Guide.
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Guide.
(edit):Strategy deleted.
Nevermind, I started a new game up, and this time I managed to start out aggressively by attacking Massilia and Lugdunum, usually the Germans+Britts will attack you relentlessly if you grab Lugdunum, but this time Germany was busy somewhere else for many turns.
I now hold Massilia, Lugdunum, Osca and Asturica, and have more than 30k in the war chest + a connected empire.
I might write another one up for that approach :/
I've only played this faction on quick campaign med/med, but I had some success fairly early.
Immediately on starting the campaign you will note that the Gallic lands are split in two, two provinces in Italy and the rest on the other side of the Alps. First priority is to join these two together.
I raised armies in Alesia and Lemonum and sent them south to deal with the rebellious provinces there. Make sure that the army that will be heading through Lugdunum to Massila has a character with it, as you will need to build some watchtowers once you have taken Massila. Keep churning out units from Alesia to reinforce your armies and free your attack force from garrision duty.
Whilst this is happening send a diplomat to forge an alliance with Germany, and trade rights with Britain (perfidious Albion will always stab you in the back in the end, so I don't bother negotiating an alliance). Also reinforce Condate Redonum so that you have a force ready to attack if/when the Brits declare war. I also reinforced Mediolanum and Patavium, as the Julii are bound to attack you sooner rather than later.
I ignore Spain, except to beef up the Numantia garrison (the Spaniards kept on trying to bribe the city in my campaign), and negotiate trade rights with Spain and Carthage.
Before long the Julii will attack. Your newly conquered southern provinces should be bringing in a bit of money by then. I used Patavium as my military base, and sent an army from there to attack first Segesta and then Arretium. I use Massila and Mediolanum to supply Patavium with fresh troops. You have to watch out for the Brutii as well, so I sent armies to take Illyria and Dalmatia from them, and this kept them off my back whilst I was taking apart the Julii.
As sure as night follows day, perfidious Albion will attack you as you are fighting the Julii. Use a combination of diplomats and your army in Condate Redonum to push them across the Channel. I then raised a fleet using Numantia and Condate Redonum and used this to ferry my army across to Londinium. Once you take this city, the fight seems to go out of them. I ferried a garrison over to Londinium and used my conquering army to attack first Eburacum and then Deva. I didn't bother with Ireland.
Back to Italy. By now SPQR will have taken an interest in you. I first attacked Ariminium to finish off the Julii, and sent diplomats to bribe away Scipii and Brutii reinforcements. Then comes the attack on Rome. This is really tough, because the Senate have a very powerful army stationed near the city. I sent a full stack from Ariminium to attack the SPQR army which had moved outside the city. I managed to batter their army, but took severe casualties, so I retired to Ariminium, retrained, and then attacked again. Oh, I also blockaded Rome with a fleet I had built in Massilia. Second attack was succesful, so I sacked Rome. At this point I had my 15 provinces, so that was the end of the short campaign. Had I carried on, I would have finished off Italy, and then probably attacked Spain.
A note about the Gallic armies. These troops are utterly rubbish. You won't have much trouble fighting other barbarians, although British chariots can be a bit nasty, but the Romans are a different matter. I use as much cavalry as I can, and use warbands and swordsmen to pin the Roman troops whilst these guys sweep around the flanks. I also make a lot of use of wardogs - they are great for chasing those annoying velites. Whatever you do, you will take more casualties than you might be used to playing a Greek or Roman army. This is why you should set up a unit conveyor belt from Transalpine Gaul via Mediolanum and Patavium to the front. Because you are fighting the Julii and then the Senate almost from the start, you won't have all that many good troops. I did use Druids in one battle, and they were impressive, but realistically you should expect to be fighting with warbands, swordsmen, barbarian cavalry and dogs. Having a Temple of Tertullus (sp?) and a blacksmith in your troop producing towns will help.
Ok, I'll edit this latter, this is my early version of the story.
Raise two armies and send them south to conquer those rebel provinces that separate your provinces!
Now that you have a continued empire, build forts at the fords of the Po River in north italy so you can keep romans at bay! They are soy difficult!! you should ally with all the roman factions so the Julli see you with better eyes (they will attack you in the future)
After you conquered the mid-france rebels and secured your south frontier, move north because the brits are going to attack you almost from the first time.
Move a diplomat east to ally with germany and try to make them attack the Brits.
Fighting the Brits it's not a big issue because their armies are made of warbands mainly. But you should build a navy in the english channel to keep them on their island.
After you have maintaned your income then you should hire some mercenaries (specially cavalry) and take the fight to their own lands.
They have a huge army near my northern city and started to siege it, but when I took London they retreated and know seems to have lost their path.
Get used to use Warbands, you will not have another unit for many years and they are good fighters if usen properly. Try yo upgrade their armour and weapons with blacksmith and shrines in Milan and Alesia
Diego, from argentina
PS: one tip: raise mercenaries units and use them to face the enemy while your warbands flank them. After the battle you may want to disband them cause your financial situation is bad.
MY best strategy is to rush into the roman provinces as fast as possible. Your units are very cheap and eventually you will overun the romans. :charge:
Since I'm now the dominant game power as Gaul in a medium/medium game and this guide is still so short, I thought I should write something here.
Here's what I did:
Build ports where you can and traders elsewhere to increase income. Roads or farm upgrades might be more suitable for the first turn, thinking about it. Condate Redonum and Narbo Martius need palisades no later than about turn 4.
Turn 1: Build diplomats in Numantia and Alesia. Build warbands in Mediolanium and Patavium. If you don't build troops elsewhere, your towns grow quicker.
Put the army outside Patavium into the city. Send out all troops in and around Narbo Martius except a single warband towards Masilla. Move your boat near Condate Redonum to discover Samarobrivium and afterwards use it to scout for British forces about to attack Condate Redonum. Move your spy to scout around Italy and prepare for an attack. Move your current diplomat to sell maps to the Romans over the next few turns, but don't chose to receive "regular tribute" any time after turn 4.
Turn 2. Build barbarian cavalry in Alesia ready for the British attack. Continue building warbands in Patavium and Medolanium.
Besiege Masilla with your army from Narbo Martius and build battering rams. Send your diplomats west from Numantia and east from Alesia to meet the Spanish and Germans. Negotiate trade rights and an alliance, exchange military access and sell your maps to them both. If you attack the Romans before this point, you may not get military access, in which case they may break the alliance. You will probably actually enter negotiations on turn 3. After this, these diplomats should be selling maps to Carthage, exploring and bribing rebels armies.
Turn 3: Continue building troops as before. Build a warband or two in Condate Redonum.
Assault Masilla then build a garrison unit. You should occupy, not enslave so that the populations grows enough to remove the culture penalties quicker. Build roads first in Masilla. If you have been building those economic improvements and selling maps, you really shouldn't need to exterminate.
Turn 4: Keep building troops as before.
Send Masilla army towards Lugdunum. Move all units out of Mediolanium and Patavium except a warband in each, merging the two armies on your border with the Julii. I may have actually left this step until a turn later, I forget.
Turn 5: Keep building troops as before.
Besiege Lugdunum. Besiege Arretium. You should be selling maps to the Carthaginians in Corduba about now.
Turn 6: Keep building those troops.
You should now have roads, a trader and land clearance in Mediolanium. Build a stables there to help the push into Italy. IMHO, massive cavalry superiority is the only way for Gaul to beat the Romans. Keep building improvements in your other cities, as long as you can afford it.
Assault and occupy Lugdunum. Build a garrison unit and roads.
If the Julii haven't just attacked your besieging army, you now need to assault Arretium. I just occupied, since many of the Roman cities have populations of about 5000 at this stage of the game and hitting 6000 will allow you to reduce culture penalties as well as building Barbarian Noble Cavalry, Chosen Swordsmen and Foresters. Retrain all the units you can back to full strength.
