Alemanni (BI faction)

[frogbeastegg]

Guide.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

[EDIT:] Sorted a few typos and added some screenshots

Alemanni: Campaign Objectives

Hold 20 settlements including: Germania Superior, Pannonia and Northern Italy.


Alemanni: Intro & Starting Position

Tricky faction this one, you'll need a lot of patience and will need to experiment quite a bit. Tried it on VH / VH and its seriously challenging. This is because you only start with a single settlement, and are surrounded by enemies including:-

* Western Roman Empire (West, North West, South West, South)
* Franks (North)
* Lombardi (East)
* Burgundi (North East)
* Saxons (North of the Franks)


Starting Position: Tactics

Your starting position is not great, although there is a bridge to the west which you can hold. This will put pressure on the two nearby WRE settlements (one to the south, the other to the west), as you can block WRE armies from supporting each other directly.

Your starting settlement (Campus Alemanni) is surrounded by rivers, dense forests, and plenty of ambushing spots. This makes it difficult for your enemies attacking from the east (Lombardi, Burgundi), as it will take them a number of turns before they actually reach your settlement. Within the first few turns, place watchtowers along your eastern borders. You will now be able to watch any intruders crossing over, and will have a few turns to organise your defences.

Also, you can only tech-up to roads, so this works in your favour as your enemies cannot advance through your territory (towards your settlement) as quickly. However, attackers from the north (Franks), south (WRE) and west (WRE) are able to build paved roads / highways. Since your settlement is in the immediate vicinity of about 3 WRE settlements and the Franks to the north, they will be able to move their armies upon you in no time, so be prepared.


Forced Expansion due to weak starting economy

The major problem you face playing the Alemanni is poor starting income. As you only have a single starting settlement, you won't be able to support many powerful armies until you have taken several settlements around your own. There are a number of choices you can make, including:

i - Kick out the Franks

You could take Campus Franki (the Franks only settlement), which will then double your starting settlements and possibly income. However, if you take this settlement, the Franks have the ability to from hordes and swarm all over the campaign map in any direction, attacking anything that gets in their way. This might include your capital, depending how angry they are ~D Remember that unlike the Franks and other nomadic peoples, the Alemanni cannot form a horde and escape from their attackers.

ii - Cross the frozen Rhine and pillage the WRE

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/785427/26725/user_26725/T1_26725_785427.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=785427)

Alternatively, you could sack the nearby WRE settlements, which are usually large city size, and are very profitable. The problem here though is that the Romans will not give up without a fight. If you lay siege to one of their settlements, expect Roman reinforcements to appear in a couple of turns or less. These reinforcements typically include (sp?) Limitanes, Comitatneses, Mercenary Burculli, Auxilia Palatina, Foderati infantry / cavalry, Archers, Roman commanders etc. This is where the Night Fighter trait comes into play. Enemy reinforcements are ignored if you manage to launch a siege / battle at night, so the defenders are helpless (and sometimes outnumbered ~D).

iii - Go on a horde-like campaign

If all else fails, you become hopelessly outnumbered, and are completely surrounded, you can always fight your way out and settle in a new part of the map. This method is very risky however, as you will need to keep at least one province / region under your control, otherwise you will lose the game. :furious3:

This means you will need to leave a decent garrison to fend off potential attackers whilst you send out your own armies to conquer new lands. Leave your weakest troops behind, and send out your strongest. Make sure you find a new settlement(s) quickly as unlike hordes, you still have to pay your army upkeep, and debts will soon mount as a result. For these reasons, you will have to settle in the first settlement you capture. You can always divide your army by sending your cavalry off to lay siege to a settlement, then have the main body of your army catch-up in a turn or so.

Don't forget, once you have conquered a new region, you can always partially level the settlement(s) you have just left. Destroy military, economic, religious, misc etc buildings to quickly raise some cash. The only ones you can't detroy are roads, farms, and other core buildings such as the govenor's / warlords headquarters (e.g. High Kings Hall, Pro-Consuls Palace). Also increase the tax rate to Very High - this will usually make the settlement rebel within 2 turns, and saves it falling straight into enemy hands.


