Sweboz

[kdrakak]

Just finished the Sweboz campaign... I remember why barbarian campaigns mostly bore me.... Did stumble on smt interesting though and that ofc would be the roaming defenders of the eastern celts and especially their respawn rate. I do recall reading somewhere that the respawn rate was fixed (i run EB 1.2) but still i got a fresh stack with the same rebel general each turn after defeating the defender. Did a trick for the one near Eboronum and got lucky with my spies (well i did have 3 in the city so maybe it's not luck) at Carrodunum so got a chance to take out defender and garrison in one turn so no respawn there. I think I used a save to trick the Noricum defender (loaded and did not start EB script). All in all got the same strangely predictable diplomacy when i defeated both Aedui and Arveni: Carthaginians from Spain and Romans thought it was the right time to attack. Carthaginians were denied at Tolosa and the romans left hecatombs of their dead at the bridge south east of Mediolanum. Not particaularly enjoyable for me. What did other people think? For me barbarian campaigns are just a good way to take a break from the more interesting campaings of factions with more sophisticated armies. Oh and the reform should take forever... cant see how anyone would wait for that...

[Cute Wolf]

why wait for the Reforms? Stick to spamming Jugundiz and you should take celts easily. If you go against Romans, just pump out Appea Gaedotos and everything is OK.

By the way you fought against Greeks, you should allready get hold on roman lands and start pumping out hastati to fight on your side

[Duguntz]

The Sweboz are the greatest faction of this game! What is boring is 2 armies conmposed of about the same units taht face each other in the open field and the winner's the one with the more phalanxes... No... woods, ambushes, raids... that what makes the barbarian faction the funniest to play

[Ca Putt]

I have to agree with Duguntz here, Sweboz may not have the best unit roster and It can be depressing if even low tier enemy units wear more bling bling than your semi-elites. oh and It get's very confusing if you don't use the zoomed in minimap in Large even matched forest battles. But that is nothing compared to the boredom of fighting either the AS or the ptolemies with their enless waves of phalangites. sweboz may be depressing, confusing or outright annoying(when it comes to fighting the super stacks or the pirates) but NOT boring.

still the reforms do take awfully long, in my last campaign I already expanded too much to reinforce factional troops before I came even close to the starting date, but well, If'id been more faithfull to history that'd probably be none of my problems ;)

[ziegenpeter]

Sweboz a fierce.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

All in all got the same strangely predictable diplomacy when i defeated both Aedui and Arveni: Carthaginians from Spain and Romans thought it was the right time to attack.

That sounds like very good diplomacy to me. Any power strong enough wipe out the big, tough Gauls would scare the living daylights out of the Romans and Carthaginians - not surprising that they would stop fighting each other and team up to take you on. Good AI doesn't mean the AI is supposed to sit passively until you're ready to attack them. Good AI is doing what is best for them, not for you.

And big bridge battles are boring because of the stupid battle AI which can't handle bridge assaults correctly - I find it more fun to leave only a small, expendable rearguard at the bridge, which will fight well but be overrun, and then fight the enemy army in the open field after.

[vollorix]

Well, all you need are 3 armies: 2 of which led by your best generals each to fight the initial, and the respawning rebel super stack, and one with another random FM fo besiege the town. 3 warlords isn´t really much, kind of team work.
Once the super stacks have expended their javelins ( on your young warriors ), let them fight your battle hardened spearmen of your choice, finishing them off with some bad ass sword/club men, but i think you know what i mean ( nothing as sophisticated as tactics of "Dugundiz" ). But to play Sweboz and use mostly Celtic warriors to fight a superior enemy is nothing i would do - why imitate, choose the right faction then ;)
The German victory conditions do not require moving into south France, and you don´t even have to sack Italy, beneath the Poe Valley, iirc.
Concerning the reforms for Sweboz: i´m not sure my game works correctly, because i do get access to the German Heavy Pike Infantry ( whom i don´t like and use anyway ) once i´ve built the needed barracks tier, but i have no access to Heavy Cavalry or Heavy Swords... ?

