Arcane Legions

The Xiongnu are perhaps the finest cavalry in the world, certainly better than anything Egypt can offer, which is why Antony and Cleopatra paid exorbitant sums for their services against Octavian’s Roman legions. With the need to raise capital and resources to use against their Han enemies, the Xiongnu took the Egyptians’ gold—and then took the gold of the Romans, with the stipulation that Xiongnu not face Xiongnu.

The Xiongnu display superior skills at almost every traditional cavalry role, but they excel at independent actions designed to disrupt the enemy’s logistics and concentrations. Small clans of Xiongnu skirmishers ride fast and hard, sometimes widely around enemy armies, and strike at the weak unprotected rear areas—villages and bridges, towns and supply routes, forcing the enemy to detach units of their own to try to stop the raiding. A particularly ruthless Roman commander might try to force his march in the face of Xiongnu raids, but he will quickly find the countryside around him drying up as the villagers and peasants who provide his supplies flee or ignore his requests.

In combat against other soldiers the Xiongnu skirmisher fights like a demon. A pack of cavalrymen will sweep down upon a small unit or the flank of a larger one, striking with sword or armored hoof, and then retreat out of range and recover, only to swing around and strike again. It is an article of faith among the Xiongnu never to get bogged down in fighting—they are the better horsemen: no enemy can catch them, but they can catch their enemies whenever they choose.