Western Roman Empire (BI faction)

[Keba]

After getting BI, naturally, the first campaign was the WRE, on VH/M.

So, instead of the historical route of conversion to Christianity and an attempt to maintain the entire Empire, I decided to retreat back to Italy, disband all forces outside it, and attempt to restore my Empire once the core has become stable.

First thing ... I razed all buildings in all cities outside Italy. The new border went through the Alps. The Emperor wrote a nice, heartfelt letter to the rest of the Empire where he said: you're on your own.

On the first few turns, I had to micromanage Italy to prevent rebellions. Keep one army in Italy (preferrably an elite one, but any can do in a pinch), fill the other cities with pesants (or Limitanei if you feel that pesants are unrealistic ... like I do). If any city seems close to rebelling, level the military buildings, retake it, and exterminate the population. Also, concentrate on building up trade, as well as happines buildings.

Within a decade, the core provinces should be rich, powerful and stable. At this point I decided to convert to Paganism. Several turns of nail-biting and Christianity was officialy gone in the WRE, as was the old Christian Emperor. The new Emperor was Pagan, one of my best governors.

The Western Roman Empire soon became a power (again), and the WRE rebels were no more than a nuisance, usually being broken on the walls of Massilia. Around this time, my main field army policy was switched from being in command by a General to being commanded by a Captain, after one General decided that he was the better Emperor than the current one and joined the WRE rebels. He immediately departed for Gaul to gather more troops for a march on Rome itself. Around that time, the Vandals invaded Gaul for the first time, thus saving my skin, and buying me time to recruit another field army.

Since that time, I have driven back the Alemanni, and taken their cities north of the Alps, securing my northern flank. The western flank was secured after my forces took another province, relieving the pressure from Massilia. The Vandals also helped, as they settled in Gaul and took to battling the WRE rebels.

On the east however, the ERE has been wiped out, holding on barely to Egypt, the islands of the Mediterranean and a scattering of other provinces. The Asian parts of the Empire were taken by the Sassanids, the European by the Huns. In an effort to aid my old allies who still held the western coast of Greece, I marched on Salona. The city fell easily, but the Huns managed to take it within several years, while my main army was busy in Northern Italy.

By now, the Saxons have been wiped out (by the Slavs), the Sarmatian hordes were crushed in Northern Italy (by me in one huge battle) and the Alemanni are now fighting the Huns and Goths in Pannonia.

The Romano-Britons have not appeared yet, as the WRE rebels seem to have an alliance with the Celts. The Celts have three full stacks waiting around in their territory, faced with only a few hundred WRE rebels. Kept me quite confused when my spy reached the province after a very long boat trip.

One of my most entertaining campaigns, ever.

[Avicenna]

Is there any way to keep hold of the provinces and not abandon them? While getting some income. Or is the income so bad that you MUST abandon Europe and disband units in order to protect yourself sufficiently without going thousands into debt?

[Keba]

You can keep all provinces. It's tricky, and your treasury will go into the nether regions ... but it offers a greater base of power should you succeed. To attempt to restore money in the treasury, you must adopt an agressive policy toward barbarians ... take their towns, exterminate, raze all buildings, leave. Also, destroy buildings you don't need in your provinces (such as barracks in Hispania, etc.).

You won't be able to keep all of your provinces ... it is likely that at least a few will rebel ... take the towns and exterminate ... it will bring in money, and you will teach those rebellious scum a lesson.

It is likely that you will be overrun in at least some areas ... North Africa and Brittania are the most likely candidates. Leave them be, they can be retaken later.

Use the money you've made with your raids to build up roads, ports, traders, and other buildings to improve income. Once you do these things ... you have a steady income and can begin retaking lost areas ... and unifying the Empire once again.

Once you have stabilized the Empire and have a steady cash flow coming in, you can get to converting your Empire to either Christianity (it offers some impressive bonuses, but the population growth it offers is problematic, you have too much population as it is) or Paganism (Mythra offers some advantages to military units, Sol Invictus has exceptional bonuses to happiness). This will likely cause unrest, and possibly, revolts. You cannot allow these religious fools to destabilize the Empire, capture the rebelling cities and exterminate them to teach them a lesson (plus, it makes conversion go more easily).

