Germania

[peacemaker]

Gemania definetely has one of the best unit rosters, if only I could learn to like barbaric campaigns. The low population and the low level walls are a pain for me to handle, so I prefe the flexibility of the roman legions. Berserkers are a fearsome unit, but very uncontollable. They are pactical for an ambush, but remember, once they go berserk, they don't stop 'til they're dead or there's nobody left to kill. The trick to beating them is either with missiles(have no armo whatsoever) or by getting them to chage headfist into a phalanx. But remember:you're usually going to be fighting in the woods, so use ambushes to you advantage often.

[Headhunter242]

After diggin' out RTW again I started a new long campaign with these buggers on M/M (brutii wasn't much of a challenge). So far, it's a breeze. The key to success is the german blitz.
Didn't rely on missles much in early game, armies consisted mostly of spears and cavalry spiced with those cheerleaders-of-doom. Sold map info to this point with great success which made the early expansion quite comfortable, even though I could not built that much in my towns (roads and markets are a must).
I expanded west and south first, pushing britannnia from the main land and driving gaul out of france. Split my forces up to reinforce the north, screening the channel and driving british invasion forces back into the sea. My second force kept gaul busy and pushed them back to the mediterranian sea.
It took a while 'til i could invade britain as the provinces grew slowly. Finally I could build a port and the first ship. Britain sent in another wave of attackers, but a full-stack army of mine was just waiting for them. As soon as they were finished of, I took the war to the isle itself as their forces were weakened. Taking out britannia was not worth mentioning. The AI kept racing its generals into my spearwalls. Poor bastards. In the battle for eburacum three generals dived head on into my spears. Faction destroyed. The two armies I sent to britain were moved immediately to reinforce my southern front.
In the meantime greece was kicked badly by the macedons which were expanding with great success (and finished of thrace). They even managed to keep the brutii busy with ease. I suffered from being allianced with greece (which was reduced to a single settlement on rhodes), so ended the alliance to get one with the macedons, which I felt would distract the gauls. They accepted! Too bad, they also aligned with scythia and dacia. The gauls made friends with spain... I had the bad feeling of being ganged up upon very soon...
Meanwhile, the southern front was busy with julii trying an amphibious assault on narbo martius, which failed due to my standing army. Several other small forces followed, being crushed by my cavalry forces.
The east was quiet, much too quiet. I built a defensive force quickly to keep dacia and scythia from out of my poorly defended eastern frontier. Not a second too soon, as I found out.
Dacia sent a scouting force to check it's options. I followed them and soon they went back to friendly territory. Not much later a larger force came, sieged and was kicked by my army moving in for help.
Unfortunately, scythia sneaked a 3/4 stack into my territory the time I was busy with dacia, besieging a town right out of range of my intervention force. Bowmen, Axemen, Horse Archers galore. I took a deep breath as the settlement was only defended by 2 peasants and 4 spearmen (1 trained just before the siege was laid). I decided to leave the walls as the town centre was much more defendable. 3 spears front 1 in the back, peasants covered in between. Smelled like doom. Scythians poured in like water through the gaps in the walls and - were halted by my spears. The axemen were decimated, the bowmen concentrated fire onto the peasants. Thank the gods for the cover by the buildings left and right of the centre which saved the lives of many brave men. It was a good decision to stand ground there instead at the walls. The bowmen ran out of ammo soon, my spears did not move a foot back and stood tall, although many of them died. The horse archers charged and were anihilated, the archer warbands routed in an instant. The remaining axemen ran for their lives. Result: 1500 scythians dead, 400 germans killed. Heroic victory. Phew! Now THAT will teach them a lesson. My first leader died from old age (78 or something, sturdy ol' grampa) the same round. He can rest assured no scythian scum will flood german homelands.
The spanish have just joined the southern front and ran 2 full stacks into certain doom around narbo martius. Osca will fall for this!
The romans upgraded to princeps recently. Quite annoying, barb cavalry swarm is the only option to crack these canned cowards.
Still waiting for archers to counter the scythians... And berserkers to storm the roman stone walls. And noble cav or even paladins... Me want!

Short-term plans are: Push into italy to crush the weakened julii (Massilia already under siege) and get a foothold upon iberia 'til better forces are available. Take osca as a buffer city (invasion of iberia has to wait for now) and hold. Expand east to get dacia of my back, secure the border. Scythia won't return any time soon, I hope, as I'm doomed in the field against massed archers. Macedonia could pose a threat as the alliance broke due to dacia and scythia attacking me, but brutii keep them busy. Those romans have to be good for something, hehe...

Units:
Spearmen are the bread-and-butter unit of the germans (and a great garrison), cavalry can handle almost everything in numbers (get at least 2 of them for every army and flank like hell). Wardogs are good for distraction and to storm gaps in wooden walls but far from necessary, early axeman just are not up to par with spears. Don't over rely upon missle units 'til archers are tech'd. The odd women are just a gimmick, never put them up front. But it's fun watching screaming women chasing naked fanatics around the field. A must-see ;)

Regards,
Head

[I of the Storm]

Hehe, nice post.

And welcome to the forums.

[Headhunter242]

Thanks a lot. My short term plans worked out, osca is mine and spain is severely crippled, julii lost it's first city. Dacia pushed back into the steppes.
Wonder if I should kill of spain next, as the gauls are still holding the two settlements in the north (Mediolanum and Patavium) and they got a sizeable army there. Romans and gauls in a neat package is not doable yet, as I need to reinforce.
My spies report that spain should be no match for me as their armies left are puny. I don't think they will recover anytime soon. And I will not let them. So spain is next. That would also give me the opportunity to concentrate my forces on the east instead sitting half of them at a rather secure western border.

But I will put this campaign on hold in favor of the greeks who I just started playing. I should give the seleucids a try as well for a real challange and test of my skills with the phalanx.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Units:
Spearmen are the bread-and-butter unit of the germans (and a great garrison), cavalry can handle almost everything in numbers (get at least 2 of them for every army and flank like hell). Wardogs are good for distraction and to storm gaps in wooden walls but far from necessary, early axeman just are not up to par with spears. Don't over rely upon missle units 'til archers are tech'd. The odd women are just a gimmick, never put them up front. But it's fun watching screaming women chasing naked fanatics around the field. A must-see ;)

Thanks for the nice chuckle about the battleaxes!

Minor ideas:

Wardogs are also great for clogging a bridge while your shooters hammer the mob at the far end -- plus you get them all back next battle!

I also like the axe girls for backing up my spear line. Once the scrum has started and the phalanx is being teased apart, these gals can feed into the scrum and add a good AP hit factor. Other than that, though, I agree they're more fluff than substance.

[Headhunter242]

The odd cheerleaders are nice for chasing routers and have somewhat of an impact on enemy morale if placed behind your spears. Apart from that they might be able to flank, but I'd use cavalry everytime - hands down. It's personal preference, I like screaming banshees on the battlefield just for the heck of it. But they are no game winners, far from that.

Dogs are nice early on (fire-and-forget, so to speak) but lose their effectiveness rather quickly and will become obsolete when high tiers come around. Waiting 2 turns for them to complete becomes rather pointless after mid-game.

[Caius]

The odd cheerleaders are nice for chasing routers and have somewhat of an impact on enemy morale if placed behind your spears. Apart from that they might be able to flank, but I'd use cavalry everytime - hands down. It's personal preference, I like screaming banshees on the battlefield just for the heck of it. But they are no game winners, far from that.

The Screeching Woman are prepared to reduce the enemy morale, no matter what.

Germania, for the win, needs to blitz against Brittania. If didn't, Brittania will be a pain granted for sure, plus the Gauls and the Julii which will be as powerful as a supernation.

[Bellicin]

Does the AI hate germans by default?

I must've put a good few thousand hours played into this game, and I'm currently working on my first real campaign as Germania. Previously I tried starting one at VH/VH after getting powerdrunk on playing the Brutii, but that proved hard if not impossible after a few years as I couldn't get enough money and population going no matter what. My new campaign is set on M/M, but so far I must say it's been all but medium...

