Spain

[katank]

This always occurs for all the TW games. Kinda ruins the hidden ability of some units. They tend to make a beeline for your hidden units.

Otherwise, you see something like a worthless AI unit of 1 man cav speeding ahead far in front of all their troops, run into your ambush, discove it, and run away.

Personally, I see no point in hiding. Woods are just good for barbarians and also for infantry screwing cav. Round shield do need 4-5 charging together to be effective. Like I said, the sheer mass can punch through many units. However, if the enemy manage to get infantry into the woods and catch your roundshields in the woods, then they are really dead.

[pezhetairoi]

But still, if the ambush tactic doesn't work, then why come up with it? And it IS effective when it works, almost insta-rout in a German-Gaul battle I once had. But why institute the ambush option if all the enemy is going to do is X-ray the woods, see the ambushers, and head straight for them?

Wait, just had a thought. Could it be that the enemy was trying to ambush YOU? Hence his ambushers met your ambushers.... (the rest, as they say, is history.)

[IliaDN]

Thanks a lot for all who posted here : great advices.
I have just started spanish campaign on VH/VH(instead of numidians).
It is cool.

[IliaDN]

So ... I don't know if anyone plays this campaign now, but:
1.I've started with selling map info to Carphage and Gauls, just after I made it I conquered Cordoba and Numantia;
2.I've saved in the beginning and after a few turns romans landed in Osca so I had to load this save(270 B.C.)- they had not landed in Osca this time even when it is about 250 B.C. their is no sight of romans on Osca, they did not even attack Gauls(by the way the town which is taken by Julii in the first or second turn(I don't remember the name) is owned by Gauls!!!!!
3.To this time I had conquered Cordoba,Numantia and two Gaullic prov to the North.

[IliaDN]

Well ... I see Spain is a popular faction, but ... it is cool anyway ...

[Craterus]

Right, make sure you take Narbo Martius and Massila.

Make sure to build forts in the pyreenees (sp?) to stop Gallic attacks. Then from Massila, march through the Alps and attack the Julii.

If you have taken Palma, sail across and take Caralis. Conquer it and build it up, then you can attack Scipii and Brutii through Sicily if you want or sail straight over to Italy. This is mine and littlegannon's strategy for sacking the Romans and once we have Rome, we'll be going along nicely.

Good Luck!!

[IliaDN]

Actually I am already fighting romans in Italy (I've taken Julii capital)
I am at war with Gauls and roman and neither of them bother me much.
But thanks for advice anyway!

[Craterus]

Oh, nice going, working pretty fast then eh?

I just want to play that campaign again but it seems unfair to finish it without littlegannon.

[katank]

I personally I'm against going into Gaul early on as Spain.

In my first Spanish campaign, I kept at the Gauls and pushed into Lemonum and Narbo Martius with armies. However, I just get hit by endless stacks of enemy warbands. The towns I take aren't worth the effort.

Sure, I get heroic victory after another but warbands in melee power > iberian inf. I can only produce town militia at town level which gets slaughtered if left alone even for a little while. Gave up on it out of sheer boredom of fighting 2-3 boring battles every turn against 4-6 warbands.

Second campaign, I united Iberia immediately, then smashed a Gallic invasion into my territory. Meanwhile, I pushed into Numidia at Tingi and then moved onto Cirta and Carthage in short succession. I built ports quickly in Scallabis and Carthago Nova. I sent a family member to smash a Julii landing at Osca and then took Palma with that army.

I just remained defensive against the Gauls and now they don't bother me much. I'm becoming filthy rich from the nice territories that I grabbed. I might sweep up rest of Africa and then go into Sicily. Spain invading from the Italy south is kinda funny but makes most sense in my situation.

You will indeed be the most unpopular faction on the planet, at war with no less than 7 factions at once but you can crush all of them and this is the best way to fuel your economy. They don't call this Total War for nothing.

[IliaDN]

Well I was at war with seven factions when I played carphaginians.
As for economy I have sold some maps each for about 5.000
As for Gauls I have just taken three coastal towns in their native lands and one in Italy (in other campaigns this town used to be romans)
Now I am fighting romans in Italy and bribe Scipii armies in Africa cause I don't want them to be strong there.

[pezhetairoi]

Well, Greece will be pretty unpopular too won't it? You have every chance of being at war with Seleucs, Macedon, the Romans and perhaps even Carthage right at the start... And if you feel like a warmonger, perhaps even Pontus and Egypt...

[IliaDN]

Yeah greeks campaign will be a hot one!

[pezhetairoi]

'hot' doesn't even come close. :-P I will enjoy the strategic challenge it poses. But more fun will be Carthage, because it doesn't have uber-hoplites that can stop all charges at the start of the game.

[IliaDN]

When I played carphage the game became pretty boring to me after defeating romans (and was pretty soon after beginning).Their elephants give nice chances in battle and also make possible to attack town without a ram.
As for greeks their hoplites can be easily otflanked even by infranture, so battle for Sicily will be a hard one.

[katank]

Actually, the Carthaginians are more fun for me due to their awesome blitz of the Romans. They get long shields and lybian spears once you take Rome. This makes for units that can actually hold the line and cav that can actually break units. Their starting elephant is by far their biggest asset. You just have really weak infantry though.