The Hordes Arrive

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/785428/26725/user_26725/T1_26725_785428.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=785428)

Another potential problem facing the Alemanni are hordes. This is because you won't know they have entered your lands until you receive notification at the start of a turn. Keep your eyes open, scan your borders each turn, send out multiple spies to locate them, place watchtowers along your borders etc. If they do arrive unexpectedly, make sure you build your defences up quickly; otherwise consider part iii above and run away in the opposite direction! ~D

Once you have assessed the situation, make your decision and stand by it. Its no good making a last-minute decision as the chances are the horde will be upon you!

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/785430/26725/user_26725/T1_26725_785430.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=785430)


Alemanni: Armies

The Alemanni (comparable to the Germans in RTW) have a solid choice of infantry, with good supporting troops, broken down as follows:-

Infantry

Excellent selection of light and heavy infantry, with heroic warriors!

* Barbarian Peasants
* Spear Warband (can form Shiltrom)
* Chosen Axemen
* Night Raiders
* Lombard Beserkers (can go beserk & into bloodlust mode)

Cavalry

Good selection of dependable light and heavy cavalry, plus wardogs.

* Barbarian Cavalry
* Burgundian Lancers
* Noble Cavalry
* Recruitable Generals (from best cavalry barracks)
* Wardogs

Missile Support

Good choice of missile troops, plus onagers.

* Lombard Archers
* Chosen Archers
* Onagers

[Garvanko]

Tricky faction this one... Tried it on VH / VH and its seriously challenging.
On M/M, its a walkover. Nothing whatsoever happens. The Vandals and the Huns are hording from the start but never move outside Russia. Its an easy expansion downwards towards Rome.

[Ziaelas]

I played this faction at H/H, great fun. General ideas should be to negotiate alliances with all nearby barbarian factions if you can, then head east to take the rebel provinces, and use them to start churning out Lombard Berserkers and other units. Then when you have a suitable invasion force, take Ravenna and Mediolanium, and the minor roman towns to the west of Vicus Alemanni, then take the force you should have built up in the capital to defend you from the Romans south to take the city directly below you. Then build a big enough force to take Rome, and Tarentum. From there, expand eastward to take Aquincum, and west to Augusta Treverorum (I think, might be Augusta Vindelicorum, not good with those names). Then you have the choice of going westward and taking Massilia and other ex-Gallic provinces or eastward to Constantinople/Thessalonica/Athens. Or you could go south to Africa.

[SIGNIFER,LEGIOVIICLAUDIA]

I played also H/H with the Alemanni.I think the best thing one should do at first is to build the historical core of the kingdom(the places where at least germans or germanics lived).I captured at first Augusta Vindelicorum to cut off the Romans from bringing reinforcements from Italy.Then I captured Colonia Agrippina,Campus Frisii,and Augusta Trevorum.These settlements are the core of the kingdom.Then you can capture Mediolanum,vicus Franci and Tribus Saxones.
At the end,I had captured all the regions of Germany and Gaul,Pannonia and Noricum and northern Italy with Rome.
The best way to cope with the hordes is to kill their family members in battle,even if you lose the battle.In this way sooner or later the horde will have no leaders and will be defeated.
A good Allemanic army should consist of alot of cavalry(Burgundian lancers,noble cavalry) ,chosen axemen and chosen archers.
The germanics were more famous for their cavalry than for their infantry.

[Lettow-Vorbeck]

I have also been trying out the Allemani on H/H, decided to strike fast and early against the Western Romans and suceeded in overwhealming Augusta Vindelicorum and Augusta Trevorum. using the Lombards and Franks as allies i assembled an army Vindelicorum and marched south seizing Mediolanum. After the securing of the latest acquisition i concluded a ceasefire with the Western Romans aand retained my strenght for the coming hordes, in this i was lucky the Huns settled Tribus Iazyges(?) and the Goths headed west rapidly bypassing Mediolanum and into southern Gaul and Northern Spain, only the Vandals passed and lingered but by concluding an alliance they soon moved on from the Po Valley and headed west seizing Burdigala.

