Hooahguy's Great Suebi Starting Guide for Rome II (updated 11/18)

The Great Suebi Starting Guide



“Blood, Nobility, Courage.”

The Suebi are an indomitable Germanic culture dwelling to the north east of Gaul. Not a single people, but rather numerous tribes sharing a common language and similar religious beliefs, they frequently raid their Gallic neighbours across the Rhine.

Heavily reliant on infantry and ambush tactics, raiding is their predominant form of conflict. Lightly equipped, most Suebi warriors make use of the framea, a javelin-like spear, as swords are a rarity. Often unarmoured they carried their rounded, oval or long, hexagonal shields into battle and wore little more than simple cloaks or other garments at times.

However, their fighting prowess is legendary and their warriors rightly feared. Even the stoutest centurion would tremble at the sight of a charging band of Berserkers – or feel the icy hand of fear clutching his heart when the sinister, black-painted Night Hunters spring from the forests.

Fairly isolationist, Julius Caesar wrote that there was a paucity of trade outside of the Germanic tribes themselves, occurring only if a surplus of loot or slaves were available. To distinguish themselves from their slaves, freemen and warriors wear a form of topknot that has come to be known as a Suebian knot. Their kings, chiefs and champions sport even more elaborate versions of this same hairstyle.

Given such ostentatious displays, standing out in battle is important. Kings and chiefs, although drawn from elite lineages, are elected, making their continuation of heroic traditions essential in uniting the tribes.

Under the right leadership, The Suebi have the potential to unite to a single purpose, and Britannia, Gaul, and Iberia could easily be swept away under the weight of their numbers…

Like other Germanic factions, the Suebi are masters of forest warfare and plunder. Stemming from a confederation of smaller Germanic tribes, they have a diplomatic edge when dealing with other barbarians and excel at fighting lesser tribes who dare to stand in their way. They feel disdain for outsiders, civilised cultures and other barbarians alike, and must contend with considerable resistance from those whom they conquer.
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The Suebi are an interesting faction to play as. They have a relatively easy starting point, with the only major threat being the Boii from the south, who you start out at war with. The Suebi tend to start slow and weak, but can easily become an unstoppable juggernaut, tearing up Europe and beyond.

The Suebi have a number of bonuses and penalties that help the early game and a few which hurts the late game. They get a 10% morale boost in battles when they are fighting against other Germanic tribes. They get a 3% tax boost which is helpful for income, especially early game. But they also get a 25% public order penalty when occupying a settlement with a foreign culture type, which can be very hurtful when conquering faraway lands. The Suebi also get +1 public order for every war against a neighboring faction, plus they get +20% income from raiding and sacking, so this is a faction that is geared for war.
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Let’s take a look at where we start with the Suebi:


https://i.imgur.com/WSnqSdK.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/X4gkxYt.jpg

The Suebi and their capital, Lupfurdum, are surrounded on all sides by relatively hostile factions. With the exception of the Boii, none of them pose much of a threat to you early on, and it is best to take advantage of this. To the west you have the Cherusci tribe, holding the major town of Tulifurdum.

https://i.imgur.com/SeI7f3Z.jpg

To the east is the major town of Budorgis, held by the Lugii.

https://i.imgur.com/CF4SO32.jpg

To the northeast is the small town of Ascaucalis, controlled by the tribe of the Gutones.

https://i.imgur.com/GgAngK5.jpg

To the north is the fishing village of Rhougion, occupied by the Rugii.

https://i.imgur.com/NXvdhAh.jpg

To the extreme northwest where Denmark is, is another fishing village, Alabu, held by the Cimbri.

https://i.imgur.com/2u2sg2i.jpg

Finally, we have the town of Casurgis, held by the Boii, our arch-nemesis in the early game.

https://i.imgur.com/pt6Di5o.jpg

Politics of the Suebi:
Unlike other more “civilized” factions, the Suebi doesn’t have houses. It is the “elder chiefs” and the “other chiefs.” Seems to be a lack of creativity on CA’s part, but what do I know?

https://i.imgur.com/0b078SI.jpg

You have three family members and just one opposition member.
Chlodochar is your faction leader. His starting traits may vary. Here he got the “luck” trait, but traits are random so he could get anything from wealthy to honest to coward.

