DBA Armies

II/80 HUNNIC 356 AD - 570 AD

This list covers western Hunnic armies from their emergence from the steppes and contact with the Alans in 374 until the last remnants were absorbed by the Avars. The list also covers the (possibly unrelated) Chionites and Hephthalites or “White Huns” and the Sabir; the Chionites from their first intervention in Kushan Bactria in 356 until their destruction by the Sassanids in 468; the Hephthalites until their western part’s amalgamation with remnants of the Juan-juan to form the Avars after 558 and the loss of the eastern part’s Indian empire around 570; and the Sabir from their arrival in the steppes north of the Caucasus around 515 until they were absorbed into the Volga Bulgar confederacy in 558. Contemporaries stress the Huns’ savagery and barbarism “even compared to their neighbours”, that “while other peoples were carried on horseback, the Huns lived there”, their expertise with exceptionally powerful bows and their total confidence. Huns are initially described as wearing linen or animal-skin garments and “furrowing their cheeks with knives to prevent the growth of beards” (which could simply mean they were bad at shaving).When they acquired textile garments, they wore them unwashed until they rotted and fell off. Their mounts were not small ponies but big, tractable, tough, but ugly horses with heavy heads and flat rumps. Only a few nobles had armour and lances. Others sometimes accompanied bows and bone- tipped arrows with javelins or a lasso. The western Huns were most dangerous when united, the most famous example being the army of Attila until his death in 453 enabled his subject peoples to rebel. The Sabir Huns provided both Byzantines and Sassanids with mercenary infantry that were “exceedingly ferocious and rapacious” and good at siege work. How they were equipped is obscure, since they are described both as “hoplitai” and shooting rapidly on foot and there is also a mention of a Hun leaning on a long shield. Chionites included a proportion of unarmoured riders with lance as well as bow and otherwise looked much like Parthian horse archers. References: Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome P. Barker, The World of the Huns O.]. Maenchen-Helfen, The Death of Attila C.Holland (novel), The Year of the Horsetails R.F. Tapsell (novel).

II/80a — Attila’s army 433 AD - 453 AD

List: 1 x General (Cv or LH), 5 x Hun horse archers (LH), 1 x Ostrogoths and Gepids (3Kn), 2 x Hun horse archers (LH) or Burgundian, Rugian, Thuringian and Frankish subject warriors (4Wb), 2 x subject warriors (4Wb), 1 x archers (Ps)
Terrain: Steppe
Aggression: 4
Enemies:

II/80b — Sabir Hunnic Army 515 AD - 558 AD

List: 1 x General on horseback (Cv or LH) or on foot (4Wb), 6 x horse archers (LH), 5 x Hunnic warriors (4Wb or 4Bw)
Terrain: Hilly
Aggression: 3
Enemies:

II/80c — Chionite or Hephthalite Hunnic Army in Bactria or India 356 AD - 570 AD

List: 1 x Genera! (Cv), 8 x light horse (LH), 1 x lancers [if Chionite] (3Kn) or elephants crewed by 10 halberdiers [if Hephthalite] (El), 2 x archers (3Bw/LH)
Terrain: Tropical
Aggression: 1
Enemies:

II/80d — Other Hunnic Armies 374 AD - 558 AD

List: 1 x General (Cv or LH), 11 x horse archers (LH)
Terrain: Steppe
Aggression: 3
Enemies: