Romano-British (BI faction)

[frogbeastegg]

This faction requires modding before it is playable.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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You need professorspatula's BI Extra Hordes and Unlocked Factions Mod in order to play the Romano British. It makes them available in a different "provincial" campaign, on the same map complete with all factions.

I've been playing it on M/M with large unit size.

You start with a single settlement, Londinium, with a few family members, a spy, a diplomat, an assasin and rather competent troops; with Eboracum to the north in rebels; and already at war with the Celts and Saxons.

Read professorspatula's gameplay suggestions in the readme file. They are life savers.

Without delay, take Eboracum and garrison with just enough force. (Enslave the population.) Hire Sarmatian Horse Archers and mercenary gallowglasses. The SHAs are very precious units as you will soon realize and the Gallowglasses make good killers that you can expend if need be. A Celt army will most probably be coming towards your direction so don't waste any time and counter them.

They have two powerful units to be wary of: Hounds of Culann, which cannot be effectively countered by your infantry, and Pictish Spearmen that are good against almost anything but seemingly weak against heavy cavalry compared to other spear units.

Use your SHAs (in game named Sarmatian Archers) to get rid of the Hounds of Culann, which is virtually defenseless without armour against missiles. Use them also against the well armoured and shielded Pictish Spearmen, who can form that weirdly named special formation, which makes them near invulnerable to ordinary archers unless they're using fire. Once the spearmen are decreased in number with patient pinning, you can throw away some peasants or Gallowglasses to break their formation and flank them with your heavy cavalry.

Upon taking Dal Raida (shouldn't it be Dal Riada?) I preferred exterminating the population.

In two or three turns, you will have secured the British main island. Now it's time, as professorspatula points out, to get rid of all units with high upkeep. Disband your Sarmatian Auxilia (NOT SHA), Coastel Levies and other high upkeep units such as legionaries. Keep your archers, SHAs and Foederati Infantry.

The Celts will not give up easily so be ready for invasions. As soon as possible build a couple of Biremes to sink their inferior vessels and blockade their port in Ireland. Don't, at this time, invade Ireland. (See Appendix.)

At the south, Saxons must have already disembarked invasion forces so, once Scotland is secured, concentrate your forces in Britannia Inferior and Britannia Superior (Mercia and Wessex in good old MTW ~;p). The invasion forces will be small in number and not too strong to worry about, if not totally trash. After repelling the first two or three invasions, the Saxons will have depleted their resources to back up another one. In my campaign they demanded ceasefire. I knew they were going to attack again soon and got prepared accordingly. Try to keep a fleet of one or two Biremes in the North Sea as well, which will save you from a lot of trouble if you, like me, sink their transport fleets. ~;)

From now on, a major strategic element of your campaign will be keeping an eye on the two ports of the Saxons and sinking whatever ships they produce as soon as they spawn. That way, your faction's heartland will be secure from invasion. With their only port blockaded, Celts will go bancrupt and yu won't need to worry about them anymore. (Don't blockade the Saxon ports, which will lead you to bankrupcy because of prevented trade.)

You have secured Britain and disbanded your costly units. All along this time, as professorspatula says, you should keep an eye on building profittable structures; trader and up, roads, ports and up, farms in BS and BI. In Eboracum and Dal Riada, gradually replace the barbarian buildings, even if they are on higher level, with yours. It's more efficient than waiting for the town upgrades and provides urgency resources. Don't rush; watch your finances closely and you will be on high profit in about ten turns.

The pirates, until relatively late, weren't that big of a headache in my game. The brigands, with their Pictish Spearmen, were. They made good stat-uppers for my generals and captains. ~;)

Now, it's up to your decision to invade the continent immediately or wait. I waited and, as I expected, waves of hordes literally wiped the WRE, which you don't want to take on early, from the map. The Vandals founded a surprisingly stable empire where Franks should have been (Gallia ~;p) and Huns painted the entire Italian peninsula to black. ~:eek: (Alas, I'm afraid I waited a bit too long and it's already later than 410. Modded the ending date in order to be able to play. ~:rolleyes:)

Since no good guide would be complete without eye candy, here are a few screenies:

