Advice on Casse

[Marcus Ulpius]

After playing for some time with Macedonians and fighting mostly phalanxes (AS is struggling badly and my armies have captured Arbela) with the immediate prospect of fighting the Ptolies (which means even more phalanxes), I've decided to have a small break there and try something different. I've played a Roman campaign twice (will probably play it more - I want to create the Roman Empire), played KH and even Carthage (which I liked a lot, but I've patched the game and the save was gone). Now I've decided to try something else.

I've actually never played a barbarian or nomadic faction. So, I've decided to try something barbarian and started Casse campaign.

I've built roads, disbanded the fleet and moved everything except my FL from the city towards town lying in the extreme south-west. I've saw a big rebel army and since I've heard that those guys can sometimes attack my city, I've attacked them (strangely enough they were neutral). After defeating them and it was hard since Casse FMs aren't much of a help in combat, I've decided to get back to my capital for retraining. On the way back I was attacked by another rebel army of 5 Caledonian skirmishers. Unfortunately my decimated army was beaten and I only manage to kill off 1.5 units of Caledonians. I've retreated to capital, retrained (which nearly emptied my wallet) and attacked that skirmisher army. This time I killed them (but losses were big). I've retreated to capital again, retrained (which took nearly all of the remaining money) and checkd that town I was going to take in the beginning. Immediately I understood that I have no chance of taking it with what I have.

I had 2xFM, 1x slingers, 1x s. Gallic swordsmen and 2x units of lugoae, while the enemy had 1xgeneral, 1x slingers, 2x botroas, 2x of gaeroas, 1x of uirodosios (naked spearmen), 2x of teceitos and 2x lugoae.

I produce around 400 mnai per turn and while I can wait and recruit some units, it certainly will not be enough to recruit and maintain even a couple of slightly better units.

Have I done something wrong in the beginning? Because now, the campaign seems nigh-impossible.

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Don't start expanding so soon. Disband your starting armies and replace them with cheap Kludobbro to defend your capital, build up what you can before the Balroae army besieges you. Defeat them, and once you do it keep building so you can later train a large army of levies to take the other cities.

[Mediolanicus]

Either disband all units except for FM's and wait until you have enough money to build a large army. Then defeat the rebels with that and take 1 or 2 cities. After that it is a walkover.

Or do as you do now (although I would train a unit of slinger instead of building roads).
Use Casse chariots as a psychological weapon. They are secretly the best unit in EB.

Just hold the enemy and let them tire out while keeping your FM's close to boost your troops morale and damage the enemy's. Then, drive through the enemy with your chariots (not charging, just clicking right of them and them clicking left of them so they drive strait through them. Bang, massive rout.

Also, the chariots die once they enter melee. So keep them either totally out of the fight or keep them moving all the time!

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=2074306&postcount=10

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=2074500&postcount=23

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=2074541&postcount=26

[Ludens]

You are at peace with the rebels for a reason: so you can trade with them. You don't have enough income to maintain your starting army and the starting army is inadequate to take on the rebels and start conquering nearby towns. What I did (but this was back in 0.8, so things may have changed now) is to disband my army and build up my treasury. I built a port, roads and a teaching grove (roads seem to encourage attacks by the rebel army, so I'd advise you to skip those) and waited until I had assembled a large treasury. Then I recruited a splendid army, booted out the two rebel armies lurking in Cassemorg and started conquering.

Once you've defeated the rebels and conquered a town or two, conquering the rest of Britain will be easy. This will give you a large income to tech up your island and trigger the reforms. You'll need the reforms because they unlock most of the heavier units. I'd recommend first taking Belgium: the Belgae units are some of the best available to a Celtic player. Then you can chose to interfere in the Gallic civil war or first wipe out the Germans. The Germans can be a pest, but, depending on how far they expanded, they can be tricky to defeat once and for all and their provinces are poor, both economically and from a recruitment-perspective. Expanding to Gaul will probably bring you into conflict with Rome, so be prepared.

[Ignopotens]

I just started a Casse campaign a couple days ago. After making the same initial mistake you did, I restarted and did this:

- Disbanded entire army but 2 units and kept everything in the capital.
- Used the spy to locate and keep an eye on the 2 rebel armies (they never attempted to attack my city in my game, I ended up going after them)
- Build up infrastructure, like roads, barracks (very important in the beginning to have better troops available than what you start with) and any trade-boosting buildings, especially the port, since you can trade with the Eleutheori (you are neutral until you attack them, so take advantage of it)

After a few years of preparation you should have plenty of money to build your first army. If you upgraded the barracks you can get Belgae Swordsmen, which I used to great effect in taking the first 2 cities.

