Germania

[andrewt]

I'm currently playing the Germans after a long layoff from RTW. My broadband was down so I played RTW the past week.

I took out most of the troops from Germany then went after Britain then Gaul as well as the rebel tribes. While waiting for my cities to grow I hired tons of mercs to help conquer Gaul, Britain and some rebel cities. You should conquer Londinium and Samarobriva ASAP. Building a port in both cities will get you around 2000 denarii every turn via two-way trade. Conquering Alesia also weakens the Gauls a lot. Tara-Deva also has decent two-way trade.

The fastest way of growing cities is the destroy and replace strat which I remembered after a years of my campaign. Build shrines to Freyja, wait, then destroy and replace with Woden or Donar once your cities are large enough.

The phalanx warband is powerful but I'm frustrated from all the phalanx bugs I encountered in my previous Pontus game that I don't use them as much during my German game. They have this stupid tendency to keep switching to knives or stop attacking an opposing unit so I have to keep pressing attack to make them start attacking again then stop so they'll attack with spears instead of knives. Also, they take forever to get their formation, especially in sieges. One unit out of 121 gets stuck somewhere while sieging and they'll never form a phalanx.

[pezhetairoi]

Well observed, andrewt. I think you're the first one I've seen besides me who's observed the trade pairs, of which Corduba-Tingi and Athens-Kydonia add to the number.

Do not worry about the phalanx warband, and use them all you want. They do not have secondary knife weaponry, they only have that spear which does an above-average damage of 9. Which actually makes the Spear warband superior to any other phalanx formation save the elites since they will always maintain their spears which is their best bet for survival.

[Craterus]

I've always known about the Tara-Deva trade, and I know it brings in a nice income for Britain. Check back in the Britannia thread, I've mentioned it a few times there.

I think Germania are the "best" barbarian faction, and one of the easiest if you use the blitz at the start. They have the Spear Warband that can beat almost, if not all, first level units. They have great infantry later on, and Gothic Cavalry to sweep up. They're also one of the most unique factions, as they have a fair few unique units (Beserkers, Chosen Axemen, Spear Warband etc.)

[Mightypeon]

Having played the Germans on very hard very hard in rtr, i had to use pretty "tricky" tactics.
In General, although the German foot troops arent bad, on vh they arent going to beat anyone. (wtf, I lost 36 out of a medium axe unit while attacking some barb peasants...).
The Spear warbands can hold up an enemy, but will not beat them. (very hard bonus for the AI).
The fact that there are no puupies anymore kinda hurts your morale.
So, the only thing that left is the cavalry.
This adds the nifty fact that you dont bleed your population dry be rerecruting.

As blitzing rome without the phalanx was out of the question (lol, I would propably not get past the Julii), I had to contend with the Gauls. Well, i am in war with them anyway.
After some happy Cav abuse (i may play without the pause button next time, would make it more challenging) i quickly managed to get Alesia.
I also managed to rapidly expand into the east, just to give me more breathing space if the Scythies come knocking (they can have dmois dulcis dmous if they have too, but vicus gothi is mine).
I cnathed Behmia and Austira with a contignecy force (use your warcrys, and use them right. Managing to sperate enmy troops also helps), and desperatly hoped that the Dacians would start to come at me (if they would, I would have retreated, these lands are junk, so I wont sacrifze anything to hold em).
Some enslaving acutally got me to level 2 population in the major cities.
This gave me enough Cav to roll the Gauls straight back to Spain.
As the Roman/Italo Gauls attacked me with large forces at Massilia (bless these mountain passes, lots of oportunites to make the Romies really tired), i managed to hold in some desperate defense.
However, my accompaniyng infantry units actually had enough exp to beat/hold up considerably outexped Hastati.
Meanwhile, my central cities got to level 3, and it was time to scratch these Freyia temples, go Wodan! (the healing that coems from the priests is quite cool too). I happily employed hit and run tactics to stall Dacian prgoress (well, hit a bit, lure the Dacians out of their towns, introduce them to my eastern all Cav force).
The Brits (for some reasons, my light Cav cannot get their chariots...) where more of a problem, but deceid to strom Friseurum.
This lead to a wholesale hugging of their forces, incuding two of their generals (there arent many things that rtr German spears do accomplish on vh, but they can kill crappy british chariots if they charge them).