As I am keeping to the policy of having a pure Christian faction, I exiled the only pagan family member (after using against Celts, Saxons and brigands) to a godforsaken fort in the midway of London and York. He seems to have had too much time to think there:

https://img360.imageshack.us/img360/4443/exiled3eg.jpg

Did I say pirates weren't much trouble? Well, I did but that was before this:

https://img360.imageshack.us/img360/2927/pirates2as.jpg
https://img360.imageshack.us/img360/1395/piratesdefeat1ra.png

Appendix: Eliminating a horde faction

professorspatula made Celts hordable. That's why I left them blockaded, isolated and bankrupt in Ireland. At one point I realized that the AI was keeping all but two family members out of the town with the false hope of invading Britain, which was preventing them from breeding. Sent my spy and verified that only the faction leader was in the town.

That set me waiting and once in a while checking the guys' ages. As expected, after reaching their 60s, they began to fade off. Finally there were the leader, the heir and an apparently adopted family member. That was the time when my mass assasins subcampaign was launched. I spammed Ireland with assasins trained in London and York and sent them onto the targets amass. A few of them were slain but finally came the happy news:

https://img360.imageshack.us/img360/2405/celtsdestr8it.png

The formula is: Defeat, isolate and assasinate!

The guide will be updated/cleaned up as I advance into the campaign.

Thanks to frogbeastegg for opening the thread and professorspatula for the great mod. :bow:
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[Upxl]

nice thread Mouzafphaerre.

Was wandering if the Romano-British was a more barbarian faction or can they build advanced city improvements?

Also,what are the unit's like?

[Upxl]

wandering

*Wondering ~:)

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Thanks. ~:) It's your typical Roman faction with extra unique units. The namelist includes Roman and Welsh names. You can build plumbing systems, game areas (you can host games and races), markets, anything you can think of up to the maximum level. Battle speeches are Roman but always two liners.

As for unique units, you have British Legionaries (heavy infantry), Sarmatian Auxilia (heavy cavalry) and Levy Spearmen (spearmen), which are unfavourable over Foederati Infantry imo.
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[GrimSta]

i find that KScotts Pax Britannia X mod is better than Proffesorspatula's as it makes the game harder, reskins the RB and adds more provinces to Britain. It also puts a fairly large celt army outside Eboracum(York) which you have to get rid of, as well as giving the celts more units, more family members and more money....its a pretty good way to play the Romano British imho, you can find it
at
http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=741

And there is an interview about it here
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=37939

After that shamless piece of plugging here is what i did to take Britain and Eire

It does make that stratgey differant:

Start off by recruiting the merc gallowglasses, sarmation horse archers and merc vetenarii then take all the units you can spare from London.

March down to Alpins army and attack it, this is quite hard for your small army with only 3 legionaire units but it is doable.

Sarmation Archers kick ass against Pictish Spearmen when the spearmen form a schiltrom they become more vulnerable to archers, Hounds of Culaan and Gallowglasses are what you really need to worry about.

Once this army is beaten, stay in York and raise a bigger army to go and take Dal Riada, once that is taken (and its not easy :p ) stay in Briatin and clean up the Celtic armies, once they are out of the way head to Ireland and take the two cities their, and that will earn you the land of Britain and Eire :D

:bow:

[Upxl]

Is it possible to change to color of the faction? (battle map)
I find this blue rather annoying and unrealistic.

[Conqueror]

I found an alternative way to kill off the Celts than assassination in Professorspatula's mod. Moving a "weak" army to Ireland prompted the celts to place some forces right outside Tara. I placed my own army such that the faction leader (who was hiding inside the city) would be drawn out as reinforcements when I attacked the celtic army. At the start of the battle I killed off the faction leader. Then I went after the heir. Successfully killing all the Celts' family members in a single battle caused their faction to be destroyed. The city rebelled with the normal rebels (so no horde) and I conquered it easily soon after that.
https://img492.imageshack.us/img492/3469/attackingceltsbi7oa.jpg (https://imageshack.us)

[Mouzafphaerre]

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I found an alternative way to kill off the Celts than assassination in Professorspatula's mod. Moving a "weak" army to Ireland prompted the celts to place some forces right outside Tara. I placed my own army such that the faction leader (who was hiding inside the city) would be drawn out as reinforcements when I attacked the celtic army. At the start of the battle I killed off the faction leader. Then I went after the heir. Successfully killing all the Celts' family members in a single battle caused their faction to be destroyed. The city rebelled with the normal rebels (so no horde) and I conquered it easily soon after that.
That's indeed a more knightly way to kill them. ~:)
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[LestaT]

I'm using the RTW-BI mod (forgot the name , sorry - some enchancement packs or something) but Britons starts with 2 provinces (the south and middle province). Playing on VH/VH , with add own mod (no peasants units and ships only in timber producing provinces).