At this point the Franks had expanded eastwards seizing the two barbarian towns north of Carnumtum (cannot remember the names i am afraid) but had succumbed to a strong saxon attack and lost Vicus Franki! the mere thought of the Saxons within striking distance fo my own capital filled me with rage and i assembled a strong stack and promptly beat the Saxons with an assault (:skull: costly but worth it?:2thumbsup: ) and retrained the stack using the captured facilities of Vicus Franki and beat off two saxon stacks in sucession by placing my stacks in the woodland to the north of Vicus Franki and using ambush to surprise and shatter the Saxons. This string of defeats leads to them offering a cease fire to which i readily agree.
This latest bout of fighting left me with a nice stack of cash, allowing me to bring in more Chosen Axemen, Chosen Archers and Burgundian Lancers, in addition i establish a spy network covering all of Gaul, Italy, Germany and Northern Spain. And with the armies re-equipped i began preparations to strike at Rome, The Western Roman Empire held Spain, Southern Gaul and Italy and Aquincum isolated in the east, surrounded by Eastern Romans, Franks and Huns. Forming two stacks by draining the garrisons i struck at Rome with one stack while the second sealed the border with Massalia by holding the bridge to defeat the roman stacks gathering at Arles. By holding the bridge the romans are unable to bring re-inforcements while my small navy blockaded the coasts, Rome was besieged for 9 turns and fell, resisting my urge to spare the city i decide to externinate and sack:skull: .

I will post an update on further developements next week.

[Monarch]

After reverting back to vanilla RTW for a Seleucid Campaign for a while, I figured it was time for another shot at BI. I had previously conducted successful BI campaigns including Vandals, Saxons and Huns. I love to build an empire not retain it, so when palying BI I always go for barbarian factions (contrary to RTW, where civilzation is the only way forward). So anyway long story short I chose the Alemmani.

I am playing on hard campaign/medium battles.

First though: Aarrgh. Little army. Surrounded. No ports> poor economy.

So I assembled what I could and headed east into Campus Quiddi (sp?), this was rebel held and once under my control I could train Lombard Beserkers. Then I set the WRE lands as my target for an empire, leaving the barbs to fight amongst themselves, but not without signing trade rights for a little cash with them.

Then it was time to build up the treasury, and with markets not really working, prosperous Roman cities where the only way forward. So I took a couple, cant remember names but they where poorly defended, a Roman General and perhaps one more unit. I exterminated them, and then spent all the cash. Then conquered another city, exterminate, spend cash on buildings/army.

However after about three cities the WRE fought back in the east, all I can say is thank god for the two units of 'zerkers I had. Them joined with General and spear warbands fought off a well equipped Roman army or two.

Also, the key in taking out the various WRE stacks that float around the map is Sumour, your faction leader. He has the ability to do night battles, which isolates an army and makes them less effective. Meaning you dont need as many troops to take them out.

After more expansion with my faithful spear warbands I now have an empire stretching, narrowly, from the Channel to the Med. It is however a thin line and needs fortifying. I just invaded Ravanna (a few turns after taking Mediolanum) and that town let me recruit Chosen Axemen, I havn't used them in battle yet. But they where an integral part of my Saxon campaign and hopefully they'll be my horde-busters :)

I want to take the rest of the peninsula, then Sicily and Corsica. After that I want modern day France. We'll see what my province count is after that.

OK, I've just been churning out troops and building up cities. The extermination of Rome brought in loads of cash to fund this. In particular I am building up garrison troops on my eastern frontier. The Vandals and Goths are very close, and the Hunnic hordes are hovering around Salona.

The Saxons are boxed in now, the the WRE holds Campus Frisii and has a large garrison in there, so neither me, who holds Samobriva, or the Saxons who are still at Campus Saxons can bothered to lose the troops to take the small barbarian town (well it's true for me, the Saxons probably just dont have the troops). I landed a small invasion party on the British Isles so I could open up the Samobriva-Londinium trade route. I dont plan to take Ebaracum because I dont want to have to station lots of troops there to defend myself against the Romano British and Celts.