Britannia will now be moving on Condate Redonum, thinking you're weak because of war with Rome. Move your Alesia army to within striking distance of Samarobriva, leaving your faction leader, a warband and a unit of cavalry behind. You should be building another unit of cavalry for the next turn. You may find this should happen one turn later.
Turn 7: Keep building improvements.
In the North, sally from Alesia if attacked there. Besiege Samarobriva. Ignore Condate Redonum, since Britannia will turn back to relieve Samarobriva and you will be able to hold them off with your warbands anyway if they do try to assault.
In Italy, do not attempt attack the Senate army until you have built up more troops, including cavalry from Arretium, and until you have taken Segestica and then Ariminium. By this time, your army that was taking Lugdunum should be about to arrive as reinforcements, and you should have about 9 full units of barbarian cavalry on the field. After I started to besiege Rome, I was attacked twice in one turn by the senate, leaving me with Rome, but most of my barbarian cavalry units with only 10 to 20 men. All those Roman generals and principes in one stack are unbeatable if you don't have enough cavalry to counter, as I found out when I got too cocky after taking Arretium the first time around.
After you take Rome, it's easy, just watch out for amphibious landings in western Italy, particularly if the Julii are still left in Caralis. Don't try to compete with the Roman navies, just hop between your new ports and take their cities. The only other important tip is to make sure you don't leave it too late to take Iuvavum (in the Alps) from the rebels.
You might like to shift your capital to Italy once you take Rome. I chose Arretium. At this point, you should only have about 36 cities to go for victory.
An word of advice if you r playng the gauls.
1)Strike in roman lands and iberian one.dont bother with germ. or brits.
2)ever played with egypt and tested those Pharaoh"s bowmens??no?what about against them?you did?and they were like super-wariors?gues what gaul has Forester Warband.Almost better.Develop a town quick so you can mass them early.
3)Useing flanking properly is ESSENTIAL against the romans.
4)DO NOT forget about iberia send an army and clean those lands of iberian filth.
5)After conquerd the iberian and the N and central part of Italy,use the iberian towns for econ. boom.
6)Concentrate on taking the rest of Italy.
7)After wiped out the roman scum,conquer modern germany and England
8)After that you could expand into Dacia,Greece or Africa for the rest of the 50 plan-to-conquer province's.I sugest if gone for Greece to move your capital to rome,same as for africa,for dacia just use one of your N italian cities as capital
9)You could go for the hole world but that IS imposibile.
10)ENJOY!!You'v beaten the game! ~:cheers: :charge: ~:cheers:
My take:
Gauls are arguablly one of the hardest playable factions ... they start with crap economy seperated lands, extensive borders and 4 potential enemies (2 of which will attack you very quickly) they have 1 unique unit that is pretty good but also comes very late.
The key is to
a. push the britions off the mainland ASAP : use ur leader from ur capital.. you might want to wait ill ur stable is rdy there but no later than that.
b. start hunting the juliies but don't rush too soon: if the Jullies want to hit you from land, they will have to fight a bridge battle with you, hold the 2 bridges into ur city and send the spy you start with into their land ( i didn't put him into cities as i wanted the whole picture) wait till the jullies seperate their army and/or have very poorly defended city then strike home. have one city build stable ASAP and mass dogs + barb cav while the other build up to swordsman asap. these 3 unit are very very crucial to ur early game... with all 3 u can beat the julliess in most equal siutations.
c. DO NOT get into a serious conflict with the Spaniards or Germans until you push the britions off the mainland and killed the jullies. ally them if you can, the Spaniards are much more prone to ally you cause they have the Carthiginians on their back
Here's a few general tips.
1. sell ur maps to everyone early on for 2-4k gold, it will help seriously in acturaully building up some infrastructure and army. sell to all 4 roman factions and sell to anyone u come across... that's easily over 10k gold in the bag in the first 2-3 turn. note you can do this to the same faction every once in a while too... but faction u are at war with are less likely to buy with good price and instead threaten u more often.
2.U must realize that ur infantry CAN NOT SAP, only ur peasents can. if that's what ur hoping to do (which is possible if ur going to storm Rome ) remember to bring 1 unit of peasent or at least some mercenary that can sap. (though it might be wiser to just go up the walls with them.)
3.Dogs are pretty much ur counter to everything early on (and later on too anyway but early is much more crucial) build them or die.
4.you move much faster if ur army is all calvary, so you might consider sending all cav army into roman lands to kill one small bach of unit then get out.
5.you can't upgrade ur town pass the 6000 pop lvl, so if you capture bigger cities early on enslave and later on exterminate, or else ur gonna be stuck with huge squalor... be ware of that and properly adjust tax rate and mass units etc.
Well i now beat the britons off the mainland and has killed the jullies and the senate... taking the rest of italy is a obvious no brainer but where to go after that i'm still considering... with only normal roads being buildable it seems hard to mount longer campaigns :(
i told about where to strike but not how........RW str. was almost what i used,but had an warbands+swordsmen+4cav(2dogs/2barbcav).and as i said upgr. one town to max for forrester and chosen and druids.Quote:
Originally Posted by RollingWave
dont go for german lands as their not very money-producing.if the brits attack drive them back to their island.have one exp. army for julii and one into iberia because their towns are money-making.That means that to control iberia you must go to war with carthage too,soo conquer palmira?that near iberia island too.then finish the romans,having the financial suport of the iberian peninsula and one town that by now must build those elite forresters and chosen swordsmen.u r unbeatable.Quote:
Originally Posted by RollingWave
PS:nice str. Rolling Wave.i sugest you go in africa or greece. :duel:
I'm thinking bout tanking the Iberian first (liek u suggested) and then taking the British isle to get the thorn off my back... but the Germans keep hit and run on me now (they and the British... they seige a city... my army comes... they run and sue for peace and then rinse :duel: so i decided to ambush my main northern army near my starting captial (since moved down south into Rome ~:cool: ) and gave the germans a little surprise when they tried that PLAYSTATION again :charge: so now i'm at war with them but i don't think i want to continue fo too long as you said... war with Germans isn't very profitable, not to meantion Dacia is winning against them on the other front anyway.
After many false starts, I think I am finally getting somewhere with this faction.
Here some of my experiences, and general observations of playing on hard/hard.
General - I decided to go for a defensive strategy; I really wanted to plan for a later invasion of the Italy so that I could give my lads a crack at some post-Marian cohorts (crazy I know - but I am sure my boys will be able to handle it, when I get there ~:) ).
So to start with I made a descision to abandon the two Cisalpine (or are they trans-Alpine, I get confused) cities in northern italy. Infact I went one better and instead of simply abandoning them, I gifted them to the Germans who were more than happy to take them of of my hands.
I made an alliance with the Carthys and set up a trade deal with the Brits and Spanish.
All the units of Warbands were moved West and North to either disband at Lenonum, my soon to be capital, except for a few which I moved to Alisia, for the imminent declaration of war from Briton (which came much later than I expected as it turned out). All disbanded warbands were replaced with two barbarian cavalry units. Naked fanatics were also enlisted.
I quickly attacked and overan the two rebel cities, leaving me with a unified france.
I averted war with all factions for the first 8 years and gained trading rights form just about everyone. This way which allowed me to stabilise the economy and start making enough money to slowly upgrade all my cities, and streamline the two armies which I had decided upon.
Then war, with of course the Britons. Luckily - well, more by machiavelliean design actually - their allies, the Germans, had to sit the war out due to a small problem they were having in northern Italy with the Julii and some other roman factions ~;) .
The war was still young when the Spannish decided that they would also like some of my land. Alas. For the Spanish.
In the North the war was going well - many victories against sometimes overwhelming odds and the British hoards seem spent. I captured their only holding on the mainland and neutralized the British fleet, gaining control of the channel, building a small yet seasoned fleet, blockading British trade. They sued for peace - though I refused them trade rights.