Quickly gather all the forces from the 2 cities (leaving 1 unit of coatal levies -spearmen) and march towards Del Riada. Had a great and quite balance battle with the Celts and exterminate the town and build the mithras temple. Then gather the forces to invade Ireland and conquered Tara. By this time the Celts are gone (no re-emergance yet). Demolish the pagan temple and build the Christian shrine (trying to make Ireland christian) and leave all the forces there due to constant uprising.

After few years when the people are content move the forces back to main island and disband execessive units. This is time to build up the coffer which has gone down the red. Garrison all the forces in York (?) and raise the tax to max. Disbanded the only ship in my fleet and now is the period of building before venturing into mainland Europe.

By the year 375 AD my economy are good and I believe it's time to expand. Upss...

None of my 4 provinces produce timber , so I can't build boats. There no underground tunnel yet under the English Strait so I have to mod again. Will be right back (with a vengence...)

[Epistolary Richard]

Another way of playing as the Romano-British is to use the Rebel Commander (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=57253) mod.

This mod allows you to play the Romano-British as they appear in vanilla - so a single stack in Britannia Superior when the WRE lose Britain.

Guide as to what to do with them -

1) You start off with far far too many expensive units, however you won't pay upkeep on them until you capture your first town unless they're mercenary units. So disband any mercenary units you have as you've got more than enough troops anyway.

2) Most likely, Britain has been captured by the celts and there'll be a strong field army marching around. Try and defeat the celts in open battle before capturing a settlement.

3) Once you capture a settlement you'll start losing money quickly. Fill up your construction queue while you still have the chance, keep a few troops as garrison and send the rest to capture another settlement. Try and get all the British mainland before you get too far into the red, then disband and hunker down while you restore your economy.

[professorspatula]

Providing you are playing a RB campaign with largely unmodded unit stats and rosters to the vanilla BI install, here's my tips:

Mouzafphaerre's and Epistolary Richard's tips for starting are pretty much spot on. Take settlements and disband high cost units until you can balance out your economy. RB troops are expensive to maintain, and the Celts aren't great fighters, so a few Coastal levies, archers and Mercenary Gallowglasses and Sarmation Horse Archers are all you need for your conquest of Britain. Providing the Celts have been taken care of, you need to move into mainland Europe.

-- Defensive Tip --
I actually suggest building a fort between all your settlements (and even ports) in Britannia and placing a peasant unit in each first. The forts should be placed on the roads, as this seems to reduce the number of brigands you'll face, as well as providing a safe place for troops to move between settlements when you need to reinforce your armies elsewhere. Leave an archer unit in each settlement too and a unit or two of coastal levies, and perhaps in one of the settlements some cavalry. Should the Saxons invade, or a large Brigand party arrive, you have a reasonable strength army that can move between settlements and forts and tackle the invaders. You should consider this in any campaign as well.
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Before invading mainland Europe, make sure all your regions are making money and you have the shipyards, highways or paved roads and good trading buildings. You want to be bringing in as much money as possible to fund a strong army able to take settlements across the seas - and maintain them. I was blessed with having my faction leader having 10 management skill and lots of trade and income bonus traits. His management skill alone brought in an extra 1500 a turn from Londinium. I found myself in a dilemma at this stage: I wanted to expand, but my economy was reliant on trading with the settlements I was planning to conquer, and my economic genius faction leader had to lead the attack (being the only general who knew which end of a sword is the dangerous one). As soon as I attack, I'd have a massive reduction in income until I have secured more settlements. This is why I needed my economy and treasury strong pre-invasion.

Your target from this point in is either the settlements directly south of Britain, or those to the east or south-east - Saxon territory. The randomness of the BI campaigns means any of a number of factions could be in a strong position at this point, so choose your victim carefully.