Afterward, you really shouldn't have much of a problem ... once you get past the initial problems, you are easily the most powerful faction around, as the sole opposition to the West are inferior barbarians (watch out for the hordes, once they come, you are in deep, deep trouble, and they will come if you attempt to keep the entire Empire intact), while the East will likely be busy with the Sassanids and the Huns (if not completely overrun). The only civilized faction likely to oppose you are the Romano-British, but they can easily be subdued.

[gardibolt]

Along those lines, you should get any general with Night Fighting ability over to the eastern end of the empire to head an army quickly to deal with the hordes when they come. Night fighting and defending sieges behind stone walls are the best ways to deal with them.

[Avicenna]

Nero probably wouldn't stay Flavian for long... and go rebel if he has too many victories under his belt. Should a new, younger general be trained and Nero killed after mopping up some Eastern stacks for Greece?

[Mithras]

Reclaiming Romes glory by maximus the imdomable, mithratic raven

Overview: Rome has not done well over the last century. Since the reighn of the five good emperors the empire has torn itself apart and been stappled back together by Diocletian, argueably that last great emperor. The arrival of christianity under Constantine has divided the people further. After the fall of the last pagan emperor the empire is set to explode through overstreched burgoning military, being sliced in two, economic collapse and religious styfe. It will take an emperor on par with Marcus auralius or Octavius Augustus to make rome great again.

playing as western roman pro's & con
Pro's
Despite Romes weakness there is still potential for greatness. Rome's troop choice, despite diluation with unwashed barbarians, is still very good and offers a broad variety of tactical styles and is still one of the upper teer armies of the campaigh. The economy if repaired, could churn out huge wads of cash every turn and ultimatly ,if you want a challenge this is as tough as rome:total war gets.

Cons: the empire is a primed grenade in your hand- you have no room for error and even if you make all the right moves it's still gonna hurt. All sections of the empire have been deliberatly set up to implode even before the hordes start showing up. Religious strife is tearing the empire apart,. the economies a wreck and your military might is dispersed into all over the empire in low tech (useless) units. Even if you whip your empire into shape you'll still have to worry about hordes, loyalty and religious issues. But then again if the empire had been easy to defend we'd still be speaking latin!

Religion
I've noticed that many player take one look at the monestery and jump on the Jesus bandwagon. Despite the obvious perks of sighning up for the Jehova it isn't as simple cut as it initially looks. Their are perks of both sides and which faction you choose is a lot more complex than a 15% happyness bonus. It's also worth noting that the situation varies from faction to faction on a number of differant ratios rather than trying to access religion as a whole it's better to study it faction by faction.

Paganism
Pro's
paganism has access to two very good temples within the empire-mithras and solar invictus. Now despite my opnion that their isnt enough time and detail put into either of these shrines (they should both easily have 5th teer production and Mithras should have loads of awsome personality traits and unique retinue members) both the pagan temples are very useful. Mithras is not only a warrior shrine but also gives a nice loyalty boost to law and happyness which means that pagan settlement armies will usually unit for unit be superior to their christian counterparts. Solar invictus is a good solid public control shrine with a very meaty bonus to population loyalty in fact it's slightly better than the christian ballicia (although the latest patch evens it out more). Theirs also the consideration that the bulk of your cities are pagan meaning that it's easier to consolidate. Due to you initial religious distribution of faiths in the map your mostly pagan barbarian pals easier to pacify when you start marching across the rhine to remind them of the good old days. The bulk of family members are pagan so if you do switch back then you'll be saving most of your members who would have otherwise been problamatic when governing with the wrong shrine or even finding themselves in the Rebel camp becouse of internal uprisings. Finally games seem to be in favour of the old ways and logicly this means they function most fluidly in a pagan empire.

