Hail to the Druhtinaz - A gameplay guide to Sweboz (for beginners & advanced players)

Greetings to the interested players of the Sweboz campaign!

This is to be a gameplay guide for EB beginners as well as advanced players.
It will describe a more conservative way of playing, but other strategies are certainly possible for more experienced players.
It´s more concise as the magnificient introduction from Epistolary Richard (see sticky).

It´s applicable and tested for EB 1.0 on M/M difficulty as well H/M difficulty, both on RTW 1.5 and BI 1.6.
For VH/M this strategy should work too.
If playing with BI 1.6 it is possible to encounter Casse raiding parties, coming over from Britannia to plunder your land! :inquisitive: :viking:

I won´t describe the battlefield deployment, only the main strategy to gain a suitable powerbase.

1. Situation

The Sweboz have one settlement (village), 5000 mnai and a quite formidable army to fight with, consisting of archers, spearman and light cavalry. :charge:
But this means that just after the first turn you are out of money for some dozen turns to come, as you have -5500 mnai each turn.

(Un)fortunatly the army is divided in three battle groups, so you might decide to join forces or move them seperatly, wise Druhtinaz!


2. Military Strategy

You need to capture the surrounding settlements as quickly as possible to earn more money. Near our capital are some provinces to capture.
You need 4 additional provinces to even the money loss, and 5+ to improve the balance again.
So you can choose between at least two options:
Going westward or going eastward....

Remember two things:
Cavalry cost you much money per turn!
You can´t reinforce your troops for a certain time!

a. So I suggest going eastward first, because the 3 rebellious settlements there have no town wall. Here you can use your cavalry to full effect and save more men of the infantry for later battles.
If you lose cavalry men, don´t worry too much....this saves you money in further turns!
After capturing the villages of Gawjam-Silengoz, Ascaucalis and Gawjam-Rugoz you direct your warriors westward again. :whip:

b. The next villages should be Gawjam-Heruskoz, Gawjam-Habukoz and Arctaunon. They have town walls, so the cavalry has only a support role here.
Although those rebellious tribes need to be remembered who is the real german Druthinaz.

After this you have enough provinces to recover your mnai balance.
And your faction leader is now closer to the unification of the german tribes. :2thumbsup:

c. If you still have troops (and govenors) you can move on to other areas.
The next target can be:
i. Carrodunum and Lucarottea to the south east to gain more land-trade.
ii. Gawjam-Kimbroz and Gawjam-Skandzawarjoz to the north to improve sea-trade and gain shipbuilding sites.

option: you can go westward first, but this might result in slower economic expansion. loosing much troops early on might also result in siege warfare in the east afterwards...this is no option to proud german warriors!
we meet our enemies in the open field (or wood :yes: ).

it´s also possible to go north first, but without harbours there you won´t have much trade income.


3. Economic Strategy

As you need to earn money without dissolving your army, you might not be able to build anything before roughly 267 BC, depeding on your battle success etc.

a. The main point for the first years is to gain as much population in your villages as possible, for they are the only way of income.
But beware...don´t get over 2.000 people as long as you can´t build the next level of the town hall. Otherwise you will get a lot of dirt malus quickly.

b. You can lower your taxes to improve population increase, but losing tax money, or vice versa. :juggle2:
Which way you choose depends on your individual situation.

c. after you have reached positive mnai values it´s necessary to improve your villages with "Dikes and Wells", and expand your villages beyond 2.000 people.
Don´t forget to upgrade the town hall and perhaps adding more health buildings.
Roads add not much, if anything, to trade, but are needed for army relocations, so it makes sense to have them early too.

4. Diplomacy etc.

Druhtinaz, don´t waste your only spy for investigating enemy cities. Explore more regions to conquer for our proud warriors!
I suggest to open up trade with our celtic neighbours, this could bring us more money. So later on, we might be able to conquer them too! :smash:


Once you managed this, you are on a solid base from mid 260´s BC to expand and on the best way to be a real King of the Sweboz :egypt:


have fun! :beam:

AngryAngelDD

Thanks for writing this man. This will be very helpful

I did it that way (H/M):

1. Ordered three buildings, including roads, in Swebotraustastamnoz and an additional unit of Druhtiz.

2. Moved two of the Ridanz a bit around for scouting and then disbanded them in town to save money and add to populace.

3. Joined my army together and marched to the Kimbroz and conquered them. This was just an intuitive decision.

4. Next on the list were the Rugoz, followed by the Habukoz and the Heruskoz.

5. By that time (I sieged the battles out to save men) I was 54.000 mnai in debt. I disbanded the whole army and guarded the settlements only with my then six family members. With taxes on the highest, I earned about 3.800 mnai per turn.

6. After a few years I was back and started to build up my economy, first with level 3 governments in the conquered settlements, for roleplay and additional income.