I suggest your initial invasion army consists of: A general (2 if you can spare another), 2-3 Legionaries, 1-2 Gallowglasses, 2-3 Coastal levies (Foderati if you have more cash), 3-4 Sarmation Auxilia, 2-3 Sarmation Cavalry Mercenaries, 2-3 archers. If you have onagers, bring those along too. Graal Knights are an expensive luxury and not something you really need at this point. Before launching the invasion, you need to take care of the pirate ships....

--- Sea Transport Tip ---
When you invade mainland Europe, you'll need to keep supplying troops from Britannia and Ireland, this means lots of treks in ships in pirate infested waters. Initially, I suggest picking a rally point for your troops to board a boat that is close to or next to your southern most port. You can then load your troops onto the boat, drop them off on the mainland, then have movement enough left to return the ships to the port. Ships can't be attacked whilst in a port so you won't lose them to pirates. When your ships aren't transporting troops, don't be afraid to take on pirate fleets. If you attack near one of your ports and you are victorious, you can immediately return your ships to port and retrain the crews. If you lose the battle, you are usually far enough from danger to return to a port the next turn and retrain your ships again. Win enough battles and replace the injured crews and you soon have a strong fleet that the oft massive pirate fleets can't sink immediately, making transporting armies across the seas safer. This is important until you can supply all your troops from mainland Europe itself.
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When fighting with the invasion army, I have the spearmen and Gallowglasses form a line, with archers behind them. The legionaries I leave on fire at will and typically behind the front line, to the side, ready to flank any enemy units that engage the spearmen and Gallowglasses. Really though, my cavalry will do most of the killing. Sarmation Auxillia are placed on the flanks, whilst the mercenary Sarmation horse archers I send out to pepper the enemy lines, preferably concentrating on other cavalry units, or beserkers. Often the enemy will try to pursue the horse archers, breaking up their formation. Enemy cavalry units can therefore be isolated, and are easy prey for the excellent Sarmation Auxilia. When I suspect the enemy has been weakened enough, I move the rest of my army forward, letting the archers further weaken the enemy, and finally my infantry gets involved. Coastal levies and Foderati don't do much, but gallowglasses and legionaries are tough enough to give the AI a good battle, whilst all the time, I'm watchful of my cavalry and making sure they are charging the enemy flanks. This kind of tactic and army is enough to take on most armies you'll face at first, although a large heavily armoured WRE army will just laugh the arrows off.


Once you have taken your first settlement in Europe, you're well on your way to victory. Keep sending in reinforcements from Britannia until you can afford to move onto your next settlement and still leave a strong garrison behind. Personally, I took the settlements in Gaul first, largely leaving the hordes and weakened WRE to fight it out amongst themselves whilst I grew in power. Once you have a few more settlements, you can think about recruiting some of those luxury units like Graal Knights and expensive mercenaries. You don't need a massive number of settlements to win, but hordes can always cause you trouble. One last tip is to not necessarily knock down the enemy temples and replace them with your preferred temple if you've just taken your first settlement on the mainland. A temple that gives experience bonuses provides a great base to retrain existing troops and recruit better quality troops in the future. I was able to recruit 4 chevron Sarmation Auxilia! Once you are secure, replace the temple with whatever you want.

Have fun. I found the RB campaign my favourite yet, although I still haven't quite finished it. I can't see myself losing though, my Sarmations are too tough for the AI!

[Mouzafphaerre]

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"Sarmatian, Sarmatian, Sarmatian!..."
:thinking2:

:san_grin:

Professor, have you considered starting the RB as a horde (as they amerge in vanilla) or isn't that possible unless you make them -ridiculously- hordable?
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[professorspatula]

Crikey, I don't usually make that mistake. It's a combination of tiredness and brainache from trying to shop for Christmas presents online at the same time (I think I'll just hide under a rock on Christmas and pretend it isn't happening). As to making them start as a horde... well it might be possible - horde factions can start as hordes, whether non-horde factions can I've yet to test - but as I've teamed up with Epistolary Richard on the unlocked factions front, you can install the mod located here: http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=774 to play as all the factions - which includes the RB who start as a horde.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Hey, how do you read my thoughts? :gah: :san_grin:

Oh, downloaded that one already but didn't install. It's a great mod for sure but starting as someone else and switching sides on the way isn't very much appealing to my personal taste.