Cons
No priests: although not as devstating as missing say...paladins, the absence of priests is still something to be noted. ultimatly christianitys happyness bonus is way higher than paganism's meaning that overall christianity makes for a happier population. Plus you don't get theological goodies as pagans ( 'artifacts' found by constantines mum and weird theologicans in your retinue) which are very useful for law and happyness. finally you'll have to deliberatly kill your emperor and change the faction heir if you want to go Pagan loosing one family member and damaging one (former faction heir trait) weakening your already unsteady empire.

Christianity
Pro
Christianity gives the player access to the monstery ladder. allowing for a usefull 5-15% bonus to happyness and access to monks which are useful in the low tech cannon fodder you may be forced to field early on. The started emperor is christian, as is his heir which of coarse makes christianisation all the smoother. Christian temple are also the highest teer temple allowing for the most bonus' to population in general. The christian sturctures have population growth bonus' which allow for rapid climbing on the governor building ladder. You can also gain a huge and often vital cash boost from trashing all those pagan sites to help get your economy back on the road. barbarian factions tend to be pagan meaning they will have a hard time dealing with your christian cities if you capture one. Finally christians get all kinds of cool retinue stuff famous theologians, bishops and bits of the cross all come with fairly nice features such as law bonus' .

Cons
Firstly the bulk of your empire is ultimatly pagan, the bulk of your cities veiw christianity the same way I veiw jehova's witnesses:avoid at all costs. If you attempt to convert your empire too fast and to carelessly you will suffer a truly brutal uprising resulting in the emerging green rebels becoming a full fledged faction within your own borders: very very bad. If your going to christianise do it slowly and gently, starting in italy spreading out into Gaul while waiting to the pagan/christian family member ratio to slip in your favour. Unit for unit pagan Mithratic armies are better than christian armies: the priest simply doesnt have the same clout as the experiance bonus (although better still why not combine both?). The population growth bonus while usefull can often be something of liability if you don't have the money to upgrade goverment buildings as it constantly pushes up the poverty bar through population at the highest tier of buildings. Finally, something that George bush is living proof of (just kidding) christianity creates negative charecter traits. Large numbers of my christians (about 2/3rds at one point) join one or another heresy increasing unrest or make those damnned vows of poverty cutting my cash flow.While I think that their are negative pagan traits they're not on par with the problems christianity causes to family member personality (although I could be wrong they may be religious caused even if they don't look it) although it should noted their are quite a few 'good' christian traits to help ease this problem.

Overall both christianity and paganism have solid perks and problems. I believe it's ultimatly up to the discretion of the player which one he chooses. One thing I will say that you must choose. trying to balance the empire between christian and pagan requires resoarces beyond your capability although you can maintain some shrines for the opposite religion. You will have to favour one for simply practical purposes. I choose pagan intially becouse I wanted a differant experiance to what i did with the eastern empire (to which most of what has been said here can be applied).

Side notes

1)A little trick I picked up on was that once a monestery is built it doesnt matter what religion you follow in the region. Meaning in a number of formally christian sites still had the happyness boost when I converted them: also allowing me access to priests from a 100% pagan population which I dubbed priests of Mithras......if anyone in the empire comments on this I'll remind them I'm the emperor and I know where they live.I assume this is simply the pagans taking control of areas when they've reclaimed them from christians
2)If I was going for a smash and trash attack or if a region was about to fall I'd build a shrine opposite the religion of the people making it very hard to hold for whoever set up shop when they took the region.Especially if the conversion is still lower than the overall conversion bonus for other faiths: I remember being darkly amused watching the Allemani tribe have to fight a constant battle to keep their capital.
3)Whichever faith you choose to favour keep 2-3 of your cites of the other faith. This will give you somewhere to drop of family members of that faith and allow you limted access to the perks of that religion (priests or experiance bonus) good areas for christianity are north africa and for paganism great britain.
4)For love of all that is sacred do not decide who to side with on what religion you follow in life!
a) data streams do not have souls
b)combine the most radical terrorists and weird apocalypse cults of the modern world and that's what the christians of the 4th century looked like: not only really voilent and intolerant but also completly insane.
c)Pagans are almost as bad and in some repects, worse.
d)Neither religion resembles their modern counterparts very much.
Choosing which religion to side with should be a pure strategy, terms of challange or at a pinch asthetic preferance. If you're deciding how to play computer games on what god/s think then I'm probably going to avoid you if i see you one the street. Choosing religion on asthetic preferance is fine choosing religion out of spiritual concerns is just plain weird.
5)If you're pagan keep and eye out for any really good shrines in barbarian lands and retrain your armies there: you may even get lucky and pick up some good retinue followers.
6)Trash any Zorostrian temples you get immediatly.
7)try to make sure Generals are of the lesser religion: that way they won't have personality defects from spending time with the wrong temple.