In the south things have been very chaotic. Depsite many notable victories, and seiges withstood, I have been hard pressed in actually launching a definitive couter strike, mainly due to lack of man-power, and currency. Then after several against all odds - heroic victories I finally took Osca, when...
The Jullii come a calling. Seems they had some surplus troops left over to spare after beating the germans out of my former cites. They attackied suddenly and I marched a quick force of left-overs south to meet them. I quickly helped the Julli with their surplus troop problem and they fled the field less a faction heir and two family member also.
Then a weird thing happened - The Julii offered me a protectorate, which I humoured them by accepting. This lead to a cease-fire being declared with all other roman factions and trade was restored just in time to save my coffers from hitting the red.
The year is now 234 BC - I have been attacked by the Julii every other year for about 8 years now - each time they arrive I dispatch them with heroic effort and send them packing, so that they can offer me another protectorate which allows me to do a year of trade with the roman factions (I have a diplomat stationed in Italy).
The spanish have just been depleted trying to assualt Numantia in vein (again, and again). I shall move on their capital soon I think.
Numantia is now pumping out barbarian Noble Cavalry and Alisia has provided Forester warbands and is now replacing the Swordsman with Chosen Swordsman.
Tactics - Nothing original but worth a mention.
Cavalry - cost less to upkeep than warbands, get rid of most of your warbands asap and replace them with cavalry units. Gaul is big, has terrible roads, and you need to be able to repsond to threats quickly. Have garrisons of cavalry and some in forts (depleted units are great for this), by watchtowers etc. Basically just create a network of cavalry stations covering key hotspots that can be shuffled around to give good coverage.
Javelins - Skirmisher warbands are awesome units if used correctly. They are cheap to produce (147 Dinari) and, especially with the upgrades, can do some serious damage.
Armies - I usually have roughly equal amounts of Warbands, Naked fanatics, Swordsman and skirmishers in a stack. Usually about two of each. The rest is cavalry, 2-3 in the stack (excluding general) and whatever I can shuffle along the line from network of cavalry garrisons (typically another 2-3 cavalry).
Battles - If there are any trees, long grass or cover I will almost always opt for this over taking the high ground.
Warband centre in long thin formation, Swordsman to either flank, back a rank or so and slighty under-lapping the warband (to bolster their line if they start to waver). Skirmisher warbands (preferably in cover/long grass), set to stand, disable fire at will, but on the left flank ALWAYS. Naked Fanatics, one behind the warband in the centre (deep formation) and the other behind the Skirmishers (again, preferably in cover). Cavalry, equally split on either flank or hiding in some nearby woods. General - usually centre-left.
How to kill the Brits - Those chariots can be quite disruptive and hard to kill when first met, especially when the whole British family show up. I lure them to my line with a cavalry and then hit them with a javelin volley which always seems to get their attention. I then run my Skirmisher through my Warband, who are frothing at the mouth after a good warcry. The chariots will usually just plough on through in pursuit - the moment of impact I place the warband on gaurd, but only momentarily, I leave the skirmishers where they are to get massacred, and then charge in the underlapped Swordsman to help slow down the chariots. Once the chariots are slowed a little (and your line looks like a big mess) it's time to send in the Naked Fanatics, Hoorah. They usually break, pretty quickly, especially if you happen to have aby druids chanting as the Fanatics hit home. When you come to look back at your skirmishers you will see that they lost barely any men ~10 -15 usually at worst (the swordsman always seem to take the bigest beating, but hey, they are hardcore imho so can take it), and they are ready to go bait the next unit of chariots ~:) .
Killing Romans - Too easy - bring on the reforms Marius, you need it.
Did I mention that I love Skirmisher Warbands and that they have been decisive in ~ 50% of the major battles I have fought?
Quote:
Originally Posted by RollingWave
5 warbands in city center can handle any army.also cap. the S of Iberian pen. Numidian City Tingi?.also cap. one german town(they have good beer ~:cheers: ),just joking.
PS:I use as garison naked fanatics.....low upkeep and pretty good stats(for garison). :duel:
PS2:as iberia i did exactly the oposite,conquerd Gaul and then some of africa. ~:cool:
The easiest path is probably killing the Romans FAST (ok.. it's also somewhat difficult due to the fact that ur basically 2 city vs 7 ) have at least 2 field army run around roman lands, use smart strategies, attack when u have the advantage, run if ur too vastly out nubmered, face them if they are seperated, avoid them if they are together.
When you fight remember to use war cry to ur biggest advantage, make sure when u charge u war cry and do all out charge. with barb cav you should usually have the flank advantage.
Priority of build ups... 1. stable : at least 2 city that can mass barb cav and dogs. 2.forester 3.swords: after playing more i find that unless ur gonna fight on walls swords really don't do anything that warband can't do (unlike say barb cav, dogs and forester... their power is irreplacable) warband have a better charge too and have more number... when doing all out warcry charge seriously warband do just fine if not better than normal swords and are far easier to replace.
I managed to get all of Italy except 1 city as the Bruttis agreed to become my protectrate, the Germans also give in , the Jullies and Senate is long gone, I'm not begining my conquest of Britian and slowly pushing against the Spaniards. will probably land on Sciliy soon to destroy the Scipiies.
gauls r actully preetty hard, you may notice your empire is split in 2 (alps seperate).well the first job is to join these and your gonna need a pretty big garrison to hold off roman attacks.so thats first.
second you need to ally with spain or germania or brits.also you are gonna need a big garrison in the north 2 as the britons and germans attack. they hit hard and they hit fast so alliances are key.
romans will never ally with you so concentrate on holding out till the others r dealt with.
you need to weather the attacks from the north and east while you build an army in the center of gaul to go and deal out some pagan justice to germanians and brits.romans will noirmall stop when they get your places in north italy but somethimes they just keep coming so hold them off for as long as possibl' . once you either conquer or force a cease fire out off the germams concentrate on the romans.its better 2 forc a cease fire from the germans as it doesn't tie down your forces 4 that long.
the britons will be a pain in the but unless you control the channel. also to safe keep your territry from spain put a fort in the middle of that passage between your land and thiers. now go deal with the julii.
if you kept up your defense and only lost1 or 0 then you will have probaly have ground down the julliis forces so att\CK WITH OUT DELAY...
you are going to have to assult pretty nfast as the bruti,scipii and spqr will be send their respective armies so so have to choose the ground to stand a chANCE.
for the senate theres only 1 bridge north across the river so plant a army there and wait,maybe build a fort. bruti you should have a ambush ready witha diversonal force in front to draw them forward.
the scipii come in turn 2 or 3 after you invade italia so you need to have ground the others to a pulp.
if you lose severly to the bruti retreat from the senate or they will sandwich u.
you should win against the scxipii if youy held the bridg as that is the way they all ways come.
if you hold your ground you can capture the rest of italy with ease as you will have kicked there armies all the way back to there makers.
now yoyu have virtully taken rome out of the game ~:cheers: earlie on.
then you go back to the germans and brits.
the hardest people youll play are the romans and greeks and macedonians and sellucids and egytions.
Gaul starts with a large portion of land, but are at a strategic disadvantage. The primary one comes from the Julii to the south. Unless you capture Massilia and Lugdunum quickly, your northern Italian cities will fall from lack of troops pouring in from mainland France. The second one comes from the Britons and the Germans to the northeast. A quick paralyzing strike to the Britons on the mainland will cripple them temporarily. Keep them out of Gaul. The Germans, however, if unchecked, will steamroll through your cities like it was 1940. An alliance with Dacia and/or Scythia will prove benefitial in dealing with the Germanic threat. The third disadvantage is you are going to be backstabbed by Spain, and, to a lesser extent, Carthage. Hold Numantia at all costs, but if you see the Carthage steamrolling heading your way, you may as well raze all the buildings in the city and abandon it. You might get lucky with a rebellion.