An enjoyable campaign so far, but if the hordes dont attack soon it'll get a little easy (when I take Massila I doubt the WRE will have any money left to raise troops lol) so I think I might send like a unit of peasents to attack them, thus declaring war and hopefully they'll go for one of my highly garrisoned cities.

I currently have 10 out of the required 20 provinces. Though I have not taken Avaricum yet, which is needed to win the game (hordes have already sacked it, so until I need it, I dont want to spend money rebuilding and defending it.)

[Franconicus]

I played vh/h.

My strategic plan was to turn south to get some of the big towns in Italy asap.

Firts of all I gathered my troops at the capital to upgrade them and build some more. I also sent my spy and assassin to Augusta Vindelicorum to open the gates and to kill the governer. However they failed and both were killed.:no:
I had to build another spy. Same thing happpaned. Only my thrid spy made it.
So I had some delay at the very beginning of my BLITZ campaign. Never mind. There were two WRE armies walking by. I attacked them and vaporized them andthen retrained my units. Then I was finally ready to attack AV. The gate was open, the defenders were few so no problem. I advanced south as fast as I could and took Mediolanum and, later, Ravenna. Money was not an issue then and I had enough pruduction capacity to build a fine army.

I decided not to take Rome but to clear France. I marched along the Mediterranian and had another speerhead in the north. Finally I defeated the WRE troops in France (only two provinces were left, both Rebels) and conquered Spain too.

The Franks assaulted me and took Campus Allemani. However, I stroke back and conquered their provinces too.

Then the hordes came. After a long fight I could erase the Wandals. Then the Goths too. Finally the Huns came. They gave me a hard time in northern Italy. They were allied with the Romans. Somehow they bring more troops than I can kill. Maybe I will start an operation to close all the gates to Italy.

From a tactical point of view the Allemani are all right. The spearmen are all right. Do not expect too much. The axemen are good, the night raiders are very good. However, I had only one town to refill them. Cavalry is good too.

I could finally repel the Hun invasion. I blocked the eastern approach of Italy with two forts and fought the Hun and Roman armies in Italy with three armies, one was a completly mounted one. Now there is only one Hun army left somewhere on the Eastern Roman territory.

My Italian army is currently besieging Rome. There are anoly four provinces missing to final victory.

However, the Slawians popped up.

[Tzar Vladimir]

I play vh/vh and think that "kick out the Franks'' is the worst way. Franks is very strong at start and has a good commander. I offer an allianse to them, they accept and this helps a lot inthrough many years.
Notise(!): The Roman commander in Augusta Vindelicorum has 4 stars but fears the barbarians - the best victim for the first strike! Don't build anything at the first turns, put all your money to train the best foot troops and, maybe, for couple of mercenaries and when WRE rebellion starts attack this city - the easiest way to solve the poor income and start position problems.

[Avicenna]

Gratianus is always a nice target for the barbarians :2thumbsup:

He's not only afriad of smelly barbarians, he also has a morale decreasing Evil Mother-in-Law, the trait Craven Coward and some more. All in all, he is a major morale decreaser, if being a night fighter to make up for that. He's also got only an archer unit, so an army led by him is nice training.

[Fuzzy]

Hey guys...I would first like to say thanks to all the guides here, they are all pretty interesting reads and help flush out the and add to the immersion level of the game. They are all well written.

Let me first say I am an Shogun player, I use to play the game online through their matchmaking system back when the game first came out, and am happy to say I held the top 3 spots for 1v1 battles. (GO ME!!)

I played Rome: Total War, but the lack of the competitive ladder kept me from playing the game too much, although it was enjoyable I never really got into it like I have recently. I just picked up the BI expansion pack about two days ago and was messing around getting destroyed by the AI. I usually play on VH/H and lets just say things were not looking good for my triumphant return. I turned to this website immediately to gain any filler knowledge that I needed in order to really bring the pain in the campaign.