Loyalty/titles
A serious issue in the western empire. Not only do revolts cause disruption but also cause defects in family members and fully functioning enemy factions within your lands squandering vast amounts of precious resoarces to quell them. Firstly keep an eye on loyalty bars, try to make sure that powerfull generals and governors have a title and watch them. A good trick I found was to make the emperor head of at least one army ensuring that at least one army (usually the best overall) would never betray me (latest patch emperors can't defect). I also found keeping a small but potent army led by a captain in spain, italy, britain and other geographical blocks meant that if a family member defected their would be someone to restore roman law in any region.Fighting rebels will be discussed below: these are more measures to prevent or react to rebellion.

Units

peasants
As in all total war games: pathetic cannon fodder. Their uselessness is magnified in this game since they can't be relied on to control populations anymore. The only real use I could find for them is as sappers and arrow shields. Simply put if any other unit is available it does not matter what you want just use anyone else instead

Limitanei:
the 'limes' are very simular to the town watch in the first game. the limes fufill the role of cannon fodder and guarding cities from internal stife and external assaults. Useful for defending cities from sieges where their throwing spears can cause some nasty casualties while forcing the enemy to waste time and lives on the walls. I wouldnt recommend using them in the field as they will be outnumbered by their barbarian low-tech counterparts and outgunned by non-peasent units. use in cities or to break bandits. Leaving real soldiers free to fight proper battles.

Archers:
Bog-standard archers: you know what to expect here. Unfortuantly they're the only archer unit you get so they'll be the ones you use. good at defending cities and supporting fire. They're usefull in fighting horse archer armies and whiddling down the enemies numbers prior to attack or their attack. They can also be used to shoot damned horse archers very. Since their the only archer unit you have their the ones your stuck with. On the bright side their numbers are easily refreshed due to their low tech level so their field time is far superior to a number of units they'll be fighting along side.

Foederati
As much as I hate filthy barbarians, The foedereti are the first good unit you get. Able to fight quite well They'll be used extensilvly in early game where you'll need them to make up the numbers of your commitares with these guys. Use them as standard spearmen: to engage cavalry, hold positions or defend walls and you can't go far wrong. I would recomend replacing them with auxilerie palicia in mid game (less barbarians more romans!) since their superior in everyway. Very usefull as local defence militias against bandits and rebels, not so good against hordes.

Foederati Cavalry
You'll have loads of these at the start but you should disband them imediatly becouse they cost too much money and are frankly rubbish. They're usefu in the bog standard sort of way for standard light cavalry roles: flank attack, killing light infantry and running down the enemy when they rout however they cost to much, and you need that money elsewhere. By the time you're able to afford them Samatian cavalry is more largely available. which are far better in every respect (plus they look cooler). Simply put don't bother.

