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Anybody got good advice in carving a nice Balkan empire? What a decent army roster to deal with the clever-clever-greeks, wild-wild-suromatae, barbaric-barbaric-romans, smelly-smelly-gauls, silly-silly-sweboz (if you can get past those uber generals), and the dreaded sarrisae of the squabbling-squabbling-seleucids?
thanks in advance =]
I like to try for uniting the tribes first. I go for Sarmeszigutha (sp?), Naissos, Kallitis, with my early forces, then as I can, take Tylis as well. I have found that grabbing Byzantion too early will start something your economy might not be ready to handle, as whichever of the three Greek factions that is on top, or even the grey death will come at you. I would get a nice core, get the economy afloat (mines, mines, mines!) and then once I can handle a couple of stacks and replacement forces, go after Byzantion, Pella, perhaps then Nikaia, or a push into the Illyria. Again, beware of expanding too fast, though. That has thumped my last couple Getai campaigns, as I wasn't prepared financially to fight back when I got backstabbed (once by KH, the other by Makedon).
That's what I was fearing. There's always this fine line between mobbed by practically everybody, and staying put to develop the infrastructure....
...I find the Komatai a VERY VERY versatile lot. Little buggers can deal with practically anything, with enough numbers that is.
Fairly simple really. Make peace with Sauromatae and Macedon, and then try to stay out of their way until after you've gobbled up all the 'barbarian' Eleutheroi settlements around you and have all the economic buildings you want built or queued up. Ally with Sweboz, Epirus, KH, Pontus, and Ptolemies, if you can - you'll need allies to cope with Macedon and the Seleucids.
What's a good stack that is both historical and effective? The biggest lynch-pin I get into is that it's hard to cope with the greek factions' squabbling, while the sauromatae giving you a stab on the back...then occasionally the romies come and join the fray too!
I will try to give you a historical accurate Getic “army”
in the vanguard, actually before the lines clash there will be the comatian skirmishers and ambushers (wolfs), who will harass the enemy
--4 units of komatai
On the left flank there could be the tribal hunters protected by former Getic mercenaries returned from Diadochi wars, and some comatian riders
--2 units of komatai toxotai
--2 units of getikoi stratiotai
--2 units of mezenai
In the centre, the shepherds of Carpathians or the Thracian hills and mountains will form the bulk and along them the religious fanatics used for deadly assaults.
--3 units of trakian doriphoroi
--3 units of drapanai
On the other flank you could line up the forces from the tribe of the commander along with his own custodians
--1 units of mounted guards of the commander
-- 3 units from his own subjects
For example if he is costobocian, those 3 units will be costobocian axemen
For a ordes commander –> orditon agema
Triballian commander + triballian taxeis
Agatirsos, Tyragetae commanders + getian horse archers
Bessian commander + romphaioroi
Skordiscian commander + cordinau orca
Hellen commander + classical hoplites
As for effectiveness, you can try to use their ancient tactics used against Persians and Makedonians and a lot of “indirect approaches” witch will give you thrilling battles.
After 200 years.....
When your Getic Empire will reach his zenith and you will impose “Pax Getica”, you could adopt the strategy of the Late Roman Empire, creating border troops and a few armies who will cover and try to protect large areas, and maintain a “Defend the Empire” strategy
The units in the forts of your borders or remote outposts could be foreign auxiliaries like Germanic swordsmen, alpine conscrips (Helveti, Rhaetians and Noriceni), Caucasian auxiliaries, commanded by generals with infantry guards like celtic or germanic generals, ideal in holding forts.
You could bring border troops also from the Mediterranean, imagine Samnites brought to serve on the northern frontier in Silesia and the missile support of this auxiliaries could be Cretans, Rodians, Bosphorans and Sirians along with some assault corps raised from the conquered Bastarnae, Lugians and Thracians.
The other type, the “Imperial Armies” must have heavy cavalry with a lot of allied generals and Scythian nobles and also the professionals from the komatai class (komatai epilektoi).
There is also a Getic variant of the Palatines, the loyal Komatai Thorakitai Stratiotai who can be garrisoned in the most important points and davas of your Empire keeping the subject populations in line.
And don’t forget about Zalmoxes, I think that an alternate “Getic Empire” will definitely be a Theocracy so the Ktistai Cavalry will be your “sacred band” and will supervise and inspire the other troops especially the increasing foreign auxiliaries on the borders.
Mercenaries should never be garrison troops. Historically, that was a receipe for disaster. Mercenaries should only be hired in wartime, and should always be sent to the front line.
Well I do prefer mercs when it comes to storming cities in a siege :P less supply hassle for me since I lose less men from my core armies.