Greek hoplites are still nice. Turning off phalanx, turning quickly and reenabling phalanx allows for decent speed defense against flanking. Beside, having phalanxes on the flanks on an angle is good. The AI doesn't flank well anyhow. Often, they charge frontally into your center.

[Craterus]

I personally I'm against going into Gaul early on as Spain.

I mean you should take the first two and then cross the Alps for the Julii. This is how I'm going to do it.

[pezhetairoi]

When I played carphage the game became pretty boring to me after defeating romans (and was pretty soon after beginning).Their elephants give nice chances in battle and also make possible to attack town without a ram.
As for greeks their hoplites can be easily otflanked even by infranture, so battle for Sicily will be a hard one.

Says who hoplites can be easily outflanked by infantry? On aggressive, just concentrate everything on a blow to the centre, and the flanks will give way, as long as you keep a unit or two at the ends as reserve. On defensive, you don't even have to do anything, just sit around in a square/circle/polygon and let your militia cavalry do the shooting, and let your sharp pointy sticks do the talking. Always worked for me. I never left a defensive battle as Germans or Macedonians with any more than 10% casualties, and even that was only when four units of bodyguards charged one after another into the same phalanx, decimating it but eventually being stopped in its tracks and slaughtered by reserve melee infantry mercs.

[katank]

I mean you should take the first two and then cross the Alps for the Julii. This is how I'm going to do it.

Never tried that. I rather do island hopping. I find attacking into North Africa and Palma makes me a lot richer.

It seems to make sense to sack the Gallic towns on the way to the Julii but still is a pain. I find myself fighting about 8 warbands a turn for several turns straight.

It's boring but still attrition. It's ridiculous how much low level spanish inf sucks against warbands.

[Craterus]

I use Slingers vs. Warbands

If worst comes to worst, then I'll lure them with slingers (if they're ammo is exhausted and charge roud the back with cav.

[katank]

Slingers? you mean baelerics or regular slingers that you can build?

Baelerics are rare machine guns best deployed killing jucier targets than warbands.

As for regular slingers, then it does not contradict my belief that taking on Gaul before you get a city is counter productive.

IMHO, far bigger fish to fry elsewhere.

[pezhetairoi]

I know for a fact that Corduba-Tingi and Osca-Palma are good trade pairs. You get a gigantic trade boost in the first 10 turns or so after capturing both of these pairs, especially after ports have been built. So it makes sense to charge south across the Gibraltar.

[Craterus]

Slingers? you mean baelerics or regular slingers that you can build?

Baelerics are rare machine guns best deployed killing jucier targets than warbands.

As for regular slingers, then it does not contradict my belief that taking on Gaul before you get a city is counter productive.

IMHO, far bigger fish to fry elsewhere.

I always hire Balaerics and use them against any enemy. It's because the Gaul were pumping out armies of warbands against me, and the Balaerics can get some major kills against them.

[IliaDN]

So I have strong position in Italy and in West Europe and starting my african campaign, BUT maybe I will finish after my campaign for the Greek Cities.
P.S Bull warriors are cool.

[Dromikaites]

On medium, they are still trash. I had a unit of Iberian inf pinning a hastati unit from the front and charged a round shield into the ear of the hastati.

Result: both iberia inf and round shield routing off the map with around half casualties for the hastati.

Results get a little better with the round shields being stacked inside each other in wedge mode. This is able to break through barbarian warbands.

Best to have the general cav being the actual shock force, leading a massive wedge with the round shields adding more weight to the charge and later peeling off individual units to chase routers.

I found out that round shield cavalry and iberian infantry are OK if raised in cities with temples that give experience boosts (Epona for all sorts of troops or Teutatis for infantry). Also it's agood idea to improve their weapons and armor.

There is a feature I was neglecting in the begining of my Spain campaign, due to the fact I've first used round shields and iberians as Chartage. This feature is the warcry and warcry is available only for barbarian factions. Warcry improves the morale of the iberians and damages that of their foes. It also seems to improve the charge bonus of the troops yelling it before attacking.

[Craterus]

Warcry imporves attack also. I would still recommend not using Iberian infantry. Just build up fast and get some Scutarii, or better, BULL WARRIORS!!!

[IliaDN]

Even on VH/VH bull - warriors are cool.

[pezhetairoi]

Warcry imporves attack also. I would still recommend not using Iberian infantry. Just build up fast and get some Scutarii, or better, BULL WARRIORS!!!

i.e. sit tight in Spain and wait for population to grow? The Julii, it seems, will not give you that luxury... and most probably neither will the Carthaginians... :-(

[Dromikaites]

i.e. sit tight in Spain and wait for population to grow? The Julii, it seems, will not give you that luxury... and most probably neither will the Carthaginians... :-(

Another way of getting Bull Warriors is to capture cities with equivalent temples. My first Bull Warriors came from Corduba, where the Carthagenians had built a level 3 temple of Baal. The second batch came from Lugundunum, 'cause the Gauls also worship Esus. Any temple of law would do.

[pezhetairoi]

now that sounds more like how I play :-D

[Craterus]

I don't mean sit back, i mean conquer but make sure your money goes to building up towns.