I managed to stablize my eastern front by getting the Scythies up against the Dacians (turned on me later though, however i had all of the river crossing protected by forts).
My first serios non all Cav army was completed, and went to greet the Brits.
Level 3 germanic Lancers are nifty, to nifty for the Blues to cope with.
I experineced that shooting the British cahriots is better than chasing them around.
I caprutred Brittain quickly (well, now I actually could assault a settlement instead of hacing to siege it to death), rerecreutied my army at London (thanks for the weaponsmith, now i am even stronger).
And, coupled with an All Cav army from Gaul, went to have a little chat with the Italo-Gauls.
Another mixed army took care of the Dacians, however, trouble with the Scythies disabled me from using my advandatge.
The Gaul resitance in Italy was light, but the romas (all allied with Gaul, sure)
countrattack in force.
Patavium had the experience of a full Bruti stack every 4 turns.
Sometimes it was so crass that I stared to give names to individual soldiers.
I manged to get silver chevron Bastarnae mercenaries out of them, the unit was 4 men strong (the famous heroes known as Hack, slash, Crash and Burn) and ended up as a decesive element in several desperate(1 to 5 outnumbered) siege battles.
The General leading the Patavium army got every single one of the last stand/defender traits.
Meanwhile, my high tech mainstack mucnhed through the Juli cites, and began sieging rome.
The Scippiee counterstrcuk, the SPQR sallied out and remaingin Juli also attacked me.
In true German facion, I instantly marched agaisnt the Scippiee army, while the SPQR/Juli were forming up behind my back.
The Scipii fled just in time (well, their General fought to the last man, alwthough my Gothics charged him in the back more than 3 times).
Just before the SPQR/Juli Cav could hit my back, i reformed. Although I could not construct a Phalanx, my chosen Axes and mellee fighting Lancers manged to dispatch their horses.
The now Cav less Juli/SPQR force was nasty, but, with a stupidly large amount of flank charges, some serios chosen archer mellee action (got no arrows left anyway) and continous cursing about that !"§$§" horde formation that prevented my chosen Axes from doing overlapping charged with my Axes, i somehow did it.
On a happy sidenote, Rome was mine:P.
As I finally managed to get the Juli cites and rome to somehting akin to production, my hold on Italy got tighter, and I succesfully beat the Romans out of Italy, they did put up some fights, however, a fully fledeged, upgraded and ably lead army of Germans is not going to be beaten, not even by post Marian scipii (suckers got Karthago to size 5-.-).
After this, my succesfully doom stack got to Sicily, which did not pose a significant problem.
Another Island hop later I was standing near Karthago.
This town needed some serios razing action before I establishe some kind of control over it.
Meanwhile, my Eastern front asnt idle.
After getting some small but nearly unbeatable (for Scythies at least) garrisons consisting of 2 Lancer + 3 archers and some light cav) river garrisons, the rest of my army swept trhough Dacia and is now attacking thrace.
their amries looked qutie imposing, but somehow got the idea to attack Germanic lancers on top of a mountain during a snow storm, which quiklcy lead to their total distrcution.
From now on, I quited.
I had Italy, Carthage, all of central Qurope and Britain.
I had 14 provinces capabe of prudcing level 3 German troops.
I had a signifcant cash flow.

The rest would be a basic amount of mopping up the rest.

[Garvanko]

I decided to give both myself and my pc a break from BI and started my first major Germania campaign. having previously only attempted a short campaign, and given recent expansions, I was interested to explore Barbarianism at its core once more.

