cavalry can just charge in from the rear once the Roman cavalry has been either destroyed or routed.
The Goths will likely be the last ones standing, as they start away from the Huns and so take longer to reach them. The remaining light Hun cavalry should focus on hunting down the Goth Horse Archers or running down fleeing Roman units who have enough units to possibly regain morale and return to the fight, since by now the light cavalry will have served their purpose and can't fight the Warlord toe-to-toe or fight the spearmen, so they can hunt down large units of Romans. The remaining Hun infantry should attack the spearmen while Attila and the remaining Hun heavy cavalry can engage the Goth Noble Warriors and Warlord. Arrows will now have either run out or be close to, so the Hunnic Elite Warriors can put their excellent melee stats to good use in the final stage of the battle. They will be valuable fresh, and hopefully still mostly untouched, heavy cavalry who can help out the by now exhausted and whittled down Hunnic cavalry units remaining. When the Warlord is routed and the general hopefully killed, the shock of that combined with a charge made on the spearmen by whatever melee units there are left should break the spearmen and thus rout the rest of the army, ended the battle in a Hunnic victory.
Gallery[]