Right at the start I decided to play it cooler than my previous campaign, trying to stay friendly with my neighbours and slowly expanding east and south by taking the rebel settlements. This worked for, well, perhaps two turns before the Gaul and the Britons decided to gang up on me. Luckily the germanian forces are some of the best in the game - by far the best barbarians - so I could push them back with ease, but seeing as my other borders were to hostile rebels I lost all forms of trade being at war with my western neighbours. Also what little populationgrowth I managed to get was put into retraining troops, and the poor rebel provinces I conquered didn't really provide enough income to supply the forces I needed to hold my western borders.

As time passed I grew weary of the constant attacks on my borders and decided to push westwards, and took Samobariva from the Britons and Alesia from the Gaul after some fierce battles. This did little to scare my friendly neighbourhood barbarians off though, and they both kept attacking me pretty much every turn. The Gaul had also managed to expand to Helvetia just south of my border and started sending large armies from Patavium against my soft underbelly. Reacting to that and taking that province and subsequently Patavium from the Gaul is what really started the problems...

Suddenly I didn't only have to face constant battles on my western borders, but the Dacians also attacked on the eastern front. Constantly. Not saying they sent any decent armies, but small forces of 1-10 units kept hitting my small eastern towns and took quite some defending to hold. In the south the Gaul fought desperately to take Patavium back, and if that wasn't enough suddenly huge armies of the Julii were at my doorstep. Of course they wouldn't fight the Gaul for anything in the world - they'd managed to only gain Segestica or whatever that little rebel settlement northwest of their startingposition is called - and started hammering Patavium with all they had, mounting up to 1 full army every other turn. And obviously the other romans decided to have a piece of the pie and declared war with me as well, all the factions.

Right now I'm having quite a blast defending each border and being at war with no less than seven factions (personal record by the way). Soon that'll be stretched to eight as I have ten units of thracian falxmen standing in my backyard waiting for... well, some queue to attack. My economy is not very stabile at all and relies heavily on me plundering a new town every five turns or so. Trading is close to zero with other factions as my only "friendly" border is my easternmost province against Scythia, and they have been nosing at my fortifications the last few rounds as well.

So, what I'm curious about is if anyone else is finding the germans to be this impopular? I can't recall having nearly this much opposition in any previous campaign, and no matter how many diplomats I send to offer sweet deals and how many of their armies I crush none of the seven factions will accept a ceasefire.

Kind regards

PS Pardon the lengthy post, I can't control myself once I've started writing :)

[Praetor Rick]

Sounds like the Julii have been doing poorly in your campaign. When that happens, the Gauls get kind of pushy. The Brits, I think, are predisposed to be hostile to you forever, since I think they have to conquer you for short victory conditions. Usually Dacia and Scythia stay peaceful to me for a while as Germania, at least until I attack them myself - but since you have to conquer them for your hort victory conditions, you have a diplomatic penalty with them as well.

Basically, Gaul and the Julii have no diplomatic penalty either way with you. However, both are quite opportunistic and will attack if they see you as weak, especially if they're not busy with each other. You just got unlucky in that the Gaul vs. Julii fight seems to be getting off to a poor start. If you're really concerned, try to sell Patavium to the Julii, that'll jump start their campaign. Or you could just move south and burn Italy to the ground - always a good policy for anybody who isn't Roman, burning Italy to the ground.

[Bellicin]

Thanks for the reply! Seems I've had some unfortunate diplomatics this turn then. Good thing that bodes for good fights!

Aye, the romans are pre-marius and are basically sending hordes of hastati and velites against my chosen archers and axemen, so conquering ye old boot would probably be the soundest strategy :)

Kind regards

[Praetor Rick]

Chosen Archers and Axemen? What happened to your Spear Warbands? It's hardly Germania if you don't abuse Spear Warbands. The AI is so bad against phalanx units it's almost comical, and without some elementary tactics, none of the Romans have anything that will stand up to Spear Warbands.

[Bellicin]

Aye, I'm using a fair screen of spear warbands too. Just getting a taste for the higher tier units now that I finally have some big, illgotten towns that can produce them en masse. Agreed on the phalanx, looks sort of ridiculous most battles with the AI charging an odd warband/hastati here and there against my phalanx, only to be reduced to nothing and flee within seconds. The craziest thing I've seen is the clever move the AI does when you try to break out of a sieged settlement: putting his troops in range of your archers and standing still. Once had the Gaul ride forward only their two greatest generals within range to have them slain before the fight, looked rather amusing :)

Speaking of the AI, is it equally bad at VH for combat as at M? I read somewhere that all you get is a rather big bonus for the enemies attackstat and nothing else. Admittedly M isn't much of a challenge but I have some vague memory of the AI only being more annoying (fleeing constantly when it's outnumbered etc) at higher settings.