All these guides have been a tremendous help and I thought I would add my two cents so far from my limited knowledge of playing thus far. I know I know, BI came out AGES ago! Anyway my take, and I am sure this applies to almost any other faction as the units I use are mainly just the Faction family member bodyguards.

This seems like border line glitch to me, but it has helped me grasp a little more of the game, and I thought I would share it with you guys.

I started my umpteenth campaign yesterday after experimenting with the infantry armies, I found that the pitfalls of retraining and mixing troops was really putting me in a bad spot in the beginning...nonetheless I overcame and this was my what I came up with to pretty much dominate any army that proceeded to stand in my way.

I am not sure if some want to hear this, because I said it seems like border line glitching.



Ok here I am at the beginning of yet another campaign, I was having hard times previously and decided to go with the good old turtle and mass archers, disbanding all beginning troops in order to supplement a larger defensive force behind my city walls. The thing I found to be the most problematic at the very beginning was that if I tried to take any rebel camps in the initial turns, I was often (and when I say often I mean every time) was attacked at home by a consistent force of WRE that would beat me down, or the other factions would break newly formed alliances and besiege my new settlements. I was unable to put forth any meaningful army and my treasury was soon DEEP in the red.

Ok, after the build up of defensive forces I was still having a hard time playing the turtle once again, I found my treasury to be in the negative. The MAIN reason for this was not my army but my GENERALS! The amount of money spent on three units was almost the same price for my entire army. The Alemmani have an early coming of age giving you three Chosen Warlords in your camp, I believe the support cost to be around 600 or more.

The situation presents itself as such. I am hopelessly outnumbered, I believe the WRE had around 1000 troops give or take a 100. I decided I was going to quit the campaign go kick a puppy and start again later in the day but not before an all out suicide attack on the besieging army.

The Alemanni general, Soumanar (sp?) is a phenomenal first general, and with the night attack option I believe his command star rating is a 9 against WRE when attacking.

I sally forth my band of peasants at this time after numerous battles and a waning economy I was forced to survive with little. I leave the peasants in the garrison and start my cavalry on the western exit to the city from where the enemy would be stationed. As is normal when you attack another army they will typically fortify a defensive posture and this was no different, I did not have to react to the WRE army attacking me so it made this all flow perfectly from the outset.

I circled from the west and noticed that the enemy was a on hill and thought that this would be a quick slaughter for me and I can commence puppy kicking asap.

I brought my cavalry to almost the northern border of the map right along the withdraw line. The WRE army turned to face my cavalry on the hill, they were stretch out along the hill facing my cavalry, I stood at the farthest right if you were looking from the WRE vantage.

I charged the right front of the enemy and immediately routed the one or two units that were entrentched there while taking only 2-3 deaths I had taken out almost 140 of the enemy. Since the routed units were so close to the withdraw line, they were immediately gone and I had no longer to deal with them. The WRE army filled in the position. I had an epiphamy that only a true conqueror would at that moment. I COULD WIN THIS!! I proceeded to continue on and without being any more descriptive, it went exactly as I had described in my initial charge, I just rinsed and repeated. Before I knew it I was looking at a Heroic Victory with almost 800 of the enemy slain while taking only MINOR casualties to my self-retraining cavalry force.

Without boring you with any more details, I have destroyed multiple full stacks of the Franks hording army with only 5 family member units. My men will kill roughly 100-1 at times if everyone goes perfectly of almost any enemy army sent at me. I had to tweak the strategy a little bit, but the main ingredient never changed.

I will report on my progress when I am done CONQUERING some more.

[Fuzzy]

Damn, where is the edit button :(

[Mr Frost]

Damn, where is the edit button :(
It's behind the sofa .

[Mightypeon]

Well, this are the experiences from my first game with the Alemanni:

You have 2 possible choices, either go south or go west.
I did take Campus Quiddi, but it is not worth much unless you plan to use it as a Buffer against the Burgundians/Langobards whatever.


