Huns: the complete tribe guide

Huns arrived alongside Egyptians and are almost their mirror image: speed, cavalry, farming, aggression and high player activity. In the right hands they snowball extremely quickly; in passive hands their weak defensive infrastructure becomes very noticeable, very fast.

Every unit below links to its page in the unit database, and every comparison opens in the Unit comparison with both sides already chosen. The whole roster is on the Huns page.

The hero

The Hun hero's cavalry-speed bonus pays twice. Early, pairing the hero with a cavalry scout speeds up oasis trips during the second-village race. Later, the same mechanic supports very fast cavalry and ghost-hammer operations, where arriving before the defence can be organised is the whole plan. The equipment that changes those numbers is in the hero database.

The Command Center

The Command Center is a major strategic advantage: it gives Huns extra administrator capacity, so six chiefs can be sent from two villages in configurations where conventional tribes manage five.

That matters more than the Logades's volatile 15-30% loyalty range suggests. Five Logades give 75-150%, which can fail; six give 90-180%, which usually does not. Administrators: loyalty and conquering villages works the arithmetic through.

The wall

The Makeshift Wall is the weakest wall in the game, and the tribe is built to make that acceptable: a Hun village defends by having its army somewhere else doing damage, not by surviving a siege.

Troops, and what they are up against

Mercenary

Hybrid offence and defence for one crop and only 290 resources - the cheapest flexible starter in the game.

Unit	Def inf	Def cav	Def / 100 res	Crop	Cost	Speed	Side by side
MercenaryHuns	40	30	12.1	1	290	6	this troop
LegionnaireRomans	35	50	10.6	1	400	6	Compare
HopliteSpartans	35	30	7.4	1	440	6	Compare
PhalanxGauls	40	50	14.3	1	315	7	Compare
Ash WardenEgyptians	55	40	11.3	1	420	6	Compare

Bowman

Pure offensive infantry with weaker defence. The choice against the Mercenary is specialisation versus flexibility: see them side by side.

Unit	Attack	Attack / 100 res	Crop	Cost	Speed	Carry	Side by side
BowmanHuns	50	13.5	1	370	6	30	this troop
ClubswingerTeutons	40	16.0	1	250	7	60	Compare
ThrallVikings	45	17.0	1	265	7	55	Compare
SwordsmanGauls	65	12.1	1	535	6	45	Compare
ImperianRomans	70	11.7	1	600	7	50	Compare

Spotter

The fastest scout in the game at 19 fields an hour. Scouting explains how a scouting battle resolves.

Unit	Def inf	Def cav	Speed	Crop	Cost	Side by side
SpotterHuns	20	10	19	2	380	this troop
PathfinderGauls	20	10	17	2	380	Compare
Equites LegatiRomans	20	10	16	2	360	Compare
Sopdu ExplorerEgyptians	20	10	16	2	380	Compare
ScoutTeutons	10	5	9	1	360	Compare

Steppe Rider

One of the core snowball units: 120 attack, speed 16, 75 carry, two crop and under 900 resources. It farms and it fights, which is what makes an early Hun account compound.

Unit	Attack	Attack / crop	Attack / 100 res	Crop	Cost	Speed	Carry	Side by side
Steppe RiderHuns	120	60.0	13.4	2	895	16	75	this troop
Theutates ThunderGauls	100	50.0	9.2	2	1,090	19	75	Compare
Equites ImperatorisRomans	120	40.0	8.5	3	1,410	14	100	Compare
Valkyrie’s BlessingVikings	160	80.0	9.8	2	1,625	9	80	Compare

Marksman

A rare hybrid cavalry unit that can raid, attack and still contribute defensively - the reason an active Hun account is not defenceless.

Unit	Def inf	Def cav	Def inf / crop	Def cav / crop	Def / 100 res	Crop	Cost	Speed	Side by side
MarksmanHuns	80	70	40.0	35.0	7.1	2	1,050	15	this troop
Resheph ChariotEgyptians	120	150	40.0	50.0	7.5	3	1,800	10	Compare
HaeduanGauls	60	165	20.0	55.0	5.7	3	1,965	13	Compare
Elpida RiderSpartans	120	90	60.0	45.0	7.3	2	1,440	16	Compare
Huskarl RiderVikings	95	100	47.5	50.0	9.2	2	1,055	12	Compare

Marauder

Heavy offensive cavalry, better suited to late-game hammer concentration than to early farming.

Unit	Attack	Attack / crop	Attack / 100 res	Crop	Cost	Speed	Carry	Side by side
MarauderHuns	180	60.0	10.2	3	1,760	14	80	this troop
Equites CaesarisRomans	180	45.0	8.3	4	2,170	10	70	Compare
Corinthian CrusherSpartans	195	65.0	8.4	3	2,315	9	80	Compare
Teutonic KnightTeutons	150	50.0	9.8	3	1,525	9	80	Compare
Valkyrie’s BlessingVikings	160	80.0	9.8	2	1,625	9	80	Compare

Ram and Catapult

Conventional siege sacrifices the speed advantage of a pure cavalry force, so a Hun account has to decide which army it is building. Rams and walls and Catapults: targets, durability and how many to send cover both.