Kind regards

[Praetor Rick]

I'm far from an expert on the subject, but I don't recall the AI getting any smarter regardless of the combat difficulty setting. They still brainlessly charge headlong into phalanxes and don't protect their flanks worth a dang. They just get enough bonuses to make their terrible tactics marginally effective sometimes.

[Alp Arlsan]

I'm far from an expert on the subject, but I don't recall the AI getting any smarter regardless of the combat difficulty setting. They still brainlessly charge headlong into phalanxes and don't protect their flanks worth a dang. They just get enough bonuses to make their terrible tactics marginally effective sometimes.

Hmm, a controversial post Rick, as far as I know (afaik) they do appear to be more tactically adept. I can also back up my statement not with any proof as such but in my personal experiences I hardly ever got flanked on medium settings, on very hard though every other battle I got flanked, and the AI generally made a pretty decent show of themselves on the battlefield. Of course they still make mistakes and still they bring mindless formamations of units to the field.

[gollum]

Germania are too good really in terms of roster, but unfortunately one does not feel that as their opponent because killer units like the beserkers and the Goth cavalry are tied to temples the AI wont build as he sticks to Freija, due to the small agr. production. The player can fix that later by switching temples but the AI can;t. A dissapointment really unless one mods the roster dependencies. For the player they are all one ever needed - a barbarian faction with phalanxes. Even the Romans seem little.

[Myth]

I was reading the CWB rules for RTW Multiplayer (not that i can play MP anyway). I was curious to see the "max 2 units of Berserkers". Hmmm... OK so I decided to do a little testing. Done on Medium difficulty (so that the Ai units don't get stat boosts and we get the purest results). Basically, Berserkers trounce everything. I'm not talking about equal numbers in troops - just equal number of stacks.

6 units of Berserkers vs 6 units of Spartan Hoplites - a massacre. I charged head on, right trough the phalanx.

6 units of Berserkers vs 6 units of Urban Cohorts - a massacre.

6 units of Berserkers vs 6 units of Egyptian Chariots - a massacre (mainly because the AI doesn't know when to charge and hit-and-run)

This brought new ideas into my head - now i simply must play Germania. The only problem for me is the mid to late game population control. I want to build farms as high as i can so i can get to the higher tier units faster, and so that i can get the necessary income early on when I still lack decent sea trade. But that will probably put me in a massive rioting situation later on, which deters me from continuing with the game. So far though i have ironed out a good start for the faction (for VH/VH)

Turn 1: Dismiss everything but the spear warbands and the cav units you get. The skirmishers and screeching women are too draining on your early treasury for no real benefit. Your Spear Warbands trounce everything anyway. Build roads everywhere.
Turn 2: Build farms everywhere. Get the good anticlaries from your 50 year old Faction Leader to a dedicated general and a dedicated statesman.
Turn 3: Build traders/tier 3 farms. Attack the Britons while selling everything you can to your neighbors.

I'm torn on how to proceed from here on though. Especially if I should use slavery to boom my core towns (they way i do with the Brutii for example). Maybe I should leave a dedicated butcher in my homelands who can cut population down when necessary?

[Shramana108]

I've started playing with Germania, and been at it for a while, but I can't figure this out...

How do you deal with sanitation issues? I thought once I'd taken some Roman cities I'd be able to build aqueducts or sewers, but no. And why can't I utilize colosseums? I keep pushing forward, but my people just keep getting filthier and angrier, and I can't afford to put any more cities on "Low Tax Rate", and Germanic family members/generals have HORRRIBLE management skills.

Is there any way to deal?

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Barbarian factions can upgrade settlements only to the "minor city" level. So, if you take city that is either large or huge then there is no other way to keep population happy than keep the tax rate low or keep a large garrison in the settlement.
You can't build aqueducts and sewers because they are not enabled for the barbarian factions. This is the same reason why you can't use colosseums.