https://i.imgur.com/rYfPpq0.jpg

Then comes the other two members of my family: Baldovin and Gerulf.

https://i.imgur.com/a7hinQ1.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/m9Kmsxd.jpg

And finally, let’s meet our opposing family. Right now it has just one member, Karl. But it will grow, and without check, they will pose a serious threat to your rule.

https://i.imgur.com/vgUEBay.jpg

So that means you have to eliminate any opposition member who gets too high up there, whether through assassination, adoption, or marriage. Of course, you can also arrange an unfortunate accident in battle for him, which is what happened to Karl in my game. A javelin just came out of nowhere and killed him while taking an enemy town, just as he was making his way through the ranks. It was the strangest coincidence…

Early expansion.

Do not fool yourself into thinking that there is any one strategy that will consistently work. Because there really isn’t. An AI faction could be mostly dormant in one game while in another game that same faction will be the most aggressive faction since Alexander.

As for armies, we start off with two mid-sized armies, one garrisoning the capital, and one just outside of it.

First we have The Children of the Forest, led by our faction leader. It is a decent army, if a bit small.
https://i.imgur.com/kNQJF6N.jpg

Then we have The Warrior Skalds, which is led by our rival, Karl. It is a bit bigger than Chlodochar’s army, but you can easily combine them to create a stronger force.

https://i.imgur.com/ixNIKoO.jpg

But you might not want to do that, if you are feeling particularly confident in your commanding abilities. You could easily send one army to take one lightly defended village while using the other one to take another village.

You also have a spy, which will come very in handy early game to reduce garrisons and scout out enemy forces.

https://i.imgur.com/rumj9dS.jpg

While there is no one specific strategy that will definitely work, there is always room for suggestions. The village of Rhougion has a valuable resource, lumber. You might want to take Rhougion quickly to access the lumber and the coastal village for the added food and income. Or you can gather your forces and strike quickly against the Boii at Casurgis. You might want to take the whole province of Suebia so you can enact your first edict. It is up to you to do what you think is best.

Now then, you start out with a nice amount of money, and next turn will yield you about 1,500 gold, or whatever currency the Suebi use. You can use the money to recruit more units, or you can upgrade your capital.

https://i.imgur.com/Mk5K6ih.jpg

At the moment you can upgrade the capital to a level II settlement, you can upgrade the farm, perhaps to the level II horse pens, so you can create your first cavalry unit, the Germanic Scout Riders. Or you can grow the city and add an industrial building so you can start to create better units. With the level II industrial building, the Bronze Workshop, you can create Spear Brothers, who will be the mainstay of your fighting force early to mid-game.

Units
So now let’s talk about the units that are available to the Suebi.

We will start with the most basic of Suebi units, the Germanic Tribesmen. These guys make up a lot of your garrisons at least for the early game. They aren’t very strong, and won’t last very long in prolonged combat against stronger foes. But it is all that you got to defend your towns with for the time being. But to their credit, they are better than the basic settlement defense unit that other factions have. They are recruitable from the start.
https://i.imgur.com/KStpNuP.png

Next is the Spear Levy. These will make up most of your early units until you can start mass-producing Spear Brothers. The Spear Levy is a decent line unit early game, but any further than that they will get crushed by better trained units. I got a bit too haughty with my armies in my campaign, and I suffered the worst defeat I ever had because I sent Spear Levies to hold the line in a battle where at the very least I needed Spear Brothers, and my line collapsed. So to reiterate, only use them until you can replace them with at least Spear Brothers, and are certainly not able to hold the line in the face of heavier units. They are recruitable from the start.
https://i.imgur.com/intQiDd.png

Club Levies are basically like Spear Levies, but they have a club instead of a spear. As with their spear brethren, try to stop using them as soon as possible. They are recruitable from the start.
https://i.imgur.com/attg7BL.png

Germanic Youths are the standard skirmisher unit for the Suebi. As with most skirmisher units, they should be kept from hand to hand combat as while they are powerful at range, they will fall quickly if they are engaged in a melee. They are recruitable from the start.
https://i.imgur.com/WPldNF2.png