Does that you two teamed up mean no more Extra Hordes & Unlocked Factions Mod updates? :san_cry:
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[professorspatula]

Well the RB will emerge within just a few turns with that mod. Roman rebels tend to pop up after a little while too, but their campaign can be insanely challenging! And most of the other factions start as normal anyway. As to my mod, I'll be making the Hordes part separate so it's easier to use with other mods/maps, although I might leave in a few optional provincial campaigns.

[Epistolary Richard]

Oh, downloaded that one already but didn't install. It's a great mod for sure but starting as someone else and switching sides on the way isn't very much appealing to my personal taste..

You only have to launch the game as a different faction, on the very first turn you click on the advisor's show me how button and the game goes on autopilot until the RBs emerge and then gives you control of them.


Roman rebels tend to pop up after a little while too, but their campaign can be insanely challenging!

Gah, you're telling me! I'm nearly up to 410AD in my Western Roman Rebels campaign and it's been something of a rollercoaster ride to be sure - every time I got my budget balanced another general would come over to my side half a world away and expect me to start paying his troops!

Most of the settlements that revolt to you are too squalid for you to be able to control so you end up having to give them back and then retaking them by force - quite a few of my generals have got the Butcher trait to be sure. Not helping was the fact that my family were almost Christian and all my settlements were Pagan - something of a story behind that I feel!

It's been quite a long haul but I've finally got the WRE licked - the Vandal and Frankish hordes are going through their death-throes in the middle of France and my treasury is so healthy that everyone's getting corruption traits. I'm starting on the ERE now.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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You only have to launch the game as a different faction, on the very first turn you click on the advisor's show me how button and the game goes on autopilot until the RBs emerge and then gives you control of them.

That's great. I ordered that biggie HD and whenever as soon as I install it I'll start new campaigns with your mod. Can't wait. :jumping:
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[Razor1952]

Firstly thanks to E. Richard and Prof Spat. fro this mod, I played with player1's bug fixer then the unlocked/rebel commander mod.(latet versions just downloaded onto vanilla bi)

Starting as single high grade stack was interesting. I didn't disband these troops and in particular saved them when they were crippled and retrained or enlisted new mercs which I merged to get new whole stacks of uber upgraded guys.

Basically trashed the celts as soon as possible with the dual purpose of reducing maintenance costs and wiping out the opposition.

After taking all the British Isles (crossed by boat from Dal Raida),I was positive cashflow , so just concentrated on economy till the Saxons declared.

I then trashed the Saxons in Britain, then in their homelands, leaving very little defence at home.

WRE stuck their nose in but quickly ceasefired for 10k.

Of course I then trashed the WRE in Gaul quite quickly, they had very little meaningful defense and most battles were autocalced (I only play even contests).

I kept an all Pagan empire despite having all christain generals. These generals BTW are uber powerful and great in battle so thats whats they were largely used for .


Once I got into WRE cash literally poured in . Having Great Briatin with virtually no upkeep is a huge bonus.

Battle tactics quite standard. Balanced army with whatever is around at the time.

One unusual thing is that I have had no rebels appear in britain (or ireland) and the pirates have not attacked me. They are marked as neutral , I presume this is a quirk of the mod? I'm quite happy though as rebel fighting is IMHO tedious.

I'm not quite finished though obviously now unstoppable. I'll go till I can build those Graal Knights and make army of these to pound anyone who pokes their head up.

I'd recommend this faction and mod to anyone who has played the regular BI and looking for a little bit different.

[Claudius the God]

is there a cheat where you can change factions mid-game in RTW?
(I seem to remember one for MTW)


If so, would it be possible to start an unmodded game as the Celts, chase the Western Romans out of Britain, and then change factions as the Romano-British appear? (I chased the Romans out of Britain in 10 turns or so...)

is this possible?

I'm just not too comfortable with modding my game...

[dacdac]

Claudius The God:


is there a cheat where you can change factions mid-game in RTW?
(I seem to remember one for MTW)


If so, would it be possible to start an unmodded game as the Celts, chase the Western Romans out of Britain, and then change factions as the Romano-British appear? (I chased the Romans out of Britain in 10 turns or so...)

is this possible?