[ReluctantSamurai]

While it's true that you can't build sanitation facilities or colosseum's as a barbarian faction, you can "use" colosseum's if they are already built. The big question is one that every player of RTW struggles with...that of squalor and unrest. And the answer lies in ZPG, or Zero Population Growth.

Seeing as how this thread is for guides to a specific faction, it's not the place to discuss this. If you'd head over to the Colosseum in the RTW Forum, and check the 'Need help in this Game" topic, you'll get a better idea of what I'm talking about. I have screeshots of a recent Dacian campaign (who are very similar to Germania) where I have even the large cities of Greece under control.....all at ZPG.

[Blhurr]

I've been playing a Germania campaign for a few weeks now. My premise is that my german royal family had a Macedonian teacher when they were children who told them great tales of Alexander and his empire. Naturally they were star struck by these tales of conquest and power and wanted it for themselves. The goal of my campaign is to keep the starting cities of the German's (or at least regain them in short order) while also capturing all the wonders of the world. If this wasn't enough my other goal was to ignore the romans if at all possible and strike straight for Macedon to begin the seeds of my new empire as quickly as possible. If this wasn't enough I also decided that I would make an effort to not eliminate any faction. I'm also playing on VH/VH.

I'm at 244 B.C. and it's been a very tough game so far. I don't have time for a lot of description at the moment but here is a summary.

My only allies are the Macedon's themselves which fits my story perfectly. I'm at war with Britannia, Gaul, Greek Cities, and all the romans. I don't have any native level 3 cities, although I've captured Thermon from the Greeks. I had Salona but the Brutii took it back. I've been forced to take the top two cities of the Julii because they kept pummeling Patavium with full stacks and I was completely out of money. I've been selling map information like crazy just to rebuild my spears. I have 3 units of chosen axe finally but that's about it.

On the western front I got as far as Sanbrovium (sp) and Alesia, but I've had to give them up because Britannia and Gaul were beating me up pretty good and I needed those armies in my fight in Northern Italy. The top 5 factions at the moment are Greek cities, Gaul, Egypt, Scythians and myself with Egypt being the top faction far and away. It looks like my spears have really beaten up the romans which is sad because I wanted to be fighting them at the end game but apparently they don't go for the weaker factions they just want to beat up on my germans. I'm very weak in all the german homelands.

My next moves are to take my very weak units against a powerful greek army and try for athens and sparta eventhough Macedon is far weaker and closer. The wonder in corinth is very valuable to me since my empire covers such vast geographic space and they have the wonder that gives you bonus to loyalty but my family can't bring themselves to attack a faction that they've revered since childhood. Nonetheless, if they don't allow me to marry their daughters after I dispense with the greeks I will be forced to take Corinth which I see as being the capital of my eastern expansion.

Gaul is strong and hammering from the west but I wonder how badly they want my weak northern cities. They are hard to get to and flat broke. Britannia is massing once again.

Carolus is my faction heir at the age of like 27 he was easily a 10 star general.

I'll have to sack a few more roman cities, being careful not to eliminate the romans simply because I have no money to finance my war against Greece.

I'm really worried about Egypt. Not because I don't think I can take them but because I really don't want them to be my final enemy. I really wanted to fight a strong Seleucid. That would be awesome, so i wish I knew of a way to weaken Egypt but they are just too damn far away and I have no navy and can't afford one.

The Brutii I have my greek army separated from norther italy with a few stacks and the one city there in the adriatic.

I think my only hope is to develop some sea-faring cities and rebuild a few of these Mare nostrum cities in the image of nice german cities.

I haven't seen Scythia yet but I don't suspect it will be long before they hammer germany from the east. It's been an uphill battle and I've really set some tough restrictions on myself. I don't use any cheese tactics in battle other than having to rely primarily on spear warband which is pretty cheesy. They decimate roman legions like nobodies business.

Anyone have thoughts?

[ReluctantSamurai]

A rather novel approach to Germania Fighting on so many fronts inevitably drains the coffers fast.

I usually eliminate Brittania straight out to secure my backside...first by kicking them off the mainland, and then sinking their (usually) small fleet, confining them to the Isles. Once I consolidate, I invade and finish them off. With nearly every city being port-capable, I get a tidy income from trade. My eye then turns to Gaul and the Julii.