Priests
An interesting unit. Let me ask you question why would druids not be as useful to a roman army than they were to the Gauls? answer: Becouse romans have high moral and good fighting capabilites so don't need a bunch of chanting weirdos to hold them together. The same applies here: the higher teer roman units don't need a priest, especially if they're raised in a mithras settlement. Simply put for Romans you're better off having another unit of comitatanes in the field or more acuratly, raising two units of comitatanes in the time it takes to raise one unit of priests. That said, for low tech or city guard armies the priest comes into his own with half hearted pansy squad you'll probably be forced to use in the initial stages of the campaigh (all troop types listed above this unit) they need the priest to boost their dubious combat ability. They're also usefull in sieges where they boost the resolve of the men on the walls who usually suck anyway. Overall I would consider this unit a novelty in big league Roman armies but more useful in low tech forces. Still on the bright side they look very cool.

Comitatanes/plumbatarii
As both these units are very simular we shall discuss them as one. The meat of the roman army the 'legionare' infantry while not on par with their preddessors they are still formidable. very simular to the pre-marian pricipes in style and combat capabilities. They can't form tetsuo but can throw javelins prior to attack and can be counted on to fight well in most battles. Deploy as your standard infantry as soon as possible they'll can be relied on to win most fights they encounter-especially when theirs loads of them. The plumbatarii are simular to the Comitatanes but slightly better (the game developers should have made the gap larger or made them more differant) and should be deployed in your best army instead of the Comitatanes. However in for most of your armies I would recomend Comitatanes since their a tier lower on the military tier and are thus easier to replenish when on campaigh.

Comitatanes 1st cohort
Banner boys for the army. Slightly better than regular Comitatanes and their banner boosts moral, I try to have one in every army as a tough core to the army. I tend to place it behind the main line ready to engage the enemy should any units rout The high requirements mean they'll be hard to replenish when out in the field

Auxilia palitia
The elite unit for the West roman army. Probably the best spear unit in the game with combat capabilities far out classing their usually low level colleages. Despite this they should be treated in a simular manner to all spearmen and deployed and used as usual: to engage cavalry and protect flaks and in street city fighting. They just do it better than everyone else! Can form shield wall boosting their defence.

Bucellarii
an odd unit, armed with crossbows you'd be forgiven for treating them like their medieval pals but they seem to function differantly, They can hold their own in close combat resonably well and can fire short range but fairly effective bolts. This makes them ideal for sieges where they funcition well as shooters and wall fighters. Their tactical flexibility seems their greatest advantage allowing them to be used as a light infantry unit or a tactical infantry unit. However they're quite high up on the ladder so my usage of them was limited by the need to raise other more key units but if you have the time and money they seem a sound investmant. Very fragile to cavalry attacks.
Praeventores
Another odd unit, a sneaky unit for want of a better word. I found them very good at flank attacks were their ability to hide pays off. Best deployed in small skirmishes and ambushes were their meaty attack rate shines. However the time they take to produce and the limited usefulness of the unit mean they were a rare sight due to the the large scale battles I was forced to continously fight: where their use is limited. best used in small skirmishes or as ambushers.

Samatian cavalry
medium/Heavy cavalry and in all likelyhood the only cavalry you'll need. Good solid unit which can be relied on as shock troops and flank attacks. I found them useful in engaging enemy cavalry units were they u

[CXA]

I am playing VH/VH with the West and will use alot of what you have mentioned here.

I beat the whole map on M/M with the West, but found that was kindergarten compared to VH. I didn't even change most of the cities religion and still managed to take over the whole map. That is impossible on VH. I am on my second try and feel that I may have to start over even though I am into the middle game.

I was trying to make the empire Christian but I think I will go with Paganism the third time around.

On Med. I kept my whole army and it worked out. On VH I think that in order to get cash I will have to get rid of the expensive Foederati Cavalry and then build back up. I will make my Christian members my generals and they will have to be my cavalry in the beginning.

Very good read!! I will employ somem of your other strats as well!!

[CXA]

Well, on my third try I won the campaign in the year 409. Using strats from this forum helped alot. I never stop there as I like to take over the whole map.

After that I don't know what to try as I hear West Rome is probably the hardest on VH/VH.