Logicistally, Gaul is poor. Thankfully not as poor as Germania, but it will not get you the gold needed to raise armies on three fronts. Conquer Italy as fast as humanly possible to get the gold needed for your armies.
Tacticly, none of your low/medium-level units stands out. They are, at best, mediocre. However, what they lack in power, they make up for in sheer numbers. The main advantage you have is your proximity to Rome, and the fact that the Senate refuses to garrison Rome with its army. You can easily destroy the Senate with your north Italian army and a LOT of luck from the gods for your spy to open Rome's gates. If he is unable to open them in the first turn, be prepared to be whipped back to the stone age by the massive army of the Senate waiting just outside of the city. If you ARE able to open the gates to the city, charge in en-masse and let nothing stop you from securing the town square.
Congratulations, you just killed the Senate without dealing with the huge-arse army waiting just outside. Now you are able to train your best units (Barbarian Noble Cavalry, Chosen Swordsmen, and Forester Warbands) MUCH earlier than Alesia. You have now destroyed the Senate, but there still stands the problem of the Scipii, the Brutii, and the Julii (if you kept them alive on your push to Rome). The closest city to Rome is the Scipii's capital of Capua. Build up your army and take it. Now that you have two high-level cities close together, raze the temples in both and build the maximum level temple to Epona in one city (I use Rome), and a maximum level temple to Anobea in the other. Build mass amounts of Forester Warbands in the city with the Epona temple (to get them +3 experience), and them move them over to the city with the Anobea temple and retrain them (for gold weapon upgrades). Dont forget the Weaponsmith for an armor boost as well.
From this point on, it's all up to you, but the choice is obvious, you need to kill the remaining Roman factions before Marius can screw you over. Your next target should be Syracuse if the Scipii have taken it. Cities with stone walls are at a premium, and you need as much defense as possible. If the Scipii have not taken it, ignore it for now. No sense getting into a war with Greece or Carthage right now. If you are already at war with Carthage, and they own Syracuse, go for it. Your choice now becomes more complicated. Do you want to fight toward the east in Germanic and Greek lands, or do you want to fight to the southwest and destroy Spain and steamrolling through Numidia? Alexandria and Memphis is a grand prize, but so is Athens and Corinth. The choice is yours. However, if the Brutii have already taken a foothold in Greece, the choice is once again obvious.
I was just mucking about and looking at all the factions and their objectives (objectives for short campaigns) and I saw the Gaul. They got a really tough deal. As you said, they got the Germans and Britons to the north and the Julii to the south. And the spanish on another front. And they have to destroy/outlast Julii and S.P.Q.R. . That campaign looks like a good challenge and definitely one that I'm going to attempt soon.
craterus me and u can have a go at t if u wont i though they would be a good challange to i havent completed it yet.
Littlegannon, use the PM system for personal messages.. (but yes, i was going to suggest that for our next joint-campaign)
kekvitare ^^^ This sounds like a brilliant strategy to begin with for the Gaul! ~DQuote:
Gaul starts with a large portion of land, but are at a strategic disadvantage. The primary one comes from the Julii to the south. Unless you capture Massilia and Lugdunum quickly, your northern Italian cities will fall from lack of troops pouring in from mainland France. The second one comes from the Britons and the Germans to the northeast. A quick paralyzing strike to the Britons on the mainland will cripple them temporarily. Keep them out of Gaul. The Germans, however, if unchecked, will steamroll through your cities like it was 1940. An alliance with Dacia and/or Scythia will prove benefitial in dealing with the Germanic threat. The third disadvantage is you are going to be backstabbed by Spain, and, to a lesser extent, Carthage. Hold Numantia at all costs, but if you see the Carthage steamrolling heading your way, you may as well raze all the buildings in the city and abandon it. You might get lucky with a rebellion.
All I really did was take my strategy from Germania and convert it to a Gallic campaign. However, you are able to take Rome much more quickly with much less troops than the Germans if you get lucky with the spy. With the Germans, you pretty much have to abandon your settlements to muster the required army, and still need several turns to consolidate them into one army and march on Rome.Quote:
Originally Posted by Craterus
With the Gauls, the required army is right there above the Julii territory. Just bring a few more warbands from the nearby two settlements, and you are good to go. This prevents you from having to abandon your other settlements to the Britons. Unlike the Germans, a war with Briton and Germans, and a war with the Romans is quite feasable because you do not have to take the resources from France to try for a push on Rome.
Of course, taking the Julii's cities instead of going for an all out blitzkrieg against Rome will allow you to replenish your armies in case your spy fudges up.
You can beat the Romans early on, the key is you need a lot of barb cav and dogs, swords are helpful but warband will also make do, the thing is early on Romans don't build many equities, and in equal numbers barb cav >>> equities anyway. while they also don't have many triariis, the thing is you beat their flank first and then charge ur infantry with warcry, while ur flank cav and dogs join the charge, the Hastati/Principles will fall apart like rotten wood against such a attack.
Wardogs aren't given enough credit, and too few people know how to use them. I was most amazed at the effect they had when I tried out a custom battle against Roman principes with a handful of warbands (only half of which eventually joined battle), about five units of wardogs and four barbcav. Wow. I'm definitely using more warhounds in future. Sending wardogs in, then charging your warbands after them straight at the beleaguered enemy units is an almost instant rout.
I think warhounds are given the credit they deserve. They were an option in the "Most annoying unit" poll because when they attack one of your units, your men tend to defend themselves and if you tell them to attack the dogs they target the handlers.Quote:
Originally Posted by pezhetairoi
I like warhounds, any advice for me because I hope to use them when I attack Rome.
I never really use them in seiges Craterus. If i use them i normaly send them in to a nice piked line of men and them suport that with a wave of swords men. ~d Compleatly gets them every time in battles.
By Rome, I mean the Roman Factions, apologies, my post was unclear.
i find that charging dogs in to pikes just kills them and charging into pikesmen is not a very good idea i find hold them with men and then hit in flanks or round the back is one of the only way to beat pikmen u can fload them with men but u lose quite alot of men
I tried something against Carthage once. I charged wardogs into the lybian spearmen and they got absolutley miced. Maby it might work for swordsmen aswell........
Dogs are a nice, niggling unit and enemies can't do much about them but the porblem is that once you set them off, you can't get them back.
doesn't matter, if they work well you'll get them back at the end of the battle anyway :-) Wardogs are nasty... just used my first unit of Scythian warhounds just to see what it would be like, on the Brutii :-D
The key to wardogs is not to send them in alone... except maybe against chariots or cavalry, against infantry they should always be send along with ur own infantry and/or a calvary charge.
Hounds are best used as flankers or rear attack troops. Also, hold a few hounds in reserve and unleashing them at the right time can stop a cav or chariot charge cold. Then, you infantry can wade through the friendly puppies to cut down the enemy's hapless immobile cav.
One tip is to send cav to run down what ever the puppies are chasing quickly so the puppies can turn to other juicier targets.
Germania and Scythia have +25% more puppies in each pack. Producing them from +3xp temples = really mean puppies. They can tear up unarmored targets like warbands and missile troops nicely.
....and they're still puppies after all that? o_O
Not particularly. More like battle field fiends.
I was once outnumbered 9:1 as the Gauls against the Britons with just basic warbands and thus in quantity as well. They had chariots and druids in addition to more experienced warbands.
I did have a 6 star general but they had a 4 star. My saving grace was a unit of 3 xp war puppies. Those things stood off and tore up 4 enemy warbands. A half suicidal charge by my general broke through, also letting some puppies to pour through the gap. The ensuing rear attack chain routed the enemy army and led to almost complete annihilation of the enemy. Gotta love those puppies of DOOM, muwahahaha.
The more I hear about them, the more I want to go to the petshop and start my own warpuppy band.
i started a m/m gaul campaign
im onmly a short way into it but i imediately attacked ariminum but now i have the senate uberarmy on my doorstep
im trying to hold it and build up warbands in mediolanum and patavium to flood the romans out of italia
any suggestions for stratagies using war bands?
i need help!