I'm just not too comfortable with modding my game...

I don't know if that exist for this game, but there is a way to play as the Romano British from the start. I don't remember all the details and I don't want to tell you to do something wrong so you should take that question to the RTW modding thread and ask around there. Those guys are sure to know. They talk about stuff I can't even begin to comprehend. They'll help you out.

[Aemilianus the Younger]

How do the Romano-British usually start out, whenever i play the game, i just find that they have sort of come out of nowhere and have one settlement. Do they just pop up on the map at a preset time like the slavs or do they have to take over a WesternRoman settlement like the westernromanrebels or do they appear when a western roman settlement revolts like what happens to the ostrogoths?

[Stuperman]

How do the Romano-British usually start out, whenever i play the game, i just find that they have sort of come out of nowhere and have one settlement. Do they just pop up on the map at a preset time like the slavs or do they have to take over a WesternRoman settlement like the westernromanrebels or do they appear when a western roman settlement revolts like what happens to the ostrogoths?

I believe that the trigger is when the WRE looses all settlements/troops on modern day UK.

[Severous]

Hi

Re the above....

Ive played a Celt campaign. When the last WRE region in Britian was liberated from WRE control by my Celts the Romano-British appeared.

They appeared as a big stack near Southampton (not marked in game...mid way along the south coast of Britian)

After a big sally battle at Londinium the power of Romano-British were broken but I had to chase their general leader around for years. They never once had a region under their control.

[CountMRVHS]

I modded my own game, so the starting position of the RBs is a bit different but the overall thrust of the campaign is essentially the same: take 14 provinces, among them Britannia Inferior, Britannia Superior, and Lugdinensis. Practically, that means taking Britain, Gaul, and bits of Spain and Italy, depending on how things fall out.

In my version, the Romano-British start off in Eburacum with 2 family members and very few units. The WRE still hold Londinium, and all other factions' start positions are the same. The RBs start off at war with the Celts, Saxons, and of course Rebels.

This position essentially forces you into an early war with the WRE -- fitting, since lots of British generals in this time period got into the habit of declaring themselves emperor. I find the Celts and Saxons will start off slow, perhaps even approaching you with a ceasefire, so you can take on the WRE and make London yours.

Fortunately, in my game I've noticed ceasefires are quite easy to get. If a faction attacks you, simply beat them in the field and then approach them with a ceasefire offer. I usually couple this with a request for trade rights and a demand for 1000 denarii -- they almost always take this offer. Trade rights are incredibly important for the RBs, as their weak economy and expensive units will make defense and campaigns almost impossible otherwise.

Nevertheless, on-again, off-again wars are the hallmark of my RB campaign.

After securing London, I turned my sights north, like so many others here suggest, to wipe out the Celts. The Celts manage to make big armies, however, and this can make an outright conquest difficult. I managed to take Dal Riada, but was quickly bogged down with construction and repair costs, and was unable to send an army across to Ireland -- my troops were needed to hold down revolt in Dal Riada, and I couldn't afford to train more. The Celts kept sending very small armies to besiege Dal Riada, but I'd beat them back, get a ceasefire, trade rights, and cash, and the cycle would continue. In fact, it's currently 413 or so and I *still* haven't taken Ireland -- the Celtic faction died of old age (!), leaving rebels in Tara.

I decided to leave Ireland for later because I saw what was happening across the Channel: the Alemanni had burst across the Rhine and were pushing the WRE back all through Gaul. I decided I needed to stop the German juggernaut, and somehow managed to scrape together a decent army to send across the water. At this point the Alemanni were my allies, so I figured I'd hop ahead of them and get in the path of their conquest by taking settlements from the WRE -- *some* Roman needed to save Gaul for the Empire!

I managed to snag Lugdinensis with my single field army, but then the Alemanni, predictably, betrayed me. With their betrayal went a *ton* of trade income, as they held Samarobriva and Colonia Agrippina. I just had time to build a Christian chapel in Lugdinensis, crank up the taxes, and march for Samarobriva to try to rescue my dying economy before I went into the red for several turns.