[Geticus]

I understand the OPs point, for this reason I often like to play celtic factions because they have a better blend of longsword brutality and civilization building options. But for pure power the Sweboz are strong, perhaps the strongest of the Eurobarb factions when played right, due to their location, high morale/chevrons, and the trollish power of their bodyguards. Even though the bodyguards die to javelin showers a bit easily, I find that high charisma leaders, especially the Drukhtinoz and crown prince, can maintain high bodyguard counts and very high chevron levels. This makes Sweboz bodyguards extremely strong infantry. So if you like to focus on the quality of the cities then Sweboz are not for you but if you like running high chevron warmongers and super high morale armies of "humble" plain looking troops, then Sweboz are good.

[Biowulf]

Concerning the reforms for Sweboz: i´m not sure my game works correctly, because i do get access to the German Heavy Pike Infantry ( whom i don´t like and use anyway ) once i´ve built the needed barracks tier, but i have no access to Heavy Cavalry or Heavy Swords... ?
To get them you need to fulfill the reform conditions. I don't know why they show in the roster before the conditions are met though.

[vollorix]

@Beowulf: I have never played later than 200 with Sweboz, and the reform requires year 193 b.c. or something. Celtic Reforms, or Roman Polybian, do happen correctly, though. Actually you don´t need the heavier German troops, since the Bodyguards are the heavy infantry ( and you always can hire mercs ), but for RP reasons, once my FL has united the Tribes and even advanced in neighboring regions, i´d like to have a native HC instead of hired Celtic troops. The only one that halfway fits those requirements is Celto Germanic Medium Cavalry, but it takes ages to get them, since i do tend to blitz a bit, at least to get out of the debt, but like to build up my settlements, - i´m no foolish AI who only has eyes for barracks ^^

[Rahl]

To get them you need to fulfill the reform conditions. I don't know why they show in the roster before the conditions are met though.
The germanic reforms work the same way like the ones of the Saka, Seleucids or Qarthadastim. I can't remember it exactly but it's something like that: The attacks of the reformed units have the attribute siege and the MICs of this factions have a siege -1 attribute or something like that, so that units with the siege attribute can't be build, unless there is a building with the attribute siege +1 - the reform markers. So when the the reform happens, the markers get spammed and you can build this units.

[kdrakak]

Well many thanx to all who took the time to reply and add their thoughts to mine. It was interesting to read even though I disagree with quite a bit. Personally, I did not spam Juguntiz nor considered doing so, because I like some polyphony in my armies so I made sure i got Chauci Spearmen, Cheruski Swordsmen, Chatti Spearmen as well as the pikemen before I broke out west. Made a point of incorporating Helveti "phalanxes" and the much needed Celto Germanic Cavalry since Reidonez were a poor replacement (tbh they did the job but just barely and not at all enjoyably) and it strikes me that they were a pretty bad light cavalry for post combat mopping. I will make yet another comment on the diplomacy issue. The way the AI responded may seem correct but that is without taking into account the facts (i didn't mention) that a) Carthaginians had captured neither Emporium nor Arse and thought it a good idea to traverse half of the breadth of Spain to attack poor me :embarassed: b) I repeatedly offered both and especially the Romans an Alliance as they were in a war with the Lusotannan and Epeirus who was knocking their eastern door and ofc the Sweboz campaign does not call for Germanz in Rome, but maybe they do not know that. Also, it was interesting to me that the situation in Sicily was settled. The eastern Sicily buffer worked for the Romans and Carthaginians but the Basque&Emporium buffer of rebel states didn't help ze Germans
In many of my finished campaigns I make a note of what minor goals I might return to achieve at a later point. For example, the Orontid reforms for Hayasdan and the military reforms of Carthage. In the case of ze Germanz I think I may revisit to march that army I have at the Poe, all the way into Rome; but that's about it. As I made clear in the opening post, this campaign really bored me. :laugh4:

All the best