I'm rather surprised your spears hold up to Roman legionaires. In my games (I play h/h) they don't last long unless there are quick flanking maneuvers by my cav to rescue them. Spears they may be, but they have the weakest stats of all but militia hoplites, IIRC.

In any case, a rather interesting storyline to enact. Good luck with it!

[wooly_mammoth]

Ok, took advantage of some off-time these days and continued my OCD tour through the playable factions of rtw with Germany on m/m.

Here's the situation:



I've beaten the crap out of Gaul and I'm pretty much a boss, however:

1) my eastern flank is extremely thin and I can't really afford to garrison it properly. Scythia & Thrace are my allies, but the dacians don't like me. I'm forting-up the bridges and forest passes, just in case they get dumb ideas.

2) I'm actually extremely worried about the romans, since they've been free to do as they please. I am just now descending towards Patavium and have a free army to march from Masillia to Mediolanum. Northern Spain appears to belong to the Julii so I'll have to fortify those passes as well and leave an army behind to keep vigil.

My strategy would be to occupy northern Italy and confine the romans there, but instead of invading all the way south I think I'd rather turn for the Balkans and get ready of the Brutii presence there. I don't want those guys to march north undeterred while I'm busy in Italy.

[wooly_mammoth]

Nothing like smashing a roman's face in. XD



The Julii had a motherload of troops for just their starting cities and Segesta (they also had Osca and I think they still have Caralis). I picked my fights in wooded areas and made liberal use of the screaming hags together with surprise bushwhacking from hidden cavalry units. Quite effective against those armored bastards. Their main cities are well developed. I can produce chosen axes and archers from both of them, so now it's only a matter of a little build-up to compliment my gold-chevroned warlords before performing an "Alaric" on Rome. I assume it's best just to push down and conquer the whole of Italy. and then go after the Brutii. For the Scipii I'll probably limit myself to isolating them in Africa. It's a bit of a hassle to maintain a barbarian empire stretching that way as well and I don't have any law or happiness temples to help me.

Spaniards and dacians are swarming like flies around my borders in the west and east. In the west I have a strong garrison and in the east I've set-up a network of fortifications to delay would-be invaders while I gather the skirmish forces stationed through the woods.

[Vincent Butler]

Check Greece, how strong are the Brutii there? My Briton campaign shows Macedon in charge on the map, but Greece is totally controlled by the Brutii.

[wooly_mammoth]

The chart says they own 6 territories right now, so a large part of Greece must be under their control, but I'm not worrying too much about it anymore. They will probably send some armies back in Italy once their cities are threatened, but once I have them I can just jump over to Thermon and from there conquer everything they have.

[Vincent Butler]

Do you just blitz through with Spear Warband? The phalanx gives you a nice advantage over barbarians and even early Roman units. You cover ground quickly, I was just wondering about your strategy. With Germany, though, I guess you have to be fast, because otherwise you will run out of money quickly.

[wooly_mammoth]

Hmm, I don't think what I do qualifies as a blitz. I think blitzers literally go on a non-stop rampage and massacre everything everywhere no matter the odds. On vh/vh. In contrast, I actually like to take my time, develop my economy and get a balanced army out, but if you just sit back the AI bloats up stupidly and with no regard to the rules, turning the conquest into a repetitive chore against endless doomstacks of crappy troops.

With Germania, unless you go full banzai against the romans right from the start (a popular strategy if you look through the topic) it is imperative that you strike first against Gaul and Britannia. Alesia is a lovely city that can serve as the capital of your fledgeling empire as it expands wesward and south. Samarobriva is usually guarded by a huge brittish force but you always have a great advatange when attacking from the south: the area is heavily forested, so if you lay siege from that direction and a relief force attempts to break it, you will always have a thick forest where to lie in ambush. This is how I prevailed both in the gaul and german playthrough. A good ambush not only breaks the morale of their superior numbers like a domino, but the thick forest bogs down the chariots, making them easy pickings even if you don't have spear warbands.