The Strategy can be probably summed up like this: Go Sought take Rome.
This is quite easy.
Get and Army up and ready to pillage France as you will need the money to defend Italy from the Hordes.
Pillage Spain if you cant Pillage France anymore.
Fortify the Alp passes to the East and the North better than I did.
As you should have some 20 provinces, go for Aquinicum to fullfill your objectives.

I acutally tried to settle Aquinicum and than hasted to get my provinces before the Hordes would come, but was not quick enough.


No to a more detailed look at my campaign:

In my campaing (vh/h) I went south.
The Roman field army attacked me in the field, using their tendency to go for my general a lot, I was able to split up and beat them.
Their Gallic Army attacked me, (only led by a Captain) in one of the newly aquired settlements.
I was able to fend them of by defending cleverly.
Italy was weakly defended and taken easily.

Thinking in the lines of pre BI (with the Germans) I was like: OK, I can pump out Chosen Archers, Elite Axes and good Cavalry from Romes Forges, its only mop up. Right?
Wrong
I was able to consiladate a bit, however, the Gothic, and Vandal Hordes Came in (and strangely bypassed the Rive guard in Aquinicum, it looks like a Hordes initial move can ignore Zones of control).
I figured that my Infantry heavy forces could use some aid terrain wise and choose to place on full army (under my faction leader) at the bridge, the second army was garrisoning the walls of Mediolanum.
The problem was, I had 8 Full Hordes Stack in Northern Italy who where just running back and forth.
In effect, my 2 Main field armies where kept up there.
My 3 army sliped by at a time and went for the Balkans.
After having happily sacked Aquinicum, I was greated by the next problem:
The Sarmatians. Who allied with me and passed by into Frankish Langobardian lands.
Well, after it I discovered why, the Huns, with their stupidly full stacks of Cavalry where right behind him.
I split Aquincums Garrison, And went forth to defend the Donau crossing.
During these battles, I discovered several "strange" things.

A) The Schiltron Sucks.
I had put my Spear Warbands behind the Bridge in severeral Schiltron formations, this should, in theory be quite good as the Huns could not pass by them or move around them etc. I used Lombard Berserkes to counter their infantry/attack entangled Cavalry.
I usually had at least parity Archery wise (its unwise to fight the Huns without at least 4 Archer contigents anyway).
In the 8 battles I fought, my Spears losses where everytime higher if the Spears where in Schiltron formation, contrasted to them beeing in a usual formation lined up in the usual "V" Shape.
If someone could enlighten me on the Schiltron advantadge I would be glad to hear it.


B) Chosen Archers beat Hunnish Ligh Cav in a mellee if you deny their charge Bonus.
Their Light Cav usually tried to swim through the river, I found that my Chosen Archers where well equipped to deal with them.
I had some Burgundian Lancers to pose as Swing defenders though.

C) Lombard Zerkers are fun:
Usually, my Lombard Zerkers fared better against their Cavalry than my Spearman (granted, my Spears got charged while the Lombards moved in as a counter force), in addition they swin very fast. After I had routed them, my Lombards went after the Hunnish forces in the river, what followed beared more resemblance to "The White Shark 1-3" than to a battle.
However, they seem quite prone to take losses, even if they are just cleaning the bridge from the Hunnish infantry.





After some 8 battles, I had to withdraw to refill my troops. Sadly, the replacement bridge guards got toasted by 2 conesecutive Hun attacks.
It is just that you somehow, even if you win, you take such an incredible amount of losses.

Meanwhile, the Vandals and Goths where still running around in Northern italy.
I could not attack some 8 stacks with 2 if the Huns where on the way so I bid my time.

After a pretty long time, the Huns also joined the party in Italy, and finally the Hordes started to kill themselves of a bit.