Germanic Slingers are the Suebi slinger unit. They are your average slinger unit, which should be self-explanatory. Do not engage them in a melee, as with the Germanic Youths, they will fall quickly. They have a flat trajectory so they cannot fire over your units, so be careful with their placement. You don't want any friendly fire casualties. They require a level II Bronze Workshop.
https://i.imgur.com/J62hyT4.png

The Longbow Hunters are the archer unit, the only one that the Suebi get. They are good units, with a good range and average attack. They can fire over your units at an enemy, so it might be wise to keep them right behind your front line as support. To recruit, you need at least the level II Woodworker building.
https://i.imgur.com/0FDwTbT.png

Now for the Spear Brothers. These guys will be the backbone of your armies in the early to mid-game. They are the first standard infantry unit you can create. They can hold the line and fight most of your enemies well into the middle of the campaign. But when you start encountering the armies with the heavier armored units, such as the Romans, you will start to run into problems. A unit of spear brothers against a unit of Roman legionnaires will get crushed by the heavily armored Romans. By late mid-game it is wise to transition from Spear Brothers to Wodanaz Spears. They require a level II Bronze Workshop.
https://i.imgur.com/hUMJBmG.png

The Wodanaz Spears will be your late game line unit. They can hold their own very well and go toe-to-toe just fine with heavier enemy units. They require at least a level II Grove of Wodanaz to recruit and they are expensive, but they are very worth it.
https://i.imgur.com/09D10Ls.png

The Bloodsworn are great shock infantry for the mid-game. But they are shock infantry, so they do not do as well as, say, the Spear Brothers, in a prolonged melee. They require the level III Bronze Forge.
https://i.imgur.com/cHV4aG6.png

The Night Hunters are a very special unit. They are fantastic shock infantry, and not only that, they can deploy outside your deployment zone, making them a very useful asset on the battlefield. They can also hide in any terrain. But since they are shock infantry, they should not be committed to a melee for too long. They require a level III Slave Market to recruit.
https://i.imgur.com/RSdDYmP.png

The Berserkers are excellent melee warriors. If they go berserk in combat, they will attack any enemy around them in a frenzied manner, although this makes them uncontrollable. The mere appearance of them frightens all enemy units, making them a force to be reckoned with. They require the level IV Mead Hall.
https://i.imgur.com/qwpkcXZ.png

The Sword Masters are one of the strongest melee units the Suebi can recruit. They have excellent attack and great morale, and inspires nearby friendly units. Although they are expensive to recruit, they are excellent in battle. They require the level III Ironsmith.
https://i.imgur.com/9bzr0hK.png

The Germanic Scout Riders are the first cavalry you will be able to recruit. As with the Spear Levies, they are good early game, but once the enemy units start getting better, it is best to only use them for scouting and chasing down routing enemies, for if they are put into combat they will fall quickly as they are lightly armed. But it might be wise to keep a unit or two of them in your army, as they are much faster than the Noble Riders, and can chase down enemy archers or siege units quickly. They require a level II Horse Pens to recruit.
https://i.imgur.com/dC1qPS1.png

The Noble Riders are the cavalry units you want to replace the Scout Riders (though not as fast) with. They are very strong heavy cavalry, and will tear up most enemy units they encounter. They also give a morale boost to the surrounding friendly units. They require a level II Horse Pens to recruit.
https://i.imgur.com/I5q4Azg.png

The Suebi can also recruit their own versions of ballistas (level II blacksmith), onagers (level III carpenter), and scorpions (level III bronze forge) that look just like their Roman and Hellenistic counterparts, as well as a variety of naval units.

Common battle strategies

The Suebi excel in forested areas, ambushing enemies and shock tactics.

Everyone has their different take on tactics. Some prefer a range-heavy army, where the infantry is there to protect the ranged units who rain death upon the enemy. Others prefer a cavalry army, with a thousand hooves that will trample anyone in their path. Still others prefer an infantry-centric army which uses sheer numbers to overwhelm and surround the enemy. Most seem to prefer a more balanced army, with infantry, cavalry and ranged units combined in a mix that suits them.