Try to outmaneuver the Senate army on the strategic map. Using 1 unit armis to distract them, it's quite possible to take Rome without fighting that army first.
Luck with spy will certainly help with that.
As for warbands, they are not that great morale wise so try and flank the enemy fast with your cav. That said, they are tough compared with something like iberian inf.
You should always use warcry and charge your warbands into the enemy about 5 second after warcry. This gives you a brief attack bonus of +4.
As the starting Gallic blitaz, you should move the druid unit towards Italy. Their chanting will give you an important morale advantage and serve as good reserves.
When using warbands, make sure you have superior numbers as the Senate army is better quality. You should use druid and warcry to maximize your advantage and then use sheer mass to slow them while your cav flanks and smashes them.
Try having your general right behind the warbands and rally constantly. This can boost wavering units to steady. He also gives a bit of a bonus and can charge into the fray if your lines are shakey.
When I have played Gauls I used warbands just to hold first enemy strike, after enemy army got stuck in warbands I used cav. to otflank and charge the enemy. Actually I started campaign with attacking romans in a few first turns.
It sounds entirely possible to do that, yes. Katank, can u elaborate on your outmanoeuvring the Senate army point? I'm not very familiar with the one-unit strategy. The Senate army, if faced by warbands, has to be faced by a LOT of warbands. No two ways about it. Either that, or you empty Gaul and go whole hog on Italy. But that'd be more of my style, where I don't rush at first, but prepare everything beforehand.
First of all, 1 unit strategy is purely strategy map. Note how armies have a 9 square zone of control? 1 square that it's occupying and 8 that are in red.
Any army has that zone of control. Any enemies cannot pass through the ZoC without fighting. What you do is sack the Julii towns. Then, the Senate army will often get frisky and start coming towards you.
You get about 3-5 armies all consisting of 1 peasant unit. You place them in a solid wall and this will establish a continuous zone of control.
Your actual army goes for Rome. By maneuvering the peasant armies around, you can make sure the Senate army can't get to Rome in 1 turn. Just siege and assault. Spies make it even easier as you don't even need siege equipment.
This is a bit of an exploit as the AI rarely attacks with a single army twice during a turn. The Senate army will often engage your peasant army. You retreat from the battle. They will not attack your main army which will kill Rome and turn them into rebels the next turn.
First of all, rebels aren't aggressive and don't have to be dealt with right away. Secondly, rebels don't get triarii and principes. The result: about 6-7 harcore melee units you don't have to fight. This is a big deal.
sounds good
definetaly a lot beter then charging with 4 warbands into the full senate army LOL
ill try it next time i play
wait, I thought -any- units in the army that became rebel would continue to exist only turning white? Which means if you ever decided to attack it, wouldn't you still have to face those triarii and principes?
i think usually rebel armies from large destroyed faction armies lose some units and katank said that rebels can't have the triarii and principes
of course im not an expert
Velites and Hastati do turn white. That's because rebels do own those basic units. However, they don't get triarii or principes which means those troops disband.
This is a huge savings as you can send about 1/2 the force compared to before to deal with them.
...nice.
the best way i would play gaul is let the enemy come to me. warbands are not that good attackers. just defend the passes and bridges, with some light stacks and raid the lands beyond it. the romans will attack you, but if you give up Mediolanium and the other city you can delay war and train better units. you defend the bridge between cis and trans alpine Gaul. the romans will attack you there constantly, but if you have a good strategie and some good units, you will slaughter every roman army that comes. i fought on that bridge and hold firm for 30 years with 70 fights, 50000 romans were killed on that bridge while i only lost 5000 men. massilia can be used as a retrain center. the romans will be the thoughest but the spains and later the carthaginians can be hard. but a good alliance can keep them in order for some time. in these 30 years the romans will dry out and fade, after a while their yearly attack on the bridge will stop (the stupids just don't want to go around it) and you can attack them and roll them up from north to south. italy (apart from the senate army) is in the later games quite undefended. attack from all sides, and the chaos will be complete. with those romans gone and with 9 chev foresters (atleast i had that) you can start and conquer the world. the spanish will be in a war with carthage and will be a easy target. also dacia can be an option or just invade the lands of carthage or greece
Why the defeatist attitude? You can take segesta first turn with your general and cav in Mediolanium. With the starting armies of Mediolanium and Patavium combined, you can defeat their entire Julii force on turn 3. This will give you both Julii cities early on. Then use maneuvering on the strategic map to shut off the Senate army while you siege and sack Rome.
that's no fun
also the senate army in RTR has 9 full upgraded PRAETORIAN COHORTS (9 chevs and 3 upgrades)
Trying out a H/M Gallic campaign, and things went quite well for a while. I kicked the British off the mainland, unified Gaul, allied with Carthage, took the rebel provinces north of the Julii and also Salona and Segestica. The Julii fell pretty quickly, but the AI has taken to a frustrating strategy. The SPQR stack is camped on the ford between Arretium and Rome. The Rebel-army-that-was-Julii is camped out on the bridge between Mediolanum/Patavium and Arretium. They've been there for a couple years now. I've tried to push both of them back with disastrous results (though the meat grinder effect was amazing to watch). I did have the SPQR down to just its last units but my warbands finally all routed at once, alas, and the SPQR have magically reconstituted themselves at full strength, which I'm not able to manage. I'm concerned that my Italian troops are essentially cut off as a result, and I've built so many troops I can't build any more in Arminium and few in Segesta or Arretium, and the Brutii keep attacking me in Arminium, making it unlikely that I'll be able to hold it much longer. I guess the best thing to do is build some cavalry and war dogs in Massila and Narbo and ship them by boat over to Rome and take it out, and ignore the SPQR and ex-Julii until such time as they get bored and move off the bridges.
Has anyone occupied Rome as Gaul rather than exterminating/enslaving it? I'm toying with the idea of occupying it and then making it or Arretium the capital but I don't know whether that will suffice to overcome the cultural issues. But I suppose I should keep from being driven into the sea first.
Hmm well not too good a situation. Bridge battles vs. Romans are very nasty, but IMHO you have a nice antidote as Gauls: Use your super weapons and build some units of 3xp 3upg Forester warbands. That should send most enemies to hell, whether standing on a bridge or not...
Yeah, the trick will be surviving until I can build Forester Warbands at all. In addition to the Romans and Britons, now I've also been attacked by Spain, Germania and Macedon, and none will agree to a ceasefire, even in exchange for a city. Ugh. I'll never get a city up to 6000 at this rate--the closest I am is about 5200--since I keep having to retrain and train troops to defend myself, and I've lost or abandoned four cities to boot. Those Germanic pikemen are a lot tougher to fight as Gauls than they ever were as Romans.
My one hope lies in being able to sack Rome and spread some slaves around the Gallic Empire to get me to Tier 3 in a couple cities; my siege is going well so far and I've killed stacks totalling about 4000 troops from SPQR, Brutii and Scipii---it would have been 800 more but I accidently clicked End Battle instead of Continue Battle when I had a half-stack of Scipii on the run. :furious3: There's just one general in Rome proper left in the SPQR faction, and I'm myself now parked on the bridge outside as I besiege, so I may be able to do it. Alas, my reinforcements are cut off by the Brutii besieging Arretium (they've already seized Arriminium). In deep doodoo here.
Wait, did you say that right? The Brutii are beseigeing your cities?!?! I have never seen them send an army north of Rome when playing as any faction. They are usualy more preocupied with taking Greece.
Interesting campaign. I have never seen the Brutii go north either, always east. But it is usual for Gaul to be attacked by a lot of factions aty once, similar to the Greeks.