7. After some time I had the money to order mines in Rugolandam.

8. I hired a bunchload of baltic mercenaries and conquered Ascaucalis and Gintaras Ostan which I made clients.

9. The next on the list were the Silengoz, which I should have conquered earlier since they have mines already, but I had turned of perfect spy at the beginning. After these followed the Hattoz that strangely inhabit a province with a Celtic name, Morg Arctagone.

10. That's the status quo now in 250BC. I'm building large harbours in Habukolandam and can already afford a good full stack army. Currently I discovered a huge invasion force of the Lugoi that came out of nowhere. They will be soon defeated I'm sure.

nice strategy...

your status comparable to that reachable with my strategy.

i don´t dissolve my troops, so i have a core army with decent experience for future wars.
but i fight all battles out, rather than sit (by siege) it out.

the mines in Silengoz are not there from the beginning.
the AI improves their cities, too. could save you time and money....they also install a type 1 gov (or the others) in appropriate provinces etc.
they build troops as well.

the megastack you mentioned is a scripted army, as in the most other areas below Arcautanon and Silegnoz, as well as eastward of ascaucalos and silengoz.
they seem to arrive around 260BC....they are to protect from rushing to fast...but they won´t make an invasion (so it seems)
(and will rearrive if you fail to capture the settlement)

So that I conquered the Chatti my leader is already Allatheudanaz. So it's not necessary to conquer Skandza and Gotland? I'll conquer them anyway due to baltic trade and mines. But now I'm going to punish the Lugii first.

Btw I was a bit surprised that the Druhtiz Habukisku are skirmishers. They are on skirmishing-mode by default and have the bow-symbol for ranged attack instead of the javelin. Is it a bug or a feature?

1. Skandza and Gotland are not necessary....

2. Druhtiz Habukisku:
noticed that too, but anyway a nice feature (although the Bow-symbol is somehow weird, even for skirmishers)
buti believe they are "Spearmen", not "heavy infantry" as the other spear warbands

i don´t know if this whole thing is WAD, or if it´s a bug....

Just suffered an "average defeat" against the freaking Lugii, although I had a slight advantage of 8:7. And I'm not used to it.:no: It was full stack against full stack, the one of Rhesus the wanderer in the Lugii forest. They slayed 2500 of my 3500, and I slayed 2000, including Rhesus. My Druhtinaz was cut down by those Lugii Twohanderbearers. A true hero's dead. Another family member performed much worse... a coward soon to be sacrificed in the bog. I wish that was possible...

The next turn btw the Lugii army was totally replenished, as if nothing had happened, and, best of all, Rhesus came back from Walhalla into the mortals' world... Now is that a bug or a feature as well? In case it's a feature, and I could manage to annihilate them totally, will they be re-spawned the turn after?

unfortunatly...yes they will respawn....

they are there to prevent the AI from rushing. but i think the AI will rarely have a chance to take a province, as they AI forces are pretty much undetermined to follow a goal persistently.

indeed these stacks are quite of a problem for the human sweboz player as well.


but i don´t want to judge early on....im 226 BC now......

i´ll see how the campaign is running in 150BC, 100BC etc.....especially the performance of the AI factions.

have a nice weekend
AngryAngelDD

Complete different approach: Go North! There are mines Skandza from the start (it is one of these bonus towns like Pergamon, Tingis or the one in Northern India).

I had started a new Sweboz campaign yesterday and used my usuall approach:

- Disbanding the horsemen in Swebostrautesheim
- Gathering the armies and move West: the three towns in the West have walls but the weakest defence and largest population.
- After those battles my army was "a little" reduced, inculding the loss of the king in the last one. So I toggled fow off to check which more of the homeland settlements I might be able to take and so discovered the mines in Skandza.
- I am now moving north. If I cannot get Kimbrolandam and Skandza with this army (battles are somehow more difficult for the Sweboz in EB 1.0 than in EB 0.8) I will start a new campaign, and go North in the first turn.

Skandza is indeed my next goal.

So, did it.

First of all, that was a beast of a battle what costed my another family member, who somehow managed to get in the middle of a Scandza Warband alone.

https://img233.imageshack.us/img233/...esbuchefa4.jpg


But it was worth the way. My economy did recover immediatly thereafter and I was in the green two or three turns after my generals had returned home:

https://img137.imageshack.us/img137/...ebozmo5.th.jpg

In the lower part of the image is what had remained of the starting army, save for one unit of archers per town as garrison.

Nice one!

Going north first is something i never thought of.
Don´t know why, as you are right, that this improves economy very much in early times.
I would go to Skandza first, then take the other western areas, IF there are really mines in Skandza from 272BC.

I would think so. At least around 265 I had discovered them and that seems very early for the AI to build them.

Another advice: Do not build taverns! All my Sweboz governors become drunkards, two are even paralytics (the worst level of it). If I had understood the trait file correct, it is because of the taverns I had built in every town.

