How to beat the central european defence armies without cheating

Hi folks,

just thought I would share a finding with you about those stacks in central europe designed to channel the Sweboz into Gaul. I am playing a romani campaign and I left them well alone until I had defeated the gauls and Sweboz, but then I found it a little annoying that I couldnt expand north east from Italy so they had to go....

I found that if I surrounded their city (Luvovaeta initially) with 4 stacks then the field army would only attack 2 of them each go and I could let them retreat but still keep the city under seige, each go I re-besieged the city with the stacks that had retreated the previous go and in the end the city fell. Once the city is lost the field army doesnt respawn and can be ground down and destroyed.

just incase anyone was stuck with getting rid of them.


cheers,



Pobs

In actual battle the best thing to do is to kill the general as fast as you can, all those command stars means their units will rarely rout while he's around. On the campaign map I find two armies suffice, one normal stack to siege the town and another veteran stack with a good cavalry arm to take on the feild army.
Also sometimes you can siege the town but the feild army will not attack, no idea why though.

Bring two armies so you can reinforce the first. Usually killing the general leads to a partial or full rout. Since they are 'rebels' they will completely disband once they loose a battle, so at least you won't have to deal with them again. Once the army is defeated, quickly take the town (you'll need to storm the walls).

I'll usually send spies into the settlement, and take it before I deal with the field army...