Gaul was going to be my next campaign, but I won't finish my Armenian campaign before BI comes out. To make up for no Gaul, I will play Franks first in BI. I think I'll play Gaul when I go back to original RTW.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Craterus
Yes, for some reason the AI is aggressive as hell in this campaign and has completely flipped out. The Brutii besieged and took Arriminium from me and now they're besieging Arretium. They also sent a half-stack at my force attacking Rome. The Scipii have sent two stack there as well, and they've all been ground up into hamburger.
At least I have the AI's attention. :dizzy2:
Well, the Romans will put everyone else on hold. Because they can. Rarely does a faction make war with the Romans (at the start). The Brutii go after the Greeks/Macedon, Scipii kill everyone on Sicily. Julii do nothing, and sometimes are attacked by Gaul. And since you are kicking the Julii off the face of the planet, the other Romans can put their invasions on hold and defend the Republic!
Well, an extended evening of playing this wild Gaul campaign and I'm hanging on by the fingernails. The Brutii accomodatingly attacked me on the bridge outside Rome and the last SPQR general aided, and they were mowed down utterly. Enslaving the city got 2 places up to tier 3, and I started building Forester Warbands in Rome proper. Sent one of them to Arretium to help fend off an approaching half-stack of Brutii and they pretty much annihilated the entire archer-less army without taking a single loss. These are nice, nice units. ~D
OTOH, Spain and Germania and Britain are as aggressive as ever, sieging most of my cities every single turn, as fast as I can sally and break the sieges, and now Carthage has allied with Spain and started attacking me too. Macedon keeps coming and they snatched away Patavium so the gains are being lost as fast as they come. But a couple more turns of producing Forester Warbands (now Mediolanum and Massilia can make them too) and those hordes of Macedonian hoplites will be toast. :duel: I am seriously looking forward to that moment. They are really ticking me off. :furious3: They were so easy to destroy as the Romans, it's really a different perspective trying to kill them with the hapless Gauls.
So although things are still desperate, the Foresters should be able to pull me out of this hole. If only they didn't take 2 turns to build!
If things get too bad in mainland Gaul, you could just emigrate to Italy. I doubt the Brits/Spaniards would chase you there, and they would probably start fighting each other. That means you can concentrate your forces in one place. But, it doesn't sound like you are struggling too badly yet.
I'm not sure I'm using warcry right, and it doesn't seem to be documented anywhere that I can find. How close do you have to be to an enemy for it to have an effect? Can a unit not in combat warcry and help one that is in combat? Do you have to wait for them to stop chanting to charge the enemy, or has it already worn off if you do that?
You have to do the warcry just prior to entering combat. It works best when you do the warcry, then when the soldiers stop making noise, order the charge.
yes , I would advise the same thing, even if you're not having problems with your main lands.Quote:
Originally Posted by Craterus
The thing is , that the Julii and other Romans have surperior units, so you want to take them out asap, definitely before the Marius event occurs.
And if you're able to churn out CS before they get principes in most of your armies then your doing great.
So my advice would be to go strait for the Julii , with your starting armies in Patavium and Mendiolanum - well you might want to train a couple of additional warbands.
the merge the armies and go straight for the Julii capital, fight the battle yourself, you're going to be hard put due to the lack of morale / discipline of the warbands but you should be able to win the battle.
once the Julii are out of the picture , try going for the brutii - who will occaisionly try and help the Julii when you fight the Julii.
Leave the Scipii alone for the moment - they are to close to the senate army , plus they aren't a threat , since all their armies are in Sicily.
Push all the way up to croton and the other Brutii city on mainland Italy and once you've secured the once Brutii lands you should churn out your foresters and CS - either from the Brutii capital or any other city who can produce these battle winning troops.
so when you thinkn the time is right , when your lands in Gaul are secured , and armies in Italy retrained go for the Scipii capital, attack from the east, so the Senate army can't help.
Once the city is taken , move the same army to rome and besiege it from the south-east, you really want to do this since you'll then be defending a ford against the senate army m which if you do right is a clear win , with almost no losses on your side , due to the mass route.
After Italy the world is yours !
:balloon2:
I've already wiped out the Julii and the Senate. ~:cool: Things seem to have stabilized in the mainland and I think I may concentrate on wiping out the pesky Spanish so I have at least the rear secure and don't have to keep worrying about them.
yes that would work , but keep good garrisons near Brutii holdings.
And I don't know the diplomatic relation with the Britons and germans , are they good ?
If they are, then you should indeed go for the spanish.
:balloon2:
No, I'm under constant attack by stack after stack from the Britons, Germans, Spanish, Carthage, Brutii, Scipii and Macedonians. I think the Scythians have declared war on me too, but they're too far away to actually do anything about it. But I've got to start eliminating enemies, and Spain looks like the weak link to me. No one will even discuss ceasefires.
If you have any way to create/finesse a crossing, taking out Britain might be a better bet. Spain may be the weak link, but Britain reduces enemies and the borders you need to defend. With 2 groups of romans and the Carthas after you, Spain is a lot of coastline to add to your defense. Sounds like you're wrasslin' alligators -- fun!
Seamus
I don't think a British invasion is in the cards; they took back both Samarobriva and Condate Redonum so I don't have a port on the north side. While I might be able to retake Samarobriva, there's a half stack of chariots in Condate that spells trouble.
Understood.
My idea of "clearing one flank completely" would really only work to shorten your lines if you could get the British Isles themselves without losing your posterior in the process. Your caution is understandable.
Seamus
Are the Spanish a threat to your current holding there in Spain ?
Is Carthage at war with you or Spain ?
If all you holdings in Spain are save , and your lucky enough to be at peace with Carthage AND Carthage is at war with Spain you should concentrate all your forces on the British / German invaders.
And only leave garrison forces in Spain
The attack in the North could be done something like this :
( keep in mind I have no idea what kind of armies you have , north where they are stationed , and what kind of troops your enemies have. )
Get your army from Alesia to take back the Holdings in the North , which I take it now belong to the britons ?
Take out the Britons in the North and drive them from the mainland, after that block the Engliosh Channel with your own ships, so that the Brits won't be able to make another attack on the Mainland of Europe, don't Invade the Brits just yet , focus on the Germans.
When you sent your Alesia army toward the BRits , send an army from Lugundum towards the Germans ,supported by an Army from either Meniolanium or Patavium . With your best generals.
try to attack simultaneously from the South ( Italy ) and West ( lugundum ) and your army that took back North Europe from the BRits.
Then keep on attacking the German Armies and major citys, the smaller ones you could keep as a buffer zone to the Scythians and Dacians.
After that you could focus on anhialating Spain or pushing South to Greece / Macedon
~:cheers:
:balloon2:
No, Spain is attacking me nonstop, and every now and then Carthage sends some troops. Things were on their heels in Iberia. I've seized Osca and Nova Carthago, and will be heading for Cordoba in a sweep next; I may send the main garrison in Numantia over to simultaneously hit Lusitania and keep them off balance. Then there's just that one more little Spanish village that I'll exterminate up in the northwest, and then they're gone for good. I'm hoping that this will calm things down and give me one front that's not a constant battleground so I can concentrate on the Germans and Britons. The Macedonians are besieging two of my cities so I can't ignore them either. :dizzy2: The Brutii and Scipii are rebuilding so they're not on my radar screen at the moment; first things first.
Finally got back to this Gaul campaign (need to finish it so I can load BI) and decided to make an all-out blitzkrieg in Spain. Wiped out the Spanish faction heir and faction leader, wiped out the Carthaginian leader in Spain and am besieging the last cities in Iberia, so that should be no problem in the future. I got lucky with an assault team on the main German stack near Alesia, and the Macedonians have gotten distracted by the fact that when they emptied Patavium to attack me, it went rebel on them so they've gone back to deal with their problem children. Finally found someone who would trade with me (Greece and Thrace) so I've started having a couple thousand of income again, and we may yet be able to right this ship. If I can just hold off the British from moving farther south into France before I can conquer Iberia completely, this may work out after all. Oh, and while Macedon will probably retake Patavium, it seems to have mysteriously come down with the plague. Heh heh.