First target, as always. was to weaken the Gauls. I hate the Gauls! Dirty, backstabbing, traitorous beings, who never hold alliances or trade agreements or even their protectorates! I went for Alesia. That meant Spear Warband, Barbarian Mercs, Cav, Skirmishers, my heir and the leader. 900 strong. I took the capital on turn 5.

Next up Sambrobriva. The brits decided to attack my capital at trier with a full stack full of their best units - so much for trade rights. They had however only left two units up in Sambrobriva. They had no chance. Wasn't too long before they came back for trade...

But you've probably heard all this before. The early game is straighforward for germania. Its a walk in the park against the Gauls. The question really is how soon do you want to face the Romans? Im prepared to wait for Noble Cav.

Ive got Alliances with Macedon, Greek Cities, Scythia, and Spain. Agreements with everyone else but the Gauls of course. The strategic map is clear, trade is flowing, money is not an issue.

But first, Im going to finish off the Gauls. All of them.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Garvy:

Are you playing vanilla RTW, or is this RTW after 1.3/BI? If the latter, have you observed any differences?

Seamus

[Garvanko]

Playing v1.3. I'll post my observations later tonight.

[Garvanko]

Seamus..

Not much noticeable change in v1.3 that wasn't noticeable in v1.2. Even harder to bribe, perhaps?

I think they just fixed the save/load bug.

Others may have noticed more with different factions.

[C-F]

Hi,
while playing the German campaign, I made a tech tree with all buildings and their respective units.

http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/...compressed.JPG

The pic is somewhat 'blurred' as I had to compress it to fit my space available.

I'd like to upload the .jpg to share with the community if there is an interest.

[pezhetairoi]

Heyyy that's really nice. By all means upload it. I never had the time to do it...

[C-F]

Well, to satisfy the overwhelming positive feedback (1) , I submitted it to the dl section today...

[pezhetairoi]

heehee. Do for the other factions too!

[C-F]

Well, apparently you can use pictures as a 'junior' in your posts

(The 'no attachments' threw me off...)

So, here it is then:



Enjoy,

[pezhetairoi]

er, that's still the germania tech tree. :-P Do the Roman one! :-P

[C-F]

er, that's still the germania tech tree. :-P Do the Roman one! :-P

That one, my dear, came with the game...

[gardibolt]

Yeah, flip over your map, Pez.

[pezhetairoi]

*slaps forehead* Man, you just made me dig out all my accessories all over again. I buried them in the backyard after I switched to Mundus Magnus. Now I'm so tired, that big big battle between my balanced 2nd Legion and the unbalanced 20--chariot-unit Pontus army can wait.

[GrandInquisitor]

has anyone ever dealt with a strong seleucid empire as germania? i did once, in the twilight hours of my last game with them. it was a fluke they managed to conquer the east and most of scythia -- although my removing of desert cavalry's armour piercing ability has changed things for egypt. my empire included gaul, dacia, western scythia, britannia, northern italy, and thrace. that was quite possibly the most fun i had fighting someone in any campaign...even though their mass pikemen and elephants cost me dearly with each battle. i was eventually smashed pretty badly in the mountains near tarsus,though. a loss i never really recovered from

[pezhetairoi]

Nope, never fought a strong seleucid empire in vanilla. That is an oxymoron, no such thing exists.

In Mundus, well, it's much harder not to have a strong Seleucid empire since I've modded down the egyptian chariot stats and desert cavalry, and elephant stats in general. And, well, they don't have to conquer much of the east, they own it. So nope, never. Did I mention as the Germans in Mundus, I took down all their elephant resource cities first thing? They never bothered me much after that, even though they DID have 5 full stacks in Asia Minor alone.

[Andy Shadows]

As it has been told, get rich or die trying. My personal opinion is that kill both britons and gauls as fast as possible. Then attack against rome and from there to macedonia and you are unstoppable. Don't bother to attack to russia area since the crappy cities cost you more than not having them at all. Dacia won't be problem either.

[WildBoar ^^]

Gothic Cavalry & Chosen Axeman

Hi gents

Me new to the forum and absolutely love RTW! Its awesome.