Interestingly, the abandoned town of Lugdinensis was settled by the Vandals, who were snooping around with their last few family members. The neighboring WRE town to the SW was settled by the Goths, who had an equally laughable "army". But when the WRE took back that town from the Goths, the Goths became a horde. The Gothic horde then sacked Lugdinensis, turning the Vandals into a horde. Within a matter of a few turns, 2 factions that had been on their last legs became the 2 most fearsome forces in Gaul.

Meanwhile, my field army took Samarobriva, beat back an Alemanni siege, and got ceasefire from the Alemanni. At roughly 410 A.D., I had a whopping 4 provinces. Loyalty difficulties meant it was hard to spare troops for campaigns, and the troops I needed to defend my cities were draining the precarious treasury.

And the Saxons were invading. They have landed several fleets in SE Britain, each of which waits around innocently for a year or so and then besieges Londinium. The first time this occurred, I was caught totally off-guard, and needed to call off a siege of Tara and rush back to defend the city. And it was close: lost my general and most of my troops, but thanks to the Warlord cavalry that remained I was able to rout the Saxon infantry forces. After a couple more invasion attempts by the Saxons (I always ceasefire, trade, & extort them for cash after I beat them back), I've built a fort and watchtower east of London in the hopes of intercepting any Saxon armies that I don't sink to the bottom of the North Sea.

The situation now is a stalemate. My finances are drying up, the elimination of the Celtic faction means that I can't trade with Tara (held by Rebels), and I can't afford to send an army to attempt to take the town myself. The Alemanni in the meantime have turned the Franks into a horde, which has turned east toward the ERE for now but is still milling around in southern Germany. The Vandals are my allies, but they're hanging around Gaul making me nervous, and the Goths are heading into WRE-held Spain.

Time is running out, too. Lugdinensis is still held by Rebels after the Goths sacked it and drove out the Vandals, and since I build a Christian church there before I left, that might make the reconquest easier. Only problem is, I don't see how I can afford to send enough troops to take it and still defend/hold Samarobriva.

So, let this be a lesson to you: the Romano-British have potentially inescapable financial difficulties, which will dictate the course of your campaigning unless you sieze initiative quickly. For now, I might have to abandon Samarobriva and sack some places, then re-take Samarobriva and try to get finances in order. But the Alemanni are strong and the Saxons are making extremely tough units with gold upgrades. Whichever way I go, things will be difficult indeed.

Others I think have already noted the lack of real heavy-hitters in the RB arsenal. Battles will be tough, unless you can afford a cav-heavy army. I've had to rely more on Coastal Levies than I'd like. Again, much of this is dictated by finances. This RB campaign might not succeed, but it's the most fun I've had playing RTW in quite some time. The way the factions behave in this game is incredible, from the Saxon and Celtic raids to the re-emergence of the Gothic and Vandal factions as a force to be reckoned with. The unpredictability of BI means that you can't plan for all of this, but have to take a much more opportunistic approach. I think this is more true of the Romano-British than for any other BI faction I've played.

[Alerion]

Well first of all: I just recently got Rome TW and BI - yes I know I'm very late ;)

Well I played some campaign of the original before going to BI where I tried out the huns first.. but didn't quite grasp the concept of hording and settled down too early which made me lose the campaign... anyways... I then did a saxon campaign that succeeded, and was great fun too AND when I took Londinium and the Romano British showed up I instantly wanted to play that faction, so after I finished the saxon campaign I decided to look around for possibilities to play the RB and found my choice in the Rebel Commander Mod.

The RB campaign was the most fun I had with ROME yet but also the most frustrating, but let's begin at the beginning...