My first army was:
4 x Slingers
2 x Celtic Spearmen
2 x Celtic Levy Spearmen
2 x Briton Swordsmen (to operate the rams, as cannon fodder, and as garrisons)
2 x Belgae Swordsmen
2 x FM

With this army you can easily eliminate the 2 Rebel armies before you attack the first town (Ictis, to the West). In my case they actually positioned themselves nicely between my capital and Ictis, so it was on the way anyway.

After that proceed to Ictis and attack. Once you have Ictis, go take Ratae, leaving a swordsmen and 1 FM behind. After Rate is yours, I actually disbanded most of my troops again, at least the ones who hadn't gained any experience. Then I just built up infrastructure again until I was ready, and moved on to take all of the British Isles.

Once you take Ictis and Ratae the Isles will fall easily. Good Luck

[Marcus Ulpius]

Thanks for advice. I've decided not to restart the campaign and continue the current one. I've been able to take Ictis and Ratae now, and preparing to attack another rebel town. Money is still a problem, but I'm far from being bankrupt. And btw, chariots do wonders when they drive through the enemy. They also are very good at lowering enemy morale and causing early routs. Even naked spearmen and midland champs routed relatively early when I got my chariots behind their backs and started to drive through them.

[theoldbelgian]

I actually do something thats actually is considered cheating
I usually lose my starting army at ictis
and then for the rebel armies i use slingers and hit and run tactics and so i survive till i can come up with a better army
its the slingers wich are a litle overpowered that bothers me
am i going to hell? :p

[anangryelitist]

in my casse campaigne i just attacked the closest rebel city on the first turn and it worked for me :s

[Tiberius Claudius Marcellus]

Don't start expanding so soon. Disband your starting armies and replace them with cheap Kludobbro to defend your capital, build up what you can before the Balroae army besieges you. Defeat them, and once you do it keep building so you can later train a large army of levies to take the other cities.

:wall:
What advice is that??? I have beaten the Casse campaign and simply used all my units, sans FL, and took the nearest town - just keep enslaving/exterminating the populations to get beaucoup bucks. Your original army can take 2-3 towns depending on losses.

Make sure to sell off the fleet and also, don't queue up buildings....build only one at a time per city - it's just wasted money to have it dedicated to a building that isn't being constructed right now.

With a FM in place in your towns, max out the taxes and sell off things like shrines, etc - and don't build "game fields" (they just suck money out of your coffers). When your towns are small and have your home gvt., morale will be super high so you won't need things with effects on public order/morale.

You should be able to take all of Britain in 15 years with a steady approach. Then, sit tight and build up your cities/armies to land in Gaul. Again, watch out for building up your 'game fields" too much - they suck your money like nobody's business. From there, it's all about constant army production to keep pushing pushing pushing. For every new town you take you should have 2 full stacks ready to go to take the next town and to repel Romani/Lusotannan invaders. An alliance/gifting with the Sweboz will keep your entire eastern flank secure and free up units from guarding.

You can effectively "blitz" all of Gaul in 20 years once you start. After that raid/sack the Romani towns on your South East/East to keep their units down, and focus on Iberia. Traditional Casse light infantry doesn't fare well against the better armed/armored Lusotannan troops. If you have the cash, throw heavy mercs at them to wither their numbers, or build lots of stacks and don't be afraid to let the AI control your 2nd and 3rd armies as you 'hammer and anvil' the enemy. Yeah, the AI sucks at maneuvering troops; but the more you have on the screen, the better off you are.

I personally find the Casse campaign the easiest of all barbaroi/nomad campaigns despite it's painfully slow start. You have an almost impenetrable fortress with 10 or so towns as your base, and as long as you keep enough troops at the borders then all of Gaul is your bread basket/ MIC.

Good luck and RABO!:laugh4:

[Marcus Ulpius]

I'm slowly expanding northwards (have just taken that town with Brigand in its name) and I have nothing but Kluddobro, slingers and FMs in my armies. It's enough to take rebel towns with their naked spearmen, midland spearmen and champions. The only problem could be that town in Wales, which has 2 units of Druids, but after I take Scotland it'll be time to test how tough are they. Money is slowly building up, although it's still not enough to start recruiting heavier units. I think I'll disband most of the army once I secure the British Islands to build economy that could support better and more numerous armies.