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

The first thing i would do would lower squalor in your home field. then immediatley secure your european border make sure the cities on your frontier are prepared for invasions. honestly if you do that then you should work on economy and territory

[Avicenna]

Assassin squads are useful as well, looking at the WRE Re-unification PBeM: apart from a single character killed in a battle, the whole Slavic faction was wiped out by assassinations and just disappeared.

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

If you do not defeat the germanic tribes then they will be a problem later. what i did was make some armies ans attack celts, saxons etc. this secured my rule in europe and got me better prepared for the invading hordes

[Avicenna]

They're not major and impossibly difficult problems though, as even with the house rules preventing their destruction in the PBeM I mentioned in my previous post, they're succeeding and have destroyed a few hordes, and almost taken the whole Eastern Empire as well as retaining the Western half. The Germanic tribes are actually quite useful, as if you can just keep a ceasefire, they will act as a buffer zone to weaken the oncoming hordes, while themselves being weakened. The Celts (who aren't Germanic!) aren't in the hordes' way though, but they aren't a major problem so destroying them is optional. Their sieges of Eburacum should be futile, with a stone wall there.

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

Well for me the alemanii, celts, franks etc kept attacking my cities and armies

[Avicenna]

Try and make them agree to a ceasefire every time. Or, if you wish, put a full stack next to them, to make them retreat. They're useful buffer zones against the hordes that are going to attack you. The Celts should be destroyed though, or at least driven off Britain.

[Avicenna]

ARGH.

I keep on trying this faction, and I keep failing. Just on H/M, destroyed the Vandal horde with Nero's stack while losing only four units. And then, I get a nice little surprise. The massive Hunnic horde is at my doorstep, and they just took the Gothic settlement of Vicus Gothi. That's right, I'll have to destroy at least EIGHT stacks to get rid of the Huns and Goths. It'll probably be more, since they're all stuck together. I'll also have to choose between letting the Huns in and destroying the Goths or destroying the Huns first and trying to build an army in Italy to combat the Goths. I've got no night fighters in Italy though, which could be a problem. Gratianus is a governor and is a major morale sapper of his army, and Spurius converted to the Rebels. That means no chance of doing much conversion now, two hordes, and only two stacks for me to command. I really can't believe that I'm always this unfortunate, getting the hordes all at once all the time.

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

Strange for me the Huns always go to greece. Only when i push them out do they take the gothic settlement

[Avicenna]

Well it seems I've finally got a WRE campaign up and going. Admittedly it's only at H/M, so it's less of a challenge than the others described. However, I'm proud to say that I have only lost 2 settlements so far. Carnuntum, which rebelled, and then reverted back after a while, fully Christianised. I also lost Samarobriva (unsure about the name), when I overlooked a Saxon army which bypassed my forts by naval means. It was quickly snatched back, though.

Right now, I have destroyed the Alemanni, and Vicus Alemanni is inhabited by a bunch of normal rebels. The Franks are down to a few units, but strangely the large Lombard stack which has stood next to it for a few years hasn't made a move. The Berbers were too annoying, so I chose to destroy them. I'm still at war with the Celts, but no battles have been fought yet. I have destroyed three hordes: Marcus the Gambler destroyed the Huns single handedly, Nero Flavius destroyed the Vandals, and they both contributed to the destruction of the Goths, who sadly took the life and army of Nero Flavius.

I'm at war with the Eastern Empire , and I've taken the settlements of Athens, Thessalonica, Constantinople, Kydonia and am currently besieging Cyrene. I'm reluctant to move to Asia Minor though, and I'm probably going to go on the defensive and establish a few border legions in Europe. The many fleets of the Byzantines are also helping me make this decision.

Finally, religion. Even though Spurius Flavius and his 50% bonus was lost in a rebellion, he's now a nice rebel happily standing in Carnuntum, and is what keeps the place Christian. I have a 'Christian Conversion Army', the CCA, composed of around five Christians who include an executioner and a great manager. They've so far converted Ravenna, Mediolanium and are working on Augusta Vindeloricum (once again unsure. it's the province above Mediolanium).