===
Edit 10/04/05: The plan worked beautifully so far. I exterminated Cordoba, Osca and Lusitania, getting me enough ready cash to put Alesia, Rome and Arretium on a good financial footing and build some much-needed market upgrades and a crop of Foresters--and incidentally keeping those rebellious provinces quite happy since they now have lebensraum. Now that I have peace in Iberia and trade working the cash is starting to flow and I have the Germans on the run. The Britons are still a problem (they seized Acquitaine, though I made them pay dearly), but I'm moving a half-stack from Iberia to go deal with them, picking up soldiers along the way. The former Spanish faction heir is parked along the way and I'm going to try to bribe him to head this stack. I anticipate driving the Britons off the continent in 2-3 years without much trouble. The Brutii kept attacking me in Arretium until finally they left Arriminium undefended, so now I've seized that and am looking at a move on the Scipii capital. The breathing room from the Spanish conquest was exactly what I needed. I've been able to go to Numidia and gotten trade rights there, which should help immensely--I couldn't before because of the humungous Spanish fleet, which seems to have evaporated.
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Edit 10/6/05:
Mopping up the Germans and heading towards driving the Britons off the continent--the Britons are down to only Condate Redonum and I've been picking off the expeditionary forces it keeps sending down so its once-full-stack is no more than half a stack now. I have druids on the way from Spain but they may no longer be needed by the time they arrive. I eliminated the Brutii in Italy in spectacular fashion--the final battle was a very near thing, with my entire army routing except for 2 groups of foresters numbering 35 and 13--but they still had arrows and picked off the Brutii general, and then mowed down the rest of the army to the point that when they ran out of arrows and the remnants of the Brutii charged, the foresters were able to rout the entire thing fighting hand to hand! Alas for me, when I hit End Turn I got a CTD. I was so depressed I couldn't bear to reopen to see whether it saved before the CTD. I'd be in a bit of a difficult spot, since the nearby Scipii have three 3/4 stacks, but I really hate to lose what was such an epic turn of the tide.
EDIT 10/7/05:
Well, I finally looked to see if the save was good, and it was. Whew! The Britons were again expelled from the continent, though they just landed another stack at Samarobriva so after I deal with that it's time to pay a little visit to the British Isles. Macedon has gotten more aggressive and has started attacking me in Mogontiacum along with the oncoming German stacks (I thought I'd killed most of their big cities but apparently there's still something more tasty out there). Stupid phalanxes. Eat Forester arrows, Mac. The Brutii have been pounded into submission so I finally decided to pay some attention to the Scipii with my spy; I've been ignoring them for the most part with their one city in the boot. They just landed another stack from Sicily, and the damned thing is half onagers! I see I'm going to have to attack them pronto; 2 more turns of building cavalry and I should be good to go---assuming they don't assault me first. Ai ai ai! With any luck they're far enough apart that they won't be able to reinforce----not sure I can take on four stacks of Romans in the same battle plus whatever might wander out of the city. By then my diplomat should finally have been able to get to Egypt; an alliance or at least good trade should be a nice boost for me. I hope. While I'm at least keeping my head above water (5-6000 net income per turn), I can see that the next few turns are going to be muy critical. I wish I had an Esus temple closer to Italy; I could really use some druids there.
Edit 10/10/05:
The turns were not quite as critical as anticipated. I finally got my diplomat to Egypt, and got trade rights, though they were utterly uninterested in map information. The Scipii conveniently split their four stacks up, which is a good thing since they just got the Marian Reforms and I'm not sure my barbarians could handle a full army of post-Marian troops. One stack went after Tarentum to support their Brutii brethren (who keep coming in dribs and drabs from Thrapsus across the Adriatic) and they were quickly slaughtered in the open field. The second went to Rome and died before the walls on my first sally. I then sent the Roman army to Capua and seized it without too much difficulty, thanks to my troops being numerically smaller and thus the Scipii were encouraged to sally out and attack rather than give me a hard time besieging. They paid the price. The fourth stack was standing around and having a fair amount of cash handy I bribed the stack and took in their family member, since I only had one general in Italy and could really use another one. Those darned Scipii were a step ahead of me, though, because when I moved him into Capua, the Scipii sent an assassin with the plague in and infected BOTH my generals. Aaaaargh! They're not dead yet....we'll see whether they get over it. At any rate, it's finally time to start building a navy and assault Sicily. Mediolanum is building up to take the fight to Macedon, and the Channel has been successfully crossed and Londinium exterminated. Looks like pretty clear sailing in the immediate future, with about 24 territories yet to be taken. I'm hoping that once I've taken Sicily the Scipii will go about fighting with Egypt and Numidia and leave me alone.
The Spanish army hit on the idea of a naval assault on Palma, the last Carthaginian territory, and one that always generates lots of trade income. But what to do about the unbeatable full stack of Macedonian ships patrolling the straits? Misdirection. While I build my army on the promontory opposite Palma, I'm building little boats in Osca and Narbo to go out and attract attention, slyly pulling the Macedonian fleet ever farther away from my real target. Once they can't intercept me, off goes the invasion boat. So far, it has worked like a charm and right now the Macedonians are up fooling around on the Riviera sinking my decoy boats. Just need to keep them busy for the 2 turns it takes to get to Palma and Carthage is toast.
===
Edit 10/24/05:
Taking Palma was definitely the right move; income jumped from 2000 per turn up to 6-8000 by this one stroke. Macedon made it a little more difficult than it should have been, since one of its fleets didn't take the bait and what should have been a 2-turn excursion ended up being a 5-turn trip instead. So I've started building large boats at every single port to start cleaning up the navies.
Germany has been destroyed, and their allies Dacia made the mistake of helping just before they went under so I'm now eliminating them too--they're down to one province, Domus Dulce Domum and that won't last them long since I greatly out-tech them. Macedon has given me endless grief in this game, so I've started pounding them one city at a time. I ended up losing the battle for Thessalonika, their capital, however, due to the 15 minute timer--only the 2nd time that has ever happened for me (the first was when I was still trying to figure out the siege equipment). But playing on medium unit sizes I slew over 2500 of their best troops so the return engagement shouldn't be too difficult. Even though the Greek Cities are at war with them, they refuse any sort of alliance, even after modest gifts.
The Scipii are reduced to just Lilybaeum on Sicily, and that's not long for this world. I built a diplomat and parked him in the middle of the island, and whenever they send over a contingent of troops I bribe it away. So what was a fearsome full stack of Legions and Urban Cohorts is now just a handful of men that will quickly fall before my Foresters. Six provinces to go for the victory condition, and now it's really just a matter of deciding which six they will be. This has been a very tough campaign till just recently (seizing Spain and then Parma was the key to turning it around) but a lot of fun and intriguing.
I've always wondered why some people seem to find they have too much money as Gaul, and recently I've figured it out: there's nothing to build above level 3, so you're not doing much construction in the late game and have nothing to spend money on. The cultural differences are great enough in the Macedonian cities that I routinely exterminate as a way not to tie up troops in garrisons, and so cash flows in and little flows out.
Thanks to this thread, the Gauls have gone from a lackluster snoozefest to a fantastic game experience for me!
I'm one of those guys who like to compose armies based on the strength of each civilization rather than having more generic solutions that can be adapted to every civilization, so for the Gauls I've been experimenting with ways to really put the focus on the Forrester Warband. Here's my favorite army so far:
8 Forresters
6 Chosen Swordsmen
3 Druids
1 General, 2 Cavalry
Pretty unorthodox, eh? I originally had 6 Cavalry, but that turned out to be overkill so I replaced 3 with Druids. I line up two rows of Forresters in 4x2, one close to the enemy, the other further to the back. Further back still, preferably on a hill or somesuch, I place the Druids and the Swordsmen on the wings along with the Cavalry either on the flanks or hidden somewhere secret.