The Vandals and Gothes duked it out and some 2 Stacks dissappeared.
The Goths sieged Mediolanum, moved back.
The Vandals attacked my Po-Bridge Garrison and where beaten badly.
Than the turnaround happened, the Huns, for some unknown reason, moved the faction leaders away from their main troops.
Only one heir remained with his army, the rest was more or less isolated.
My Mediolanum Garrison got one heir, while Suomar(head of the Po-Garrison), my trusty old (63 years) faction leader moved out to duke it out the the Hunnish army.

To make it short, he moved in, cut Attilas(I am not sure if the guy was Attila,could have been named differently) head of and the rest of my army orderly retreated from battle, while trusty old Suomar was covering the retreat.
I actually ment him to die in an orderly cool Barbarian fashion, but he just would not have it that way.
As the Huns where out, the Goths reduced the Vandals sought peace and finally moved into France.
Sumoar also missed some other Heroic death opportunities. Instead of dying to the Goths he proceded to beat the crapp out of them.
Well, it looks that person escorted by 47 3 Silver Chevron Elite Cavalry recently outiftted in Romes Forges and having a Swordbear, a Shieldbearer a Veteran and some other stuff in their retinue just dont die easily.
Right now I am working to stabilize my northern flank and secure Gaul.
It has been pretty fun for now.

[Krakra]

After playing for the Sarmacians and the Goths, I decided to give Alemanni a try (vh/m). Possibly the easiest to play of the 3. Why easy? he starting position offers some easy pickings in terms wealthy towns, you have the ability to divide and conquer, the hordes show up later, when you are strong and capable of defeating them and great units!

Here is what worked for me for expansion:

-- Concentrate on the war with WRE. Take out their 4 towns immediately surrounding your capital (1 south, 2 west, 1 north-west. This should be possibly with a relatively small army.

-- Ally (or be on friendly terms) with the Franks, Burgundy, Lombardy and the Saxons. Trade never hurt anyone and they will leave you alone to deal with WRE.

-- After you take the mentioned 4 cities, start watching the Franks. They will attack. If they have taken another town to the east, take their capital. If not, build up a capable army as the moment you take their capital, they will turn into a horde with lots of troops. Through some pitched battles, you should be able to deal with them.

-- Once the Franks are gone, continue expanding north-west, taking out WRE towns. That's where the money is, you need them to get to 20 (for the victory condition) as well.

-- Doing that will piss off the Saxons and Burgundi. Great. More experience for your generals. Saxons are easy to kill, Burgundi spreads out more.

-- As one of your armies battles north, you should make another for the push south. Why go south now? Well, you are wealthy and have the resources now to face with the big boys -- the Huns, the Vandals and (potentially, the Goths). They have a habit of pushing into north of Italy and don't appreciate the fact that you were there first. Both times I built a predominantly cavalry army (full stack) headed by my best general and faced the hordes in open field -- don't have the patience to wait until they choose a city to attack and exterminate them through attrition. Plus, these are some of the best and funnest battles. Anyway, the southern army, with casual reinforcements, should be able to push all the way down the boot of Italy, taking towns, earning gobs of money and fame.

-- At this point, money is no object, so you should create 2 more armies. One will finish WRE to the west and push down in Spain (if you need to), the other should push east to get Acquincium. Don't forget that you will face the Celts to the west. They came in with a full stack. Sadly, they left in body bags.

This is pretty much it. Cut and dry.

One of the biggest asset of Alemanni is their variety of units. Notably:

-- Burgundian Lancers can form a wedge. In wedge, you can charge a spear line head on and break it apart. Time this charge with a flank attack from your Barbarian Cavalry and the enemy spear routes immediately.

-- Axeman (2 types). Awesome. The core of my army. It can 'warcry' and has stood up well against any infantry unit I have encountered.

-- Berserkers. These guys are tricky. But once I learned how to use them properly, they wipe out the enemy for me. The AI always attacks you, even when you, technically, are the attacker. Once it approaches your line, I 'warcry' the Berserkers, which throws them into frenzy. They run up and start cleaning the field head on. I only support them on the flanks -- with cavalry -- and make sure no heavy cavalry charges them up-front. There are no worries that any infantry unit will stand up to these guys in the field. Of course, and this is true for all your infantry, don't stand these guys under fire from archers -- they have no protection.