I've found that as long as you're not too expansionist early on, the other factions will largely leave you alone. I've never had problems with the Sauromatae until later in the game, at which point I could easily deal with them. As others have said, making peace with the Sauros and Maks immediately is essential and works well. I can usually get an alliance with Epeiros, and they generally honor that alliance throughout the early game, because they are also focused on defeating Makedonia.
For defensive battles in the Thracian forests, ambush tactics will actually serve you quite well. Keep in mind what I am outlining is meant for a defensive forest battle where you can hide most of your army. In the center, I like to put three lines, first line is the long range missiles, the archers and slingers (2-3 of them), second line is the Komatai (4-6 of them), and third line is the Getikoi Straitiotai/Greek Hoplites (3-4). On the flanks, set back a bit so they don't get discovered early on, are the shock troops, early on this means Drapanai, and I like to have at least 4 of them, 2 on each flank. Later you can also use Triballi infantry or Rhomphaias, etc. Further out on the flanks are the cavalry, except the general, who should be behind the main line (because he cannot hide). I like to simply use a couple units of light harassment cavalry early on, either the Mezenai or the horse-archers. The entire army should be hiding, except the general, who cannot. This means the enemy will march towards the general, eventually under archer fire, and you can use you light cavalry to draw them away from areas you want them to avoid and into areas where you want them (namely in front of the Komatai). Once they get close enough, the Komatai will spring out and hit them with javelins, and then, you can either pull the Komatai back or let them soak up the charge, depending on the nature of the enemy army. Hopefully your Drapanai won't be discovered, and you can spring them out of hiding as soon as the enemy has engaged your front and hit them in the sides and rear, which will devastate any heavily armored units you may be having problems with.
I think the biggest problem the Getai have is fighting against phalanxes, because they don't have anything that can match them from the front. However, if you can break the enemy phalanx line apart through harassment with Komatai and cavalry, then you can hit the phalanxes in the flanks with Drapanai, which will devastate them. I've even found that you can toss expendable units like Komatai or Thracian light spearmen into holding the phalanxes in the front, and then hit them in the rear with Drapanai and take them down quite easily. Considering the dirt cheap cost of Drapanai, Komatai, and Thracian light spearmen, this is a pretty cost-effective tactic.
You only need three units, really. Drapanai, Komatai, and Scythian Foot Archers (regionals, readily available in Kallatis; if you're cheap, you can go with the standard Komatai Toxotai) in a roughly 1:1:1 ratio, plus a general. For the price, this combination is stupendously effective both on the offense and when defending, and it will easily trample anything fielded by the AI (except maybe a full-stack of horse archers, but why would you travel to the steppes, anyway?).
For order of conquest: in all three of my Getai campaigns, I started off by capturing Sarmizegethusa, then Naissos, then Kallatis, and then Tylis. At that point, you have an excellent base from which to roll through Makedonia (your Drapanai will absolutely shred their pikemen) and then Hellas.
Economically speaking ... meh, there's not much to do but bide your time until you're able to capture the juicier settlements to the south. Once you manage to climb out of the red (you'll almost certainly fall into debt at the beginning), set taxes in your home settlements as low as feasible to foster population growth and build a nice tax base.
If you don't want to blitz and go deep into debt it is also possible to take Sarmizegethusa and one more town, like Mikra Skythia or Serdika, and then turtle until you can make train 2 chevron komatai form Sarmizegethusa. After that with a decent general you should be able to conquer one free city at a time.
As others have said, allying with the Sauromatae is a must if you don't want to expand to the north. The Sauros are beatable but their cities mostly suck, and are too widespread, while Pella and greater Hellas are rich and tightly packed and easier to defend. But if you like elite foot archers then go after Greater Skythia and train Bosphoran Heavies, and brace yourself for endless war with the Sauros and possible the Saka.
You could make peace with southern kingdoms and try to conquer the celtic and baltic tribes along the Amber Route, then build a strong economy, letting the greeks or pontics to deal with independent thracians tribes. After, you build a strong army and "liberate" thacian brothers
Gah!
Well, my current Getic empire (ca. 150 BCE) stretches from Pannonia to Media, and from Baltic Sea to the southern tip of Arabia.
That being said, the amber route is not your golden ticket. The other Barbarian lands are less than decent in terms of manpower, economy and infrastructure.
My advice is this: the horse-archer armies of the Sauromatae are far more dangerous to your poorly armored troops than the phalanx-based armies of Macedon. There's a reason "Barbarians" raided south historically.
The wealth of Greece can finance your empire's growth, and the population provides better armored buffer troops than your Getic homeland areas. Make (and try to keep) peace with the Sauromatae, invade Greece, and then the world is pretty much yours to re-enact Alexander's conquests -- without any handy phalanxes of your own, of course.
advice?
I can only imagine only one, fight the battles yourself not auto calculate...
Getai is the easiest faction I have played in EB.