Battleplan is simple. Let the enemy march towards you and once they get going, start chanting. Since the only thing within Onager ranger is 4 lousy archers - which are of course hidden in plain sight - he has no other options, cuz I ain't moving! As he marches, the Forresters in the front start their rain of death, and once the enemy is too close and they need to skedaddle further towards the back, the second band takes over, and now they benefit from the Druids as well. Once the enemy gets close to the second band, the first group has long been lined up to take over yet again. The last stand-off is right in front of the Druids, and finally everybody scurries behind the Swordsmen, as they do their warcry. Then the Swordsmen charge, the Cavalry swoops down on a flank and 4 Forresters go fire arrow and the other 4 normal ammo for better kill ratios while the Druids chant along. Othertimes I go all fire.
It's not unusual for a line-up of 10 Urban Cohorts to simply melt away before they reach the Swordsmen in this setup - and this is in Custom Battle without upgrades. I can't wait to get my campaign going so that I can get the bennies of the temples plus experience plus a general on top! Once the biggest wave breaks I let the Druids loose to join the slaughter. I don't really worry about friendly fire, but if I get the chance to do prefer to move the Forresters to the flanks, and the back of the enemy, of course. Depending on the terrain it's sometimes best to arrange the Forresters in 4x2 right in front of the Swordsmen, but the principle is the same.
Those arrows are just dynamite!
I've also experimented with armies with 8 Warhounds apiece, but there's no way in hell I can get that to work with Gaul.
Gaul almost imposible in VH/VH in Version 1.3 I still have to try it in Version 1.5.
I have re-started the Gaul campain about 4 times now and the last time I gave up when the Greek Cities started attacking me with thier Armored Hoplites. I was already having a hard enough time with the Germanian Spear Warband.
I'll get back to once I am in the mood.... Gc Wall
At first I didn't think the Gauls were any good. After thrashing them with the Juili. But they are a pretty cool faction to play with. Their Forester Warbands are amazing and one of my favorite units in the game. Barbarian Noble calvary and chosen swordsmen are also pretty solid units to fill out the rest of the army. Their pretty easy to play with in campaign. (I played medium campaign and hard battles) The Germans and Spanish can easily be cut down with Foresters and Noble Calvary. The Britians can be a little tricky with the chariots, but foresters with flaming arrows can be affective. The Romans can also be tough, but if you strike before Marius you can overpower them. One huge downside that ticks me off is that they can't construct stone walls. Another disadvantage is no artillery, so that means no assualts or massive artillery bombardments. Overall the Gauls are great in the begining and towards the middle of the game, but Marius and the Romans can overwell them with superior units later on in the game.
Actually, flaming arrows are worse against British chariots: they give a morale penalty but are less accurate so you shouldn't use them against higher-tier units like chariots. They are effective against the scythed chariots however, because these, like elephants, can run amok. Otherwise, I agree completely with your assessment of the Gauls. :bow:Quote:
Originally Posted by bettkicker19
Question:
Has anybody tried the following:
Defend the Padus valley until the communities have built up a bit, but then allowed the Jollies and/or Brutes to conquer them just long enough to get you stone walls ampitheatres and the like and then take them back?
I would think you'd end up with a border that consisted of 2 bridges, 2 stone-walled cities, and three mountain passes in succession. This should allow you to hold against rome and expand elsewhere (the Steppes, Spain, Northern Dacia) while bleeding the Romans and honing an incredibly experienced army in Northern Italia. Then when the end-game approaches, you should be close enough where a campaign down the Italian peninsula is enough to finish for the win.
Thoughts?
That sounds pretty clever---to encourage them to retake the towns, after you abandon them you might give the Julii map information to make sure they know that they're free for the taking. The main problem would be stopping them from making further incursions before they actually get around to building the stone walls; the AI is kind of stupid about doing that.:dizzy2: Or even better, I suppose you could offer to give the two provinces to them in exchange for a ceasefire and trade rights, which would encourage them to not attack you for at least a few turns and make it more likely they'd improve the cities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gardibolt
I like that, but so far I can only give away cities -- every effort I have made to sell one, under any circumstances, has been met with a "no way, we think you'll retake it immediately" reply.
I'm also finding Gaul (H/H) a lot more fun to play than I expected after thrashing them so badly in the Julii campaign! Those Foresters from Alesia (teched up to gold weapons) make a huge difference. I've only got one centre for Druids so haven't had much experience of those yet (my starting unit got wiped out by a Brit assault in the early game, in which my faction leader was about the only survivor from a full stack - grrr.)
I've been trying a four-line set up - Foresters in front, then skirmishers, then standard warband, with swords behind. Cav on the wings. This sorts out most charges, even British chariots - foresters make a mess, then skirmish back through the javelins, who make more of a mess before retreating. By this point most enemies that manage to reach the spear line just up and run back to where they came from, with more javs and arrows in their backs. Most times the swords just stand there polishing their armour. If it gets sticky, the swords go forward and cavalry in the flanks usually turns the tide.
I'm also getting to like the dogs a lot more than their Roman equivalents. I've found them to be an excellent pinning unit for bridge defences! A pack of dogs on a bridge can hold back an entire army long enough for your skirmishers to run out of ammo. Besieging Rome from the ford on the Tiber left me with just two river battles to eliminate the entire SPQR forces thanks to "relieving" forces from the Scipii. Although with 6 SPQR FMs in the first stack it did come down to a long melee, but not a single warband routed!
Since taking Rome, the Bruts and Scips have been taking turns besieging me every turn, but easy sallies with 4x foresters on the ramparts and 1 unit of dogs to provoke the besiegers into arrow range means I can pull my inf and cav out of the gate to make a target and the Romans usually rout without my melee troops having to do much at all apart from looking hairy and brutish.
I expected the lack of artillery to be a drawback (and I love my artillery usually!) but with a bit of planning, siege tower assaults can be a lot more devastating than an artillery-led assault. You just have to know how to use possession of the walls to best effect.
My wars and diplomacy don't seem to match anyone else, and I reckon these campaigns are all highly variable -- those guides that say you have to take on faction x before faction y etc will just guide you into replaying someone else's game. I also think the AI adapts to your play style (I don't bother much with the diplomacy/subterfuge, and find the AI doesn't much either compared to other people's games. And I've NEVER had a bribe work for me -- all attempts refused!)
Currently allied to Carthage, Scythia, Greeks; have eliminated Britons, Spain, SPQR, Jullii; at war with Germans, Bruts and Scips. Expecting Macedonians to have a go at me soon - one of their spies has been causing havoc in Patavium (which I've never given up to retake at any point!), and the alliance with Carthage can't last much longer now that I have just killed off the Spanish royal line. I hold all of Spain except Corduba (Carthaginians) and Asturica (Rebels). Britannia fully garrisoned with about ten units - no doubt I'll need more as the population level recovers.... And my family's surname seem to be "the Conqueror". Next step is to take Trier, so I can hold off the Germanics at the Rhine. Finish off Italy once the Bruts and Scips have exhausted themselves at the foot of the walls of Rome (oh, will they ever learn???) and no doubt by then either the Macs or the Carthaginians will have attacked and opened up a new front... Or maybe the Dacians, who are being suspiciously quiet whilst lurking in the Alps and allied to all my enemies.
What is the diference between scythed chariots and regular british chariots? I agree with Bettkicker19, i too was surprised by the gauls. I too ran over them with ease in campaingn. And i would assume it would get hard for the gauls later in the game with the powerful post-marian roman armies. And forrester are pretty darn cool. I think i am going to start a new campaign with gaul now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ludens
Which city in Gaul is the best?
Probably Alesia, as it is the capital and starts out with the most buildings and units to recruit.Quote:
Originally Posted by diablodelmar
Does it have good growth, fertile land and economic potential? (right click on the surrounding land to find out the fertility)Quote:
Originally Posted by AwesomeArcher