Ah the Getai. I was bored one night and decided to try out a campaign with them. My first foray into Getic politics saw me 30,000 in debt with two settlements and a half stack of Sauromatae horse archers on my northern border within five years. Needless to say, it ended quickly. A few more shots and I think I've figured it out. Since no one has written a strategy guide for them, I figure it's worth a shot.
The Getai have quickly become one of my favorite factions. They are a sort of jack-of-all-trades faction with no rock solid strengths and few glaring weaknesses. That said, their unit roster tends to lack specialization, but offers a wide variety of unique and interesting units that, if put to good use, can help carve a great empire.
Early game
The Getai start out with several 1/3 stack armies near their capitol city. They are surrounded by Eleutheroi and have a good deal of room for expansion, but it is critical that the expansion be in the right direction. If you expand west you run into relatively poor provinces where you will get bogged down and waste money. If you expand north you hit the seas of grass filled with angry horse archers who will make mince-meat out of your lightly armored infantry and family member cavalry. Your destiny lies on the coast of the Black Sea and in the mineral-rich lands to the south.
On the first turn get all of your units consolidated into two half-stack armies. Don't worry about garrisoning Buridava with more than a single unit of Thrakian spearmen. Jack your taxes up as high as you can without getting below 80% public order. Spend all of your money building roads, farms, and any other buildings that will increase your population, transportation, or income. You'll be broke and in the red for a few years. On turn one send one army down to Byzantion and the other toward Kallatis. You should be able to lay siege to Kallatis on turn 1. Your army should reach Byzantion by turn 3 and you should be able to capture Kallatis on turn 2. Don't worry about pacification, just minimally garrison Kallatis and send the rest of your army to join the one sieging Byzantion. Kallatis and Byzantion will give you access to trade routes, ports, and fertile farmland. Kallatis will also give you access to the most useful regional unit available to you for a long while - Skythian horse archers.
By turn 5 you should have Byzantion and Kallatis. You should take your force from Byzantion up to Tylis and have that by turn 8 or so. If you played your cards right and are a decent tactician, your army should be decimated, but you'll have four territories. With your armies reduced and taxes high, you should be out of the red by year 4 or 5. Mikra Skythia/Kallatis should be your northern frontier for quite a while because it has a very defensible position along the river at the northern border. The Danube has three crossing points into Mikra Skythia, so build a fort behind each (on your side of the border) and put a unit of slingers in each. This defensive line has kept the Sauromatae from attacking me for sixty years so far, so it's worth the upkeep of a few units of slingers.
Armies
In terms of unit recruitment, you are going to want a lot of archers in your early armies because all of your early enemy Eleutheroi are lightly armored and any respectable army will have four or so units of archers to significantly reduce the enemy numbers before engagement. The Getic unit roster is pretty diverse and there are a number of combinations that can make up an effective army. Here are a few recommendations:
Early Army
6 units of light phalanx (LP)
2 units of axemen (AX)
2 units of Falxmen (F)
4 units of archers (A)
2 units of skirmishers (S)
1-2 units of slingers (SL)
FM
Later Game Army:
4 units of heavy phalanx (P)
2 units of Thrakian Elites (Rhomphaia) or Falxmen (F)
4 units of Agema Orditon (P)
2-4 units of Thrakian peltasts (S)
2 units of Medium Cavalry (C)
2 units of Slingers (SL)
FM
As Soon As Possible
8 - 18 Skythian Horse Archers
2 FM
Tactics
Position
SL
S S
C Ax P P P P P P Ax C
F FM F
A A A A
In this early formation, your archers should have fire at will disabled and you should use them to pepper the enemy's lightly armored units that can cause trouble (i.e. naked spearmen, enemy archers, falxmen, horse archers). The skirmishers should be used to mess with the enemy and the light phalanx should hold the line. The axemen should be sent off to the sides to flank once the phalanx are engaged. Have the phalanx in guard mode so they will last longer. Take the falxmen and run them around the enemy and have them carve into the enemy's rear. This formation has served me very well in numerous battles and the falxmen and axemen really tear the enemy up while they're engaged with the phalanx.
When fighting Eleutheroi, you will mostly be facing Celts, Thrakians, and Illyroi. With their light armor, loose formations, and subpar morale, the above-mentioned tactics should be fine. Eventually, however, you will have to face Greeks, probably Makedonia and Epirus. When facing Greeks, guard mode is even more important because their long pikes will massacre your poorly armored "phalanx" (they're more like hoplites that fight with underhand spears). For Greeks it may be advisable to pick up a unit or two of pike mercenaries to hold the center of your line and add more falxmen to engage their rear.
The Horse Archer Army should be used like any other horse archer army. The benefit of Skythians is that they are cheap. Very cheap. Their attack is low, their armor is terrible, but they only cost about 1000 mnai and there isn't much cavalry in enemy armies to chase them down, so you can fire at leisure while the enemy infantry haplessly chase after you. Generally you should divide the cavalry into 5 groups. One with the two FMs and the other four with an equal number of horse archers. Rush the horse archers to each side of the enemy army and open fire at the enemy's backs. If they turn, ceasefire. This is a great delaying army especially for the Makedonian and Epirote armies you'll eventually have to face. This is especially important because you're outclassed in both infantry and cavalry by both Makedonia and Epiros. You don't have to win, you just have to inflict massive casualties while taking few of your own. You can follow up with your main force to mop up.
Expansion
Early in the game it's important to try to make peace with the Makedonians and possibly ally with either or both the Epirotes and KH. The Sauromatae shouldn't offer too much trouble as long as you have forts because you can raise a HA army in a few turns while they futilely siege your worthless forts. The regions to your south are chock full of mines and most of them already have mines built. Taking out the Makedonians early is important because Pella has a great mine deposit and the Epirotes don't seem to hate you too much, so you can generally stay allied with them until Makedonia is out of Greece and stuck on Mytilene. From there it's a choice between attacking Epiros or KH. Don't worry about conquering the Eleutheroi to your north, they aren't going anywhere and Greece is a cash cow with three squabbling factions you can play off one another, so have at.
It's probably easier to betray Epiros once Makedonia is out of the way because KH will be limited to southern Greece while Epiros can expand north and conflict with your later expansion plans in that area. Be aware that KH will probably betray you if you leave them no room to expand northward, so take Epirote provinces from north to south (I made the mistake of going south to north and had a two front war on my hands, tres mal). You should be able to take all of Greece by 240 or so.
Beware of the Grey Death. Because you have Byzantion they will eventually attack you. Build a fort on the peninsula southwest of Byzantion and keep a strong garrison of hoplites and slingers/archers in the city. This is a good point to keep your eastern border until you've conquered Greece and expanded into eleutheroi territory north and west. Once you hold greece and everything south of your capitol all the way to the Adriatic (sea between Greece and Italy) you should be getting a profit of about 30k a turn and you can afford more elite armies like Dacian Horse Archers, Agema, etc. From there let your imagination run wild, although you're only a few provinces away from getting victory conditions.
Enjoy.