Personally, I prefer an infantry-centric army. Four units of cavalry, the general, and the rest are infantry. I prefer this as I find this setup is surprisingly flexible in battle, as I use my men to simply overwhelm the enemy. The enemy isn’t fast enough to continually outrun my infantry, and whoever does manage to slip away are quickly run down by my cavalry. But that is just my take on things. You might not like how I do things, and that is fine: the battlefield is the perfect place to test out that new tactic you thought of the night before while going to bed.

Buildings

There seems to be some confusion by some people about the buildings for the barbarian factions. Like what enables what units? Where do I make heavy cavalry? I'm not used to the more complicated barbarian building system! Help!

Well, never fear, I am here!

Okay that was a tad too cheesy for my taste, but the point stands.

So every other culture type has a specific subset of buildings dedicated for the military. So someone who has just finished playing the last two campaigns as a Hellenistic faction would understandably have no clue what builds what when it comes to the barbarian factions.

So the barbarians have six different building types: provincial/minor settlement, port, city centre, industrial, agricultural, and religious.

Provincial/minor settlement buildings control the size of the settlement, fortifications, and recruitment capacity, among a few other bonuses with regard to morale and wealth. For the provincial capitals, at level III and above you get settlement defenses, which makes defending them much easier.
https://i.imgur.com/6Q2cFdF.png

Ports are just what they seem- places by the coast where you can fish or make ships. There are two paths you can go down for a port, to specialize them for fishing and industry or a military shipyard. If you head down the shipyard path, you can make fun things like assault raiders with Sword Masters on them. If you go down the fishing path, you can make a lot of food and wealth! But no ships; it’s a give-and-take situation.
https://i.imgur.com/1BER2G5.png

City centres are the, well, center for things like the slave market, meeting halls, and farmer’s markets. There are five paths you can take once you build the first level, called the Commons. The first is the Chieftain’s Hold, which adds public order and experience for any champion recruited there. Second is the slave trader, which is sort of self-explanatory, which for the Suebi, the level III gets you the Night Hunters. Third is the Farmer’s Market. That gives you more revenue from agriculture. If you have a lot of farms in the province, it might be wise to choose this path. Fourth is the Storage Pit. This helps with attritional losses during a siege, so you can last longer. Finally there is the Meeting Hall, which adds unit morale and public order.
https://i.imgur.com/csSpQyH.png

Next we have one of the more important building trees: industrial. You start off with an Artisans’ lodging. You then branch into four paths. The Brine Distiller simply adds more wealth. Not really worth it in my opinion, as it doesn’t enable any recruitment. Second is the Blacksmith, which enabled recruitment of the ballista. Third is the Bronze Workshop, which enables the recruitment of Spear Brothers. Fourth is the Woodworker, which enables longbow hunters. There is also a fifth, but the Suebi don’t have it: the Goldsmith. It is also sort of worthless in my eyes as it just adds more industry when I could use that building slot to create better troops.
https://i.imgur.com/VVpAay3.png

Next is agricultural. You would start with the Enclosed Land, where it branches into six paths. First is the Horse Pens, where you will be making your cavalry units. Second is the Cattle Pens, which generates wealth and food. Third is the Reservoir, which reduces building cost and adds to wealth. Fourth is the Field, which adds a lot of food and some wealth. Fifth is the Loremaster’s Hut, which increases the research rate, some food, and wealth from culture. Finally is the Clay Pit, which adds wealth from industry and reduces building costs.
https://i.imgur.com/JfJKpdh.png

Finally we have the religious buildings. Now, most factions have a different building tree for this, so I will concentrate on the Suebi religious buildings. There are six paths, as with the others. First one is the Grove of Thunaraz. It adds missile damage, public order, and wealth. The Grove of Frijjo adds more public order and wealth. The Grove of Wodanaz not only adds to a spy’s experience, adds to research rate, and public order. It also enables Wodanaz Spears to be recruited, which is vital late game. The Grove of Fraujaz adds food, wealth, and public order. The Grove of Teiwaz reduces recruitment cost, adds to the charge bonus of all units recruited there, and adds some public order. Finally, the Grove of Austro expands Germanic cultural influence (which is important when trying to convert the local populace), adds to the maritime wealth, and of course, adds to public order.
https://i.imgur.com/Azz4bMW.png