I didn't lay siege on Londinium right away. I wanted to beat and weaken the Celts in the field, before I had to start paying upkeep, so I waited 2 or 3 rounds until a saxon invasion army showed up (they were quick it seems... although rather worthless with just some levy spearmen, two archer units and a warlord...) the celts reacted and sent a full stack after them - their mistake... before they could engage the saxons, I attacked the celts and beat them in the field... although they were even a little more men than my army it wasn't too hard to beat them, my units were just way too overclassed for them. I then smashed the saxon army and finally laid siege to Londinium. Took the town and disbanded most of the units... only kep 1 archer unit and one of the graal knights unit... the graal knights had gained so much experience they were 1 silver chevron (started with 2 bronze) and idk.-.. i just liked them :) - so I kept them and some spearmen. Shortly after that I saw, the celts had moved almost all they had into Eburacum, so I marched around and took Dal Riada with almost no effort, which started to help me balance my finances and then I merged two armies that finally bet the celts outside Eburacum and then took the town. So... what now? I thought... I disbanded any units I didn't need right away... leaving VERY small garrisons in my 3 towns, but finall my economy recovered.. in the same round I sent a diplomat over to the celts and offered them ceasefire and they even paid for it! :) Which was my luck, because now I could trade with Tara AND had some money from them when in the next round the saxons laid siege to a highly underdefended Eburacum... This time their army was a little stronger than last time and I had maybe 1 spearmen, 1 archer and a general in the town... quickly I moved my best general down from Dal Riada and before engaging the saxons I made him buy any mercenaries that were available with the money I got from the celts. I beat the saxons with this army and they ran away, back onto their ships - never to return... because here started the fun... It was so fun to just watch what happened in mainland Europe. Of course I disbanded the mercenaries right after routing the saxons... couldnt afford the upkeep.

Then I needed time for my economy.. started building trade buildings... better ports and stuff like that... I had a spy and a diplomat in Europe... I allied with WRE early and wasn't betrayed yet... I guess it helps that they all had their own problems in europe and noone cared about this little island in the north :) - got trade rights with anyone on the coast and watched the money restore... while I did that I was lucky because the burgundii wiped out the only force that DOES care about britain - yes, the saxons were destroyed ^^ - I celebrated, while the sarmatians entered as a horde and took belgica, germania superior and inferior, alemanni, franki frisii and built up a really big empire in northern and central europe, bordered to the east by the burgundii and the alemanni, who lost their capital, but had two provinces east of tribus allemanni... the WRE didn't have time to recover from that sarmatian invasion, right after that, the Vandals came and took all Gaulish provinces from them, the WRE REbels took over spain, so the WRE was really down to the italian peninsula... so much fun! ^^ of course they didn't settle with that and first took back what the vandals took... hording them again, so they took some WRE settlements again... but this time just the 2 provinces in southern gaul... oh yes... the franks who were sent into being a horde by the sarmatians took the region in southern eastern gaul and are still there... the WRE lost northern gaul when it rebelled and became WRE Rebel territory... i always just tried to keep trade rights with the important coastal forces - I had to declare war on the rebels (pirates) because they always blockaded the ports of my allies on the coast which crippled my trade... after my economy recovered I built a little army (couldnt afford more.. this RB units have ridiculous upkeep!) to finally kill the celts - which I did, so I had all of Great Britain. Started to buld up on trade again and finally my economy started to flourish and the cash just came pouring in... I could literally swim in it... still I had to be careful, because any high grade unit I built could severely damage the economy... i had to build up a good flet of quinciremes to deal with the now hostile pirates and then I realized that my faction might just die of old age... none of my stupid family members had breeded, although they were in town all the time... when I thought all hope was lost... one gave birth to a son.. then another adopted one... and this adopted guy adopted another guy right away and I was happy again... another daughter and my empire had survived the crisis... so there I was... massive amounts of cash... I started to build up my army to move to mainland europe... the WRE had taken back some provinces from the sarmatians, but these yellow bastards were still strong... I planned on taking Lugdinensis from the WRE rebels before the WRE took it back, so I wouldn't have to declare war on the WRE right away. So I had to be quick.. that was last night when I realized it was 3:15 a.m. and I wanted to go get some sleep.. ok let's just save and WTF??!!??!! - I can't save... the save button is greyed out, quicksave isn't working and I realize the last autosave was done 45 minutes ago...
I tried everything I could think of, but it didn't work so finally I had to quit the game and I'm backto my last savegame...
Has anyone ever experienced anything similar? If yes, can you tell me how to avoid that in the future? - because I'd really like to avoid it... the frustration level was somewhere between "I'm going to blow up my cumputer" and "I'm going to kill someone, and I'm not talking ingame..."

[likhary]

Romano-British usually start out, whenever i play the game, i just find that they have sort of come out of nowhere and have one settlement. Do they just pop up on the map at a preset time like the slavs.