Iceni battle tactics suggestions and helpfull tips wanted

[Merak]

after i am done with my egypt Campaign i am thinking of doing a barbarian next i would like to do a iceni Campaign but have read that there Soldiers are a bit on the weak side i am thinking of doing this attack called "Two attacks" http://guides.gamepressure.com/totalwarromeii/guide.asp?ID=22426 and making my armies arount this formation. what would be the sugested army types for this kind of attacks..

But as that guide i found is a bit old i was thinking would this battle tactic be doable in the new patches? (8.0 and 8.1)

is it these soidiers that can be found here http://guides.gamepressure.com/totalwarromeii/guide.asp?ID=22435 still good enuf for these kind of attacks?

or is it better to focus on an other tipe of army?

this was a bit rambly and HOPEFULLY i have explained what i mean...

[Myth]

Relax. Everything is doable in single player. It's multiplayer where imbalances shine and when perfect rosters like that of the Seleucids give an edge. Early on go for massed celtic slingers and some melee support. Use two or more stacks to lay siege to a tribe's last settlement, then force them to join your confederation. You will get their army too, if you hadn't destroyed it already. This has a snowball effect and soon you can have more armies than you can support.

Focus early town development on food due to the hordes of light troops you will field, get everyone you can to join your confederation and focus your techs on getting mid tier infantry and at least a tier 3 Cheiftan's Hold for happiness.

Later on with tier 4 smith buildings and temples to various war deities your troops will be buffed beyond what the AI can field. Heroic Nobles / Heroic Riders with ballista and javelin support will do just fine.

[Merak]

aa then i will do but first i need to betray my allies in order to acheve cultural victory :D

[Kamakazi]

Im trying to get this is total war with the iceni and im stalled. Cant move forward and they wont attack me

[Sociopsychoactive]

I've just looked at the two attacks page and I'm playing as the Iceni myself and I don't recomend it. Myth's tactics work well early on but I almost always go heavy infantry focus, and try not to fight to heavilt outnumbered. I tend to have 6 sword, 6 spear, 2 cav, 4 skirmishers and arty and general and aim for holding their line with sword while spear deal with any cav flankers then wrap around the ends of their line. Againt early armies this works fine as long as you close quickly (which the arty help with) and laters armies you have chosen sword and chosen spear to use, which can take a lot more of a beating.

[Skott]

I've just looked at the two attacks page and I'm playing as the Iceni myself and I don't recomend it. Myth's tactics work well early on but I almost always go heavy infantry focus, and try not to fight to heavilt outnumbered. I tend to have 6 sword, 6 spear, 2 cav, 4 skirmishers and arty and general and aim for holding their line with sword while spear deal with any cav flankers then wrap around the ends of their line. Againt early armies this works fine as long as you close quickly (which the arty help with) and laters armies you have chosen sword and chosen spear to use, which can take a lot more of a beating.

Have you tried dropping from 6 sword to 2 sword and increase 6 spear to 10 spear? Or instead go 9 spear and add another Cav? I been testing different set ups myself.

[Sociopsychoactive]

When I played as the Suebi I used ten spear and two sword set ups (mainly due to their lack of good sword units early on) and found them lacking the kill speed. They could hold the line reasonably well, even under difficult circumstances, and you are FAR less vulnerable to cavalry but remeber you have no good cavalry to make a flanking move of your own, so more often than not I need to focus my strongest melee on one place and chew a hole in their line, then turn along to where the spears are holding to get into the sides of their foes. This has worked well when severely outnumbered by low quality infantry (as the celts and surrounding tribes tend to field an awfuly lot of that).

The big flaws to this melee heavy set up are it's lack of manouverability and range. A human oponent (and occasionally the AI) will bombard your troops with low quality siege (scorpions annoy this set up a lot) and even if you can get them there the low end cav of germanic tribes and the icine is not guarenteed a win even with the frenzied charge used if the siege see's you coming and can get a couple of shots off, and that assuming they have no local support. One slinger or skirmisher nearby and you can't take them with one cav unit. Once they get better cav (a LONG way down the tech tree for germania and still not very good cav) you are more flexible, but they die at a collossal rate and this slows down XP gain substantialy.
Skirmish heavy armies can cause you major headaches as well. While I will usually still win the battle my troops take such a pounding trying to close with them that it's often a close or even pyrhic victory, even if they routed almost on contact, and again you don't have the fast movement or armour that counters these problems with melee heavy armies. I tried four cav for a while and it's ok as the Iceni, but as Germania the cav are so weak they are next to useless for anything other than low threat engagements after the lines have clashed.

[Buzghush]

Pick your general's bodyguard 'Chariot'. They are very useful against lightly armored infantries and also good to pursue running enemies.

[Kamakazi]

the problem im having is my spears wont hold against anyone... And being at war with everyone is making my monetary situation difficult....

[Buzghush]

In early game, use more missile units. Slingers are good and cheap units to destroy enemy units. Then, hit them with your melee units and your general's bodyguard. Like I said before, in early game Iceni's Chariots are very useful.

[Myth]

Early and low quality spears rout as soon as things get rough. I dislike them and I usually surge for a tier 3 melee barracks to get better infantry. Until that time, you stick with skirmishers/slingers and use your cav to flank, mop up and induce casualties on enemy light troops.

Barbarians early on have to be a bit more creative than Rome and the Hellenistic factions, due to the lack of a solid "anvil".

[Merak]

aa thankx all then i know some what to do :)

[Skott]

Once you get to 'chosen' units the fighting gets easier. With the Iceni you have to spend more time building up your economy and city/towns and army before moving beyond Britain than you will with say the Romans or Macedon. At least that is my experince anyway. My armies basically have General, 2 units of Britain Ballistae, 3 units of slingers, and the rest spear. You can add a couple units of cavalry if you want but its not necessary to win.