-- Lombard archers. Who needs horse archers? Phew, your guys will outshoot horse archers any day. I have 2-3 of these guys in my armies, unless I am facing the horde. Then I have 6 of them.

-- Warhounds. Have you ever been bothered by horse archers? Or do you need to instantly route the enemy line? These are your guys. My armies typically have 2 of these. Their purpose is to occupy the enemy line just before my Lancers charge it. Shock and awe. Then have your infantry run behind and mop any holdouts.

-- Noble cavalry. Its charge isn't as powerful as the your Lancers', but they can also form wedge and give a good account of themselves in battle, as their attack and defense stats are better.

-- Gold band. Never figured how to use these guys. They take 2 turns to produce, but are inferior to the axemen in almost everything. What's the point?

-- Barbarian peasants. My thanks always goes to these guys for their hard garrison duties. This is the most numerous unit I produce. Never fought with one so don't know how they fight for me, but they perform poorly when fighting against me.

Alright, stop reading and go build your own Alemanni empire! Good luck and hope this was useful to you!

[zalalzabob konsorbud]

I hhave only played it on Med, but the way I play with them is to build up an economy and your defences first. I used my starting army to take the Rebel Towns in the east just under the Lombard I think they where and then I went south into Italy and North to the Franks...

Might try it on Hard soo lol....

[Roslagii Keel]

A) The Schiltron Sucks.
I had put my Spear Warbands behind the Bridge in severeral Schiltron formations, this should, in theory be quite good as the Huns could not pass by them or move around them etc. I used Lombard Berserkes to counter their infantry/attack entangled Cavalry.
I usually had at least parity Archery wise (its unwise to fight the Huns without at least 4 Archer contigents anyway).
In the 8 battles I fought, my Spears losses where everytime higher if the Spears where in Schiltron formation, contrasted to them beeing in a usual formation lined up in the usual "V" Shape.
If someone could enlighten me on the Schiltron advantadge I would be glad to hear it.


Since Allemanni are playable without editing, and are perhaps the faction that relies the most on schiltrom spearmen, I thought I'd share my five cents about this here.

Note that I have no insight into the exact game mecanics. I have, however, played hundreds of battles with spearmen in schiltrom formation and these are my observations:

1) Units in Schiltrom formation seem to deal increased damage to cavalry units. Horses definitely die a lot quicker when charging a schiltrom than when charging the front of regular spearmen.

2) The schiltrom formation does not negate morale penalties for exposed flanks. It does, however, make the unit fight more effectively when surrounded as they can attack in all directions without disrupting their formation.

Hope this helps someone in their decisions about when to use the schiltrom formation.

[bakman]

Dictionary: Swa·bi·a (swā'bē-ə) pronunciation ... The Suevi and Alemanni tribes
occupied the area from the 3rd century, and the region was ..... of the German
terrorist group Red Army Faction or RAF, a.k.a. the Baader-Meinhof Gang)

[oz_wwjd]

A) The Schiltron Sucks.
I had put my Spear Warbands behind the Bridge in severeral Schiltron formations, this should, in theory be quite good as the Huns could not pass by them or move around them etc. I used Lombard Berserkes to counter their infantry/attack entangled Cavalry.
I usually had at least parity Archery wise (its unwise to fight the Huns without at least 4 Archer contigents anyway).
In the 8 battles I fought, my Spears losses where everytime higher if the Spears where in Schiltron formation, contrasted to them beeing in a usual formation lined up in the usual "V" Shape.
If someone could enlighten me on the Schiltron advantadge I would be glad to hear it.

I miust disagree on the Schiltron sucking,when I first started the campaign I used it extensively and while my spears held the enemy, i slipped a few night raiders around the flanks and proceeded to enclose them in a Pocket of troops,my spear warband and 1-2 units of night raiders. Deals with those annoying Commies and Plumbaeri infantry fine,any other way I'd be hard put to hold my own against them.