Suebi Technology

Here is the military tech tree. It is split into three parts: War Exercises, which primarily deals with recruitment and upkeep costs. Warrior Code deals with melee and missile damage as well as charge bonuses. The Siege section deals with, as the name suggests, everything siege related.

https://i.imgur.com/2XUYZTK.png

This is the civil tech tree. The first section is Tribal Economy, which adds wealth output from agricultural and commerce buildings and reduces building costs. Second section is Construction which adds to industrial wealth as well as growth and settlement costs. Finally is the Tribal Council branch, which increases public order (towards the end of the tree), wealth from cultural buildings, decreases agent action costs, and reduces corruption and political intrigue.

https://i.imgur.com/oPLe4fy.png

While your specific strategy for research will be reliant on your play style (ranged versus melee, for example), it might be wise to start your research in the Warrior Code section. This way you are more effective in battle when taking more settlements. You might also want to research early in the Construction and Tribal Economy sections to increase your income.

Confederations

This is a new mechanic for the Total War series. This is an extremely powerful tool. You can absorb a faction of the same sub-culture (Germanic) into your faction, taking full control of their armies and agents and settlements. This can only be done through diplomacy, but it might take a liberal application of force to get them to agree to it. Once formed, the only way the absorbed faction can re-appear is if the absorbed province rebels or if another faction conquers it and chooses to liberate that province. All in all, it’s a very powerful mechanic that can be used to quickly absorb the smaller Germanic factions under the Suebi banner.

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Now that I have given you a brief overview of the Suebi starting position, their units, and their buildings, go: Europe is ripe, just waiting to be sacked by the Suebi. All they need now is the leader who will take them there!

https://i.imgur.com/bAY4WG5.png
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Authors note: Thank you for reading, I hope that this will prompt some of you to play as the Suebi in the future, as it is a very unique and fun faction to play. Meanwhile, I have decided to do an extensive Rome 2 guide in the likes of the Frogbeastegg guides after my AAR is completed. If you want a very well done encyclopedia, you can look here.

Just realized that I posed one picture twice, that has now been fixed.

Nice writeup! Good info here, especially for someone who isn't familiar with barb factions (like me).

First time I've heard of the Night Hunters' deploy-outside-zone capability. I might have to play Suebi just for that alone.

Looking forward to the R2 guide, please let me know if there's anything I can do to help, I'd like to contribute.

I edited a few points about the Tribesmen and the Scout riders.

Added sections about technology and the confederation mechanic.

i oredi almost win the suebi germans campaign,just need to <sack> a lot of settlement that is...i suggest new player use mass club levy,they are very cheap ,and very cost effective,good armor good combat capability and quite fast in the battlefield,just a little bit low morale,200 gold to recruit and 50 gold to upkeep..,very suitable for starting troopers...you just need to maximise their morale as high as possible....i use them to finish 1/4 campaign map...and still using many of them,each army/warband got at least 5 of them...the best troops of germans is spear wall and swordmasters,but sword masters really slow,you will need the fanatical/crazy high defence skills spear wall to run fast enough to chase down those archers...

and as my winning roman and sparta campaign experience,i suggest use mass sword/axe/club melee units to form your armies,you can mass up to fight enemy cavalry ,still win!! only use spear units if they got good weapon damage and high melee attack!!!around 30 to 40 melee attack is good enough(like spartan hoplites or pikemen!)...the rest will be crush by enemy massed infantry...

hah!! as reminder! use club levy in mass only,they are very effective in mass only mostly...compare to enemy elite infantry....

haha!! at economy and military buildings,build small provinces as military multi units(melee infantry,cavalry,archers and ballista!) recruitment centers only,build medium provinces and large provinces as economy centers with bronze workshop that can recruit melee infantry only and build the building with coin icon that can raise 20% morale and 30% mining income ,build minor settlement with city hall,farms(foods!) and mines(income!) mostly!!!

if you are close enough,you can try capture Ephesus(10% tax rate(factionwide)) and Pella(25% industry income!(factionwide)) !!! yes!!!