Unit	Attack	Attack / 100 res	Def cav	Cost	Crop	Side by side
RamHuns	65	3.6	90	1,820	3	this troop
RamTeutons	65	3.8	80	1,720	3	Compare
Battering ramRomans	60	3.3	75	1,830	3	Compare
RamGauls	50	2.6	105	1,910	3	Compare

Unit	Attack	Attack / 100 res	Def cav	Cost	Crop	Side by side
CatapultHuns	45	1.5	10	2,910	6	this troop
Fire CatapultRomans	75	2.5	10	2,990	6	Compare
TrebuchetGauls	70	2.2	10	3,130	6	Compare
Stone CatapultEgyptians	65	2.0	10	3,250	6	Compare

Logades

15-30% loyalty per hit: the highest variance in the game, and the reason the Command Center matters so much.

Unit	Loyalty per hit	Cost	Crop	Speed	Side by side
LogadesHuns	15-30%	117,600	4	5	this troop
SenatorRomans	20-30%	140,450	5	4	Compare
ChiefTeutons	20-25%	114,300	4	4	Compare
JarlVikings	15-30%	114,300	4	5	Compare

Settler

Huns gain their expansion edge through farming tempo rather than cheap settlers. Settlers and founding villages covers culture points and slots.

Unit	Cost	Carry	Crop	Speed	Side by side
SettlerHuns	20,900	3,000	1	5	this troop
SettlerGauls	18,100	3,000	1	5	Compare
SettlerRomans	19,000	3,000	1	5	Compare
SettlerEgyptians	21,000	3,000	1	5	Compare

Rainbow farming

Huns are unusually well suited to rainbow farming: small mixed groups of fast offensive cavalry exploit Travian's proportional loss calculation and its whole-unit rounding. When the losses of each troop type stay below the rounding threshold, a group that has mathematically taken damage can come back without losing an actual unit.

The exact breakpoints depend on the defence being hit, and are a job for the Battle simulator rather than for a number written into a guide - a figure that is right against one farm is wrong against the next.

Defensive strategy

Huns are not naturally a passive defensive tribe. Mercenary + Marksman makes a useful hybrid army, letting an extremely active player attack and farm while keeping more defensive utility than a pure hammer. With the weakest wall in the game, tempo and troop movement substitute for static security.

Offensive strategy

Early offence centres on Steppe Rider farming. Later, Marauders trade some farming efficiency for higher hammer concentration. A conventional hammer adds siege; a ghost hammer deliberately leaves it out to keep the movement speed that makes the tribe dangerous.

The numbers: which Hun cavalry

Four Hun offensive shapes on the same 100,000 crop:

Army	Troops	Attack	Resources	Days to train
Marauder	33,333	5,999,940	58,666,080	155.8
Steppe Rider	50,000	6,000,000+0%	44,750,000-24%	187.6+20%
Bowman + Marauder	50,000 + 16,666	5,499,880-8.3%	47,832,160-18%	87.6-44%
Marksman	50,000	5,500,000-8.3%	52,500,000-11%	193.9+24%

Steppe Riders match Marauders on attack per crop - within a tenth of a percent - for about 24% fewer resources. Everything that makes the Marauder the late-game unit is outside that column: it concentrates the same attack into fewer troops, which matters when the crop is in one village and the Stable hours are the constraint. The Steppe Rider row takes about 21% longer to train precisely because there are more of them.

Bowman + Marauder trains in about half the time of either pure-cavalry army, because the Barracks and the Stable work at once, and gives up about 8% of the attack. For an account with one good village and a deadline, that is usually the right trade.

Marksmen cost about 8% of the attack, and buy something the attack column cannot show: the same crop of them carries more than twice the defence of any other row above. That is the hybrid Hun army, and the reason an active Hun player is not simply a farm waiting to happen - the troop comparison further up has the defensive figures.

The numbers: what Hun defence really costs

Army	Troops	Def inf	Def cav	Resources	Days to train
Mercenary + Marksman	50,000 + 25,000	4,000,000	3,250,000	40,750,000	96.9
Spearman + Druidrider	50,000 + 25,000	4,625,000+16%	4,375,000+35%	44,250,000+8.6%	100.1+3.2%

A dedicated Teuton and Gaul wall carries 16% more infantry defence and 35% more cavalry defence than the Hun hybrid on the same crop, for 9% more resources. That is the price of versatility, and it is not a disaster - but it is why a Hun alliance asks somebody else to hold the Wonder.

Strengths, weaknesses and common mistakes

• Strength. The fastest army in the game, and the tempo that comes with it.
• Strength. The Command Center, which changes what a chiefing operation can attempt.
• Strength. Cheap, effective offensive cavalry from very early.
• Weakness. The weakest wall, and no natural defensive line.
• Weakness. A passive Hun account is worse than a passive anything else.
• Mistake. Building siege into an army whose whole advantage is speed, without deciding which of the two you actually want.
• Mistake. Treating the Logades range as reliable. It is not - that is what the sixth chief is for.

Where to go next

• The seven tribes compared by the numbers - every tribe's best attacker and defender.
• Battle simulator - rounding, losses and rainbow-farming breakpoints.
• Administrators: loyalty and conquering villages - what five and six chiefs actually achieve.
• Army calculator - price the whole army, buildings included.