Now, with regard to spear warbands, I don't like them to be honest :(. I think that if you put 20 stacks of spear warbands in phalanx and line them up in column formation, a roman general can moonwalk through all 20 of them stright through the spears, that's how bad they are. I've literally seen big general units trash three phalanx formations in quick succession through frontal charge right into the spears. Given that they are the closest thing to balanced infantry that these guys can field, the rest being shock troops and flankers, I think I will actually have to adopt a different strategy from my usual playstyle if I give up on spear warbands entirely and hence on the idea of a strong core to fix the enemy: strong cavalry charge with archer fire cover to break the first ranks, followed by withdrawing the horses and crashing a tidal wave of frenzied axemen, berserkers and whatever other maniacs may be available. Hopefully, this will be enough to score a rout. Otherwise, there's no way to win a drawn-out fight given that these guys have 0 defense.

As for the economy, I'm actually doing fairly well. As long as I train troops efficiently, not oversizing your garrisons or training too many elite units, I can build up my infrastructure forward and still get a small profit. When money starts pilling up I usually spend it on buildings. There is no need to hoard a vast treasury and get bad traits for your generals. Also, I keep my tax levels quite low. Very low for towns and normal for large towns. I crank them up when I get cities, even if it means throwing a few extra units for garrison.

[Vincent Butler]

Hmm, I don't think what I do qualifies as a blitz. I think blitzers literally go on a non-stop rampage and massacre everything everywhere no matter the odds. On vh/vh. In contrast, I actually like to take my time, develop my economy and get a balanced army out, but if you just sit back the AI bloats up stupidly and with no regard to the rules, turning the conquest into a repetitive chore against endless doomstacks of crappy troops.

strong cavalry charge with archer fire cover to break the first ranks, followed by withdrawing the horses and crashing a tidal wave of frenzied axemen, berserkers and whatever other maniacs may be available. Hopefully, this will be enough to score a rout. Otherwise, there's no way to win a drawn-out fight given that these guys have 0 defense.

As for the economy, I'm actually doing fairly well. As long as I train troops efficiently, not oversizing your garrisons or training too many elite units, I can build up my infrastructure forward and still get a small profit. When money starts pilling up I usually spend it on buildings. There is no need to hoard a vast treasury and get bad traits for your generals. Also, I keep my tax levels quite low. Very low for towns and normal for large towns. I crank them up when I get cities, even if it means throwing a few extra units for garrison.

I was just wondering about the speed, because in 40 turns you have Britain, Spain, and into Italy. Although it seems that I tend to hoard money, I could be faster, but I try to turn a profit almost every turn, so I don't build much unless it is a financial building or a needed military/public order building. At least at first.

Break up enemy formations with berserkers, then hit with cavalry. In essence, use the berserkers like chariots, except obviously you can't run through formations because you lose control of them. Or Night Raiders instead of Cav, I know my brother loved them. The Chosen Axemen are too vulnerable to missile fire, but they are great on a wall.

I keep my taxes fairly high to limit population growth, because population growth leads to squalor, which leads to riots. And barbarians cap out at 12,000 to improve a city, so it maxes out quickly.

[wooly_mammoth]

Actually they cap at 6.000. 12.000 is the next tier.

I have conquered the whole of Italy, begun the invasion of Siciliy and I hold east and central Spain. The Julii still had the islands in the western med, but for some reason decided it would be a good idea to land their last general back on the home beach with only a rable militia force. Interestingly enough, after noticing the strange trade lanes and faction rankings, I realized that the Scipii never invaded Carthage. It's very strange, they couldn't possibly be down to the two cities they still have in Sicily. I've only once seen them do something like this. Back in my Julii imperial campaign, I followed the senate's orders and attacked the carthaginians asap, at which point the Scipii turned eastward and helped the Brutii in the conquest of Greece. I imagine something similar to that may have happened now. This may be Carthage's chance to become badass on the African coast, but unfortunately they'll only have me to fight instead of punny romans.

[Vincent Butler]

Actually they cap at 6.000. 12.000 is the next tier.

That makes it even worse for public order.

I followed the senate's orders and attacked the carthaginians asap, at which point the Scipii turned eastward and helped the Brutii in the conquest of Greece.

Probably, it seems they do that more often than I am used to, then they launch into Turkey. Could be they are just slow, too. That happens occasionally.