Strategy for the Britons

[Lord_Megahertz]

Hi:beam: ! I like playing as the Britons, but I am not used to their tactics/units, any advise/strategies? Thanks in advance.:beam: .

[Bartholemew-Varath]

You might want to try here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=36870), this is where you will find the majority of tactics, etc

[Quintus.JC]

I’m probably not the best person to give advice on this one but since no-one else has the spare time I’ll do my best. Briton IMO is one of the weaker factions in R:TW, therefore more challenging and possibly more fun. Their starting position is not very promising, it’s hard to them to expand and their economy is rather pitiful, their position is however very defaceable if you’d consider that an advantage. They start with 3 settlement in Britania, one town in mainland Europe. Your first military action should be taking Tara in Ireland, this shouldn’t hard. Economically you’d want to focus your settlements in Briton to producing money, British isles is right at the edge of the map and there is no worry such as backstabbing apart from a couple of occasional rebels which should prove too big a problem, mines are pretty useful for income though expensive. Londium is your only large town and should be focused on making more powerful troops. Briton are famed for their heavy use of chariots, something I’d consider a disadvantage. Warband makes the basic backbone of their early army though woad warrior becomes available very early on through Andrasta Temples. The key to early British victories should lie in their Light Chariot, whirlwind of death, put them in Cantabrian circles and shoot at the enemy, this trick rarely fails, charge at the enemy with your warband and Woad Warrior when your enemy had been soften up. Briton don’t get to train any sort of cavalry and must rely on mercenary cavalries if the player wish to use them. They do get interesting units such as Headhurler, whom I found to be quite fun to use. Woad Warrior are good swordsmen early on but as time goes on becomes obsolete because of their weak stats, and should not be deployed unless have high experience.

After taking Tara the player should focus on the mainland. You have three options. No.1 is attack Gaul, No.2 is attack Germania, No.3 is attack both. I’m a stable player were doesn’t prefer aggressive expansion and rarely fights more enemy than I can take on. So option 3 is least likened though the AI may choose to give you a hard time. Gallic land is more profitable in taking as it has higher population growth and makes more money in farming and trade. Focusing solely on Gaul and it should not be a problem in destroying them. Germanian lands is considerablely poorer and their population growth is downright pitiful. But the problem comes about the demise of your barbarian neighbours. The Roman is way more advanced and after the Gallic barrier smashed the Julii will soon comes for you. Pre-Marian armies are defeatable but after the reformation the Julii is a real pain in the neck. It is really hard to defeat a proper post-Marian army with a Barbarian one and even so taking and keeping cities is much harder. Roman settlement tend to have large population and hard to keep control. Exterminate is the most sensible option after taking a big Roman city, but even that might not be good enough, the culture difference and squalor may require a huge garrison to maintain, even so rebellion is still not far away. It is not advice to play Briton on a long campaign with a hard difficulty, short campaign is enough of a experience.

The Briton has three available temples: Brigantia, Andrasta, and Britania. Brigantia increase happiness and grant health bonus, which is invaluable and later grants powerful unit in the form of Druids. Andrasta gives experience to troops and grants Woad Warrior with just a shrine built. Britania increases trade. Their temples are well balanced. British infantry is similar to their Gallic counter-parts. With Woad Warrior instead of Naked Fanatics. Briton lacks archer units but their unique powerful unit of Head hurlers could be put to good use. They significantly lacks cavalry units and must rely on their superior chariots. Light Chariots are very useful if used correctly. However I would say they stand no chance against a post-Marian army. One they’ll have to face in order to win the grand campaign.

Good luck!:2thumbsup:

[Lord_Megahertz]

wow:2thumbsup: ! thanks for the information. This is really helpful!

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Just to add to that, any Barbarian army can defeat a counterpart which is slightly more adept than they are.

Warcry is not highly publicised, but it is a brilliant tool - about ten seconds before entering combat, invoke the cry and then charge into the enemy. The warcry grants a temporary large bonus to attack. Although this eventually fades and requires a period to recharge, it allows the forces to gain an initial devastating edge against attackers.

Just so you know, you really should avoid using it when already in combat. It prevents them fighting while they are still getting massacred for the duration of the warcry (about eight or nine seconds).

Druids and their chants can also be useful for the British. I always use them like I would use a general's rally ability - directing them to a key point in the line and then using their chant ability. This increases allied morale and also removes enemy morale. This can be useful for preventing a route and, if an extra push is needed, promoting one.

~:)

[Praetor Rick]

Treat Britannia as a horse archer faction (using light chariots in place of horse archers, they're about equivalent) and you won't go wrong. Massed light chariots can defeat most armies, even armies of highly advanced units. When they cannot, they can at least inflict attritional casualties and retreat, in hopes of defeating the now much reduced enemy in some later encounter.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

One thing you have to be really cautious with in the case of all chariots is not to get bogged down. Chariots initially charge in and kill units by running rapidly through them with their sythes. If they slow down they become easy targets for their foes. A repetative charge and withdraw tactic is useful in this case.

Chariots can also be used in a way combarable to druids. Chariots need only stand behind an already engaged unit of infantry to cause a drop in morale. This can be used to cause routes without actually engaging in combat.

~:)

[Quintus.JC]

I found Impossible to complete the long campaign as the British, their army isn't good enough to take on post-Marian armies and city managment is also very hard once the population excede the limit. The short campaign is easy enough though.

[Quirinus]

One way to use chariots is to click on a point beyond the unit you want to attack, so that the chariots drive through the enemy unit. That, followed by an infantry charge after that, is very effective in routing low-morale units like barbarian warbands or eastern infantry.

[Quintus.JC]

One way to use chariots is to click on a point beyond the unit you want to attack, so that the chariots drive through the enemy unit.

Do you mean using secondary weapons with light chariots?

[RLucid]

Think it meant that you "move to a point", rather than use "attack unit". They mow down those in way, and then you turn them back again, once they're needing to turn back.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Think it meant that you "move to a point", rather than use "attack unit". They mow down those in way, and then you turn them back again, once they're needing to turn back.I think that is the case. Light Chariots, and indeed all chariots, have the ability to cause area damage to units around them, although in many cases they simply knock units over.

One thing that you can bear in mind when dealing with light chariots is that they, like horse archers, can fire when they are in motion. This provides what you could consider to be a double attack - charging through units while firing at them at the same time.

~:)

[Quintus.JC]

I see, I was never any good with chariots anyway. Chariot archers are good units but sycthed chariots are absolutly pants.

[RLucid]

The secret of using weak units is to combine them in effective ways, with other units, minimising weaknesses and maximising strength. You may have to try to choose suitable battlefield and size of battle to ensure maneuver space.

Any fast unit, can make bait against impetuous troops who tend to attack units they "can beat", and then get tired.

Having the patience to exhaust enemy troops, can change the relative unit strengths hugely, and win otherwise unwinnable battles.