Gothic cavalry - do they suffer from only having 1 attack? Their only attack is the spear does it mean that they are not as good as other cavalry (say sacred band) in term of non charging combat with infantry?

Chosen Axeman - I wish to know who really use them?
Looks cool but poor defense, charge fast with similar use as cavalry. But Germania already have spearman to hold the line and gothic cavalry to smash the flanks, do we still use these axeman?

Thanks guys

Boar

[Andy Shadows]

I use chosen axemen since they are effective against armored units. They lack some scaryness (that I like to use against enemy) but yes, they are quite useful.

[Watchman]

Gothic cavalry - do they suffer from only having 1 attack? Their only attack is the spear does it mean that they are not as good as other cavalry (say sacred band) in term of non charging combat with infantry?

Given that their sole spear attack is as good as (better really, since it has the standard spear charge bonus) the Sacred Band secondary sword attack, or for that matter about anyone else's secondary attack, I'd say no. The buggers have the attack stat line of Warlord Cavalry... now that's tough.

[saxon_maik]

Gothic Cavalry & Chosen Axeman
Chosen Axeman - I wish to know who really use them?
Looks cool but poor defense, charge fast with similar use as cavalry. But Germania already have spearman to hold the line and gothic cavalry to smash the flanks, do we still use these axeman?
Boar

As the Germans you will eventually clash with the Julii and other Roman factions. At that point chosen axemen are absolutely essential in dealing with the heavily armored Roman infantry. Properly upgraded at the weaponsmith and temple of Wotan, chosen axemen can smash even through the post-Marian reform troops. Give it a try in custom battles. Make sure to use the warcry, then enjoy the show.

[WildBoar ^^]

Hi guys

Thanks for the feedback! :)

Now more question from me ^^

Germania we have

Berserker - high hp, low armour (bad against archers), few in number but scary
Nightraider - fast moving (from custom they seems faster than chosen axeman and other infantry), higher armour, also scary to enemy
Chosen axeman - low armour and AP

How do you guys combin them together?
or you like to focus on 1 over another?

Thanks!

Boar

[Watchman]

Aren't the Night Raiders essentially an overall better version of the basic Axemen ? Unless their unit size is smaller, it would seem to me they're better in every respect.

Ought to make pretty good flankers especially against infantry, methinks.

[Andy Shadows]

As the Germans you will eventually clash with the Julii and other Roman factions. At that point chosen axemen are absolutely essential in dealing with the heavily armored Roman infantry. Properly upgraded at the weaponsmith and temple of Wotan, chosen axemen can smash even through the post-Marian reform troops. Give it a try in custom battles. Make sure to use the warcry, then enjoy the show.

Yeah, exactly what I said. Thanks for repeating

[saxon_maik]

Andy Shadows, here's your actual reply:

I use chosen axemen since they are effective against armored units. They lack some scaryness (that I like to use against enemy) but yes, they are quite useful.

Below is my post on the question by WildBoar ^^:

As the Germans you will eventually clash with the Julii and other Roman factions. At that point chosen axemen are absolutely essential in dealing with the heavily armored Roman infantry. Properly upgraded at the weaponsmith and temple of Wotan, chosen axemen can smash even through the post-Marian reform troops. Give it a try in custom battles. Make sure to use the warcry, then enjoy the show.

To which you replied:

Yeah, exactly what I said. Thanks for repeating

I felt it was useful to point out that they can be specifically used to counter the Roman units. This is especially true when dealing with their heavily armored post-reform infantry and siege battles. While barbarian chosen swords have decent defense stats, using chosen axemen against them is overkill in my opinion.

I also thought it would be helpful to point out that the potential usefulness of such specialty units can be investigated in custom battles.

Your post didn't mention either, so I'm not merely 'repeating' what you said.

Cheers,

S_M

[Grand Duke Vytautas]

Hi there fierce Germanic warriors wahaa *goes berserk*!