'llo all,

a question about Sweboz victory conditions, it says that Gawjam Gotanoz (Gotland, the island thing next to Skandza-something up north) is part of the victory conditions. My question is, how do I take this, do I need navy to transport my troops there? If so how do I get the navy?

And another question about the victory conditions, what happens when I fulfill the victory conditions? The game ends immediately?

You can have ships in Skandza, but you have to upgrade the town first.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by konny

Another advice: Do not build taverns! All my Sweboz governors become drunkards, two are even paralytics (the worst level of it). If I had understood the trait file correct, it is because of the taverns I had built in every town.

---

hmm, i had Drunkards before i build a tavern i believe. (or was it the trait before drunkard?)
anyway this trait series started before i had a tavern.


@ Beowulfas: don´t know if game ends immediatly....but it´s quite tough to capture all necessary areas for Sweboz Victory.

Well I'm just playing with m/m, just sort of getting to know the system again. Been a long while since I last played this.

Anyway, got the boat-making business going in Skandza, look out Gotland. :laugh4:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AngryAngelDD

hmm, i had Drunkards before i build a tavern i believe. (or was it the trait before drunkard?) anyway this trait series started before i had a tavern.

---

That trait system seems to be a mystery hidden in a secret. I had drunkards in every campaign but never this bad. I have seen that the trait system is checking for taverns, so I suspect them to be the reason.

On the other hand, with the Sweboz I don't care so much of the abilities of the family members. Size and experince of the bodyguard is far more important, since they are the only heavy infantry in most of the game, while the towns are usually so small that they don't need a governor all the time.


----------------------------------------------------
I am now at war with the Averni; nothing unusual, but the affair is going to become personal because I managed to kill four of his family members in a single battle, amongst them the King and his heir. :skull:

indeed, i´ve to agree.

but OTOH 95% of my FM´s & Generals are governors.
i have only 1-2 FM for army command.

although my governors generally complaint about being in a town, they get used to it after some years. some are as fine in this job as a "more civilized" greek or roman. :2thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by konny

Complete different approach: Go North! There are mines Skandza from the start (it is one of these bonus towns like Pergamon, Tingis or the one in Northern India).

---

I was mistaken in this point: the mines are not placed by the descr_strat but built by the AI very, very early in the game.



So, that would be my advise for playing the Sweboz:

1st Disband all the cavalry in your capital. They cost you 696 mne each, making 2,784 mne every turn. You do not need them either because in the next ten or so years you will hardly be fighting anything but assaults on towns; save for occasional students' revolts (they must be students because they keep shouting commands in Greek to annoy my illiterate warlords).

2nd Raise four units of archers at once. They do not cost more than one of the Ridnaz unit and will be a great help in the comming siege battles. Later they can form the first little garrison. Since you won't have any money left after turn #1, you should build them all at once and not wait for the first to be finished. Set taxes to low to encourage population growth.

3rd Move West. The three Eastern towns (Skandza, Rugoz, Silengoz) can have mines; but as long as the AI has not build any, that won't help you because you can't do so for the next ten or so years. So, wait with the conquest of these lands until the AI had built the mines - or until you would be able to do so. The three Western towns have wooden walls but the weaker garrison. Don't leave any garrison behind until the last archer is build. Send your diplomat to the Arverni and Aedui and ask for peace.

4th Take the three Western towns. Either move from North to South or South to North, but don't start with the one in the middle. Always leave one unit of archers behind, drafting the four new built in your capital to the army. Set taxes to low until the town has reached 2,000 souls and do not install goveners. Use your FM as heavy infantry and let them do most of the fighting; accept any new FM that is offered to you by adaption or marriage for the same reason.

5th Send your spy to the Eastern towns (or toggle_fow) to check if any of these has allready mines build. If so, go and take it; if not attack the Kimbroz. If none of the three mine-towns has build any after that, you might as well disband the army, distribute the surving FMs on your settlements and start building up economy.

Can you recruit Apeleutheroi? The description of the governor's palaces say yes, but they don't appear in the browser. The Eleutheroi do so (I saw them and killed them in battle). Any advice?

no, apeuler-whatever are militia designed for the sole purpose of providing a crappy troop for when provinces revolt (or incidently, if you force diplomacy and give a province away)

thanks for commenting, the Druhtiz Habukisku and Druhtiz Skandzisku had added javelines but the "prec, thrown" attribute was missed, so it did a weird skirmisher thing, so that will be fixed in the future.

Mrog Actagon is the current name of the old Hattolandam because it appeared that there was no actual evidence (other than resultant conquest and modern Hesse) for a settlement/province there at 275BC (just as Bohemia shouldn't be conquered yet), so we based it on a celtic hill fort which has been excavated and mentioned briefly by Ptolemy (although it's all skee-waller)