Gauls

[mrdun]

I'm having a few Barbarian problems, I am the Julii and am about 15 turns into a campaign, previously I have been defeating half stacks of Gauls with half stacks (1-1's) but now thay are sending full stacks I cannot beat them. Vindex is parading around my lands as if he owns them decimating anything that I put against him I have lost 3 young generals to him and now only have 5 family members left including my faction leader who is around 60, :help: what can I do to stop them?

[Poulp']

just where are you in Gaul ?
If you have Massilia, you can pull back your forces there and hold the bridge. That will but you enough time to gather new, fresher forces.
As a defender, bridge battle are far easier than on the open field, even 5-6 units can defeat full armies.

If you are already deep into gallic territory, that's another story. If you can't buy time, then be ready to lose a few provinces. But make sure you hold on Massilia, and send small armies to take money making cities. (Palma, Caralis, Salona, Segestica, Kydonia)

[Stuperman]

only fight defensive battles, line your troops up near the edge of the battle map so the gauls can't flank you.

Defensive strategy ->Try lining your men up so that your line is 45 degrees to the egde of the map in the corner ('cutting' the corner if you will). This eliminates all chance of flanking. Have your Hastii/princepes in gaurd mode and fire-at-will on. Put Velities infront of your line on fire at will and skirmish off. Manually retreat them behind your line when the enemy gets close (I wouldn't recommend skirmish cause near the edges of the map it doesn't work well). and all your cav right in the corner. Then let them come to you, the pila's of the infintry should inflict a lot of damage, as will the missle troops, as soon as one enemy unit starts to route charge the cav, if another starts to route, hold alt and have the infintry charge (alt prevents pila from being thrown). If you have Archers or slingers use them instead of veleties, they have better range.

I know that this is a bit of a cheap tactic, but it works well, especailly if you make them march up a hill.

[SSJVegetaTrunks]

Bridge battles are your friends. Put your army on a bridge on the campaign map, when they're attacked the battle will start. Put your infantry right at the end of the bridge.

[mrdun]

Thanks guys it was only on m/m, I was thinking about highering the difficulty level but thats out of the window, as are the treacherous Gauls, I defeated Vindex and showed no mercy going on the offensive atacking their weak garrison. Thanks again, the bridge battle worked wonders.

[SSJVegetaTrunks]

Yeah, bridge battles are great for Roman troops or even better as Phalanxes.

[gaiusjulii]

speaking of troublesome gauls, has any one noticed how powerfull barbarian mercanaries are? I have been fighting the gauls and they had a stack of these I couldnt beat them for the life of me in the end it took a full stack of triarii, princepes archers(flame arrows) and a bridge battle(defending) to win and i still lost 2 thirds of my men, this is on M/M, no exaggeration either guys wish i knew how to do pics to show