I found many good strategies in this thread I'm too playing as Germania on h/h v1.5 at the moment in DarthMod 7.0.3 and also would like to share my short experience fighting as arguably best barbarian faction (imo among Britons and Scythians)

CAMPAIGN

Germania start with crapy economy so this is what I did:
1) conquer as much rebel regions as you can without overstreching too much
2) get money into your treasury via diplomacy: swap trade rights, map information, get aliances with first Dacia and Scythia (cuz I didn't want to wage war east) to secure peace on eastern front (ww2 hey? ). Send your diplomat wandering across the known world then and get as much denarii as you can.
3) aim for economy not military buildings first: build roads, farms, ports, mines, basic traders first.
4) Specialize your cities according to military units: germania is heavy inf faction so build few stables that cover some provinces, aim for barracks and archery buildings more.
5) Specialize your settlements according to temples: germans have
freyja (increase pop growth) - build it in low basic farming region
donar (grants chevrons and berserkers) - specialize according to situation
woden (grants exp and allows naked fanatics and later gothic cav) - my fav and most popular temple.
6) Aim your war machine west: the britons will be a real thorn in your side so make sure you take care of them first. I tried to make them my protectorate after taking Londinium but when they disagreed I completely crushed them muhahaha After britons its gauls time to be anihilated haha, then comes julii.

BATTLEFIELD

EARLY GERMAN BALANCED ARMY (untill you reached 6000 pop)

Center inf:
Spear phalanx warband: these guys totally rock! they can hold units with their phalanx ability at a distance for your flanking forces to attack, plus they have bonus against cav, they are defencive unit (like greeks phalanxes). Usually I have 4-8 of these units in stack according to offensive or defensive situation
Missile inf:
Skirmisher warband: place them behind your spear center or on the flanks as if you wish. I have mostly 2-4 of these in my army.
Flanking fanatical inf forces: now we are talking about real germanic killers wahhaaa
Axemen warband basic flanking force use this when you have no better flanking units. 4-6 units in stack
Berserker gang : 2 units in army, they are totally crazy make sure you unleash them when center is engaged and watch the fun lol They are vulnerable to cav and archers though, but in melee they can rout just about anything.
Naked fanatics - a substitute for berserkers, larger numbers can have almost the same effect as berserkers They go crazy too lol
Cavalry: you only have Barbarian light cavalry in early army so have 2-4 units per army and use them to kill enemy skirmishers, routing enemies or for rear charges but be careful of prolonged melee, cuz they are light cav:)

GERMAN LATE/ELITE ARMY (when 3rd class buildings are available)

Center inf:
Gothic infantry: same function as spear warband - holding center, but hugely stronger. Phalanx rocks! 4-8 units in stack
Missile inf:
Chosen archer warband: the 2nd best barb foot archers (after foresters) imo - long range deadly accuracy also can act as light flanking troops! have 2-4 units per stack
Flanking fanatical inf:
Night raiders better substitute for plain axemen, cuz they instill fear to enemy inf and better stats. 2 units in army
Berserker gang: good old crazy berserkers is always good to have unleash flanking hell with them muhahaha!!! Imo that's german coolest unit. 2 units
Chosen axemen oh I love this unit they are totally devastating with their 2 handed axes and effective against armour which means you can kick some roman armoured ass lol They are vulnerable to missiles and cav so be careful. 4-6 units
Cavalry
2 units of Barbarian Light Cavalry to chase routers
Barbarian Noble Cavalry standard barb heavy cav, heavy shocking charge, good melee 2-4 units
Gothic cavalry now these elite german horsemen totally owns They are probably the best barbarian heavy cavalry. Use them as a better substitute for noble cav.

Thats it! Hope I gave you quite good idea how to kick ass as Germans lol
Wahaaaa! *berserker taunt*

[Ludens]

Grand Duke Vytautas of the Lithuanians, you are aware the Darthmod makes rather major changes to the game? While we appreciate your attempt to help, this forum is meant to provide guides for the vanilla game and the expansion, not for mods (off course with the exception of minor ones like Bug-Fixer and Darth Formations).