After a long period of infertility, under the reign of Marcus the Gambler I'm pleased to announce a huge baby boom and around three or four quick adoptions into the family, all being Christians.

Then again, it's just H/M

[Avicenna]

Since I can't edit right now, I think I'll post my officially completed but unofficially (my own targets) uncompleted WRE campaign:
Marcus "the Gambler" Flavius Hunnicus Gothicus, Roman hero who crushed the Hunnic horde in half a year and proceeded to destroy the Goths as well. Augustus at this time:


The Empire at the time of the official victory:

[Lorenzo_H]

Wow. You are doing quite well. I enjoy seeing the screenies. Keep them up.

[Avicenna]

Lost a Christian 'Man of the Hour' at sea

But the worst thing about this campaign is the constant problems. Sure it's challenging, but it just gets so frustrating.

1) Financial and internal problems as soon as you start. It's over, then you think you'll cruise the rest of the campaign with such a large empire. Wrong.
2)The Vandals arrive, and require destroying. Then, when they're finished, the Huns and Goths arrive. The huns are good boys, attacking my army constantly and essentially condemning themselves to death in half a turn. The Goths, however, maraud around your territories, converting some back to paganism. They run around and are smarter, and take a while to destroy. All while this happens, the Eastern Empire attacks you and makes so of your men either dead or trapped in a city, away from the hordes. These two hordes are dead as well, and you rejoice, as the Sarmatians and Franks seem settled. Wrong. The Lombard and Burgindii go beserk in the barbarian lands, knocking out both the Franks and Sarmatians, all the while having a peace. The Sarmatian horse archer hordes are mobile and quite annoying, and run all around the place. When you seem to have them dead with one member remaining, they'll just pop out two random family members. Kill them and leave one, another two pop out. This is the first time I've actually had to destroy the horde and not their leaders. The Franks have now arrived too, with quite a lot of densely packed stacks, and a whole load of pagans. Grr. Luckily, only one full stack and a half stack actually have family members. The heir is stranded on his own as of now, somehow being all the way down at Serbia.
3) Once I manage to destroy them, I'm very sure that the Lombards and Burgundians will commence a war. One will be destroyed, and horde yet again.
4) In the middle of all this, you've got to take territories from the Eastern Empire as well. When you've taken the Eastern Empire, the Roxolani will most likely horde against you or be a constant annoyance.
5) One final note: the Slav horde will eventually attack as well. Fun fun fun.

That's why I destroy the helpless factions as well, namely the Saxons, Alemanni and Berbers. Anyone who attacks. The WRE might seem fun at first, but the constant pressure to destroy is quite taxing.

[Biggus Diccus]

I don't think anyone has mentioned to micromanage governors and swapping retinues the first few turns as this can make a difference of thousands of dinari. I seem to remember that I only left 4-5 governors actually in cities because most of them were so totally crappy, with like -50% to trade and taxes. I focused on Rome and Carthage and after a few turns those cities made huge piles of cash from trade and taxes. Building ports is the key to making money early on. And tax those AQUAFINA till they go blue, even a little in the red. A little rioting is just business as usual

One vital thing to do the first turn is to move the governor of Corsica to Rome and give him good retinues for trade bonuses/order & law/influence. In combination with the port upgrades in Rome this will make a big difference.

It is actually worth to have a crappy family member travel around swapping retinues and collecting the bad ones. That's why I always keep 2-3 ships to transport troops and family members.

[Roman_Man#3]

following an earlier suggestion, my empire is now quite stable.

here is a pic of something i spied. its recipe for disaster.



here is the campaign map, any ideas wheree to expand to next?

[IMG]
[/IMG]

[Phoenix]

In my game, one of the first things I did was take Vicus Alemanni and destroy the Celts and Berbers, but if you're at war with the Eastern Romans then Greece and Constantinople are the most profitable targets so it would depend on whether you're expanding to cut down on the number of fronts to deal with or if you're after the cities that make alot of money.

[Bill Westwater]

Can anybody answer this question for me. If the WRE is such a disaster zone (and the one time i played it certainly seemed to be) why is it that the AI always seems to be able to survive as WRE fairly easily? At present i am playing as ERE, its about 385 and WRE still has 23 or 24 provinces, despite being at war with several hordes.

[econ21]

Yes, the WRE is strong in AI hands. Partly, it's because it starts with significant military forces and the AI often does not pressure it much. The WRE actually has quite a lot of economic potential and so I suspect the AI claws its way out of deficit over time (especially on higher difficulty when it gets a cash bonus). Rebellion and disloyalty is an irritant but not really life threatening.

I suspect the WRE is not a disaster zone; it's just very messy - deficits, rebellions, threatened borders etc - and humans are put off by that. If you ride out the first few turns, it's not really hard at all.

Try the WRE in IBFD for a real disaster zone. It starts with a Goth horde in Italy beseiging Rome and the Vandal horde carving up Spain.

[Robespierre]

yeah, I

[Robespierre]

pardon me. the caesar is stuck between a rock and a hard plaice. low hygiene and religious dissent make for disorder. taxes are high to pay for the army and the emperors sprawling extended clan of grandchildren.sugardaddy of the world! so far the reconquest is doing okay. disbandment and trade seem to be the key. the game has a lovely feel of the coup d'etat about it, it is truly Edward Gibbonesque. it is easy enough to hold on to Italy , the province and Africa.looting in Gaul next. but the Iberian ports, would it have been worth trying not to lose them at the start? i think the upkeep would put too great a brake on rebuilding the empires' core zone.
Historically, the empire devoped a continental identity. Romania. however the Latin people still had a more pond-centred consciousness. this dichotomy is reflected in the organisation of frontier defence. the latifundia people want secure sealed borders. to ward the tribes from southern ports nees a more flexible approach.those fertile farmlands of Gaul and Dacia can only be developed if WRE can confront and heal its divisions, get turning a profit.

[joyodongo]

I've been using the PAGANE option sending the emperor on a suicide mission and setting a pagan heir. I only lost 5 provinces but retook them after more or less time. I was at the pointo finishing the capaign but I made a mistake: took the last city from the franks and goths in the way to Cartaghe and they became a very powerful horde and they began taking my cities...
How do you handle with this? Do you find useful to leave them with a single city and preventing them to become very strong? It's the same with the vandals in Gaul.
Other question: If you destroy them before resettling, do they dissapear forever?

[Robespierre]

on the only occasion i sent Valentinian on that suicide mission of which you speak, he achieved my objective only after slaying the Allemani 7-star general. a bonus prize. as for hordes, i think it is wisest not to provoke them, scout out the map before you hit a hordable faction. do not let Hubris get the better of you, it will be your downfall.. let sleeping hordes of germanic warriors lie.

"a religion devoid of moral precept, theological principle, and eccliefaftical difcipline"- Gibbon on Paganism.

[Phoenix]

The Western Roman Empire was actually one of the easier campaigns I played. In the beginning I only disbanded the navy and the Foederati Cavalry that weren't attached to field armies so I had enough of an army to take out the Alemanni, Celts, and Berbers in the first 10 turns as well as recapture Avaricum and Salamantica which were the only cities that rebelled from me. After that I was making enough money to support several field armies so I eventually took Vicus Franki and wiped out the Saxons as well after I got rid of the Hordes attacking me. Since the Sassanids took most of the Eastern Roman Empire's territory, I had an easy time getting the other provinces needed to win though I did have to fight a couple ERE and Sassanid armies.

Religion-wise, I had my provinces keep the religion they started with. For pagan cities, I used Mithras for troop-producing cities and Sol Invictus for the rest. I really liked the Sol Invictus temples since they cut down on corruption alot and give governors a +4 law bonus trait. Between the governor's +20% law bonus, Sol Invictus' +20%, Ludus Magna's +15%, and Epic Stone Wall's +10% you can eliminate corruption in alot of cities which saved me alot of money.