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Guide.
Ok, I am currently playing with the Germans.
This are my early game observations:
Strengths and weaknesses:
The Germans seem to be the strongest barbarian Faction.
While the Gallians seem to suck in general the British tech tree requires to much before it can rival the strength of the German Phalanx.
To put it short: No Level 1 unit in the vicinity can beat the German Spears, and even most Level 2s will strife.
German have also very fast acces to an interesting early flanking unit (screaming women).
The Skrimishers are ordinary as is their Light Cavalry.
Their heavy infantry is also oridnanry, they are better than the Gaul counterparts but they do not really reach the brillaince of the German spearman.
Your early battleiline should be composed of your general, 2-4 Spear units, some Light Cav and Screaming women or Axemen.
If you get Archers use them, German Archers are important because they can be used to force your enemy into your hands.
Strategy:
Germany is poor. The first thing I doo is bringng trade and famring income online by builing a road, a level 1 famr and a Merchant in every city.
recruit some peasants to serve as preliminary Garrisons.
Every peasant you get nets you one big angry german Spearman who can be used for rapid early game expansion.
Where to expand?
Well, the Brittains always attack you (their goal seems to be Trier or Begicum or both). put your spears together and kick them around a bit.
The taking of Saxony, should be also clear.
I would recomand to expand into the east and the south.
In detail, try to aquire modern day prussia, modern day Lithunia and possibly Bohemia from the rebels.
If the Dacians beat you to Bohemia skip it.
I have made the experience that it is also possible to get as far a Russia.
You could also take Iovacium.
I would adovocate agasint taking Lugdugmum, this will always lead to a war with the Gauls. use your spy to check the istuation in Italy, once the romans have taken Mediolanum and modern Venice, engage the Gauls.
Try allying with the Juli, bolster this up by allying with the other romans too.
Chances are that the Juli will go for Spainor Karthage.
Now comes a buildup phase.
You may try to sack Great Brittain, however it is usually enough to sink their navy.
Basically, start preparing for the inevitable crush with rome.
This is great fun to play with the germans, the spearbands are the key to victory.Expansion is easy with so much rebel provinces around you for the taking.
Send diplomats to the southeast part, the Dacians will be there and also a few rebel provinces, use your diplomats to bribe any invading armies from the Dacians that are trying to take those.This will buy you some time and will preserve relations to the Dacians.Also get them to sign a trade agreement for like 1500 denari, use that money for bribing if u ever need to.Also make deals like that with the britons and gauls, they will also accept.
The Dacians will easely accept an alliance in my campaign.
The Germans have a very interesting unit roster and i disagree that the game sais they have limited cavalry, they actually have the best barbarian cavalry there is but u will only get these at higher levels.
Good luck!
If have played my campaign a bit farther:
A: The Britains have to die, period.
They will attack you no matter what you do.
Be sure to take the first strike.
Use Bordesholm on low taxes to get a naval base and assume supremacy in the noprhern sea.
You dont have to invade Britain, just crush their navy.
You could even try to make peace after their navy is done for.
In the east some ok rebel provinces (vicus Gothi is nice) are yours to take, expand until Pripet and Tribus Gepide.
Do not engage another power on the "eastern front".
Try to take out Gallia after the Brits are contained, they have a medeterran acces and can get filthly rich. Try to get to good relations with rome too, you can beat them but you should not do it right now.
I would say that crushing the Britons is more important than containing them. If you let them live, they will be an annoyance at your back for the rest of the game. Plus, once you take the British Isles you can largely forget about them and focus all your resources elsewhere.
A key province to take is Noricum (city = Iuvavum), you can easily seal off the mountain passes to the South to protect yourself from both the Gauls and Jullii. Keep yourself on friendly terms with the Dacians and Scythians on your Eastern front and focus on the Gauls. By the time your armies take Massila or Narbo Martius, the Gauls should have built enough structures (that don't incur a cultural penalty) in those two cities to allow you to churn out your higher level troops. This will provide you with a great staging point to invade both the Italian and Spanish peninsulas.
Remember, the earlier you fight Rome, the easier it will be.
Its tough at the start but ive found it best to attack both the british city on the mainland and the gaulish capital under trier, wipe them both out as soon as possible or you´ll be in long wars with both. I tryed to play it historicly on my first try but those britons and gauls made my life sour almost evry time.
First of all, TAKE ALESIA!!! It will severly hurt Gaul which will make it easier to kill them. Then take the Briton foothold.( I'm playing medium/medium, and after I took the city, Briton hasn't bothered me since) Your main priority is GAUL or DACIA. They will be relentless. Gaul will keep coming at you after you take Alesia. Keep a family member there. He will quickly become the greatest general of them all. Your real first priority is to take a more 'civilized' city for you to make your more advanced units. It will also give you high amounts of money for exterminating the populace.(Exterminated Massilla and got 6,00 Denariis) The Germans have the best Barbarian calvary unit in my opinion which is, you should know this, Gothic Calvary. As Germania, get Beserkers and night raiders as fast as you can. They will be useful in the dense forests of your homeland. Well, I'll post more later if I get a chance.
Germania is a challenge for me, but they probably have one of the nicest rosters of any barbarian faction. The only thing lacking is armor on the chosen axemen and they'd be great.
I my current game I kicked briton off the mainland and got a cease-fire. They keep bringing over small stacks though and I once had to break the cease-fire to remove a full stack they had standing next to their old city.
I'm keeping an uneasy alliance with the gauls (costing me money on a regular basis, but I need all the help I can get against the bloody romans).
I've spread to the far east, but those provinces seem absolutely worthless yet. I'd reccomend focusing on the west and south after getting the vicus gothi (sp) province and the one just south of it. To the south I've taken the old gallic province in venetia from the julii. It's really hard to hold on to though, I'm regularly attacked by julii and brutii armies. It's easily the best city I have though...
As Germania you can't autoresolve, since that means awful losses you can't afford. You have to fight every battle, and make sure you don't throw your soldiers away. 500 dead germans take 2 turns to regenerate or more in the thinly populated region. Your best regular infantry will NOT stand up to the romans one on one, so maneuver is the key. Never try a straight fair fight - youll lose. My new single unit of nightraiders seem very nice though, and I'm looking forward to seeing the chosen archers
Ive had it pretty easy as germania early expansion out to domus dulcis and vicus venedae wheere i got an alliance with scythia and dacia which has held for an entire game
the scythians and dacians have been peaceful and are allies. my army consists of cavalry and thats all. flanking the AI caues them to rearrange their lines in such a haphazard way that you shoudl be able to pick off a lot of units that havent quite formed up properly. This in particular for the romans who just dont seem to know what they are doing. The gaul warbands just rout instantly when hit from the sides and the briton chariots dont do much damage when hit by 6 units of cav from all directions. so why do you even need infantry. i did have to starve out most towns which takes a while but losses are a lot less. hitting them as they come out of a gate when they sally forth is just a meat grinder for 3 units of cav. one either side of the gate and one in the front. most of my generals are 8+ stars and i keep getting new generals from captains who attack the rebel bands.
The chosen archers are amazing. excellent range, excellent accuracy and can fight if they need to.
i never had to fight the romans with the marius event in effect since i was easily able to take italy faster than i too gaul. they kept attacking my sieging army and the town garrison were reinforcements that never got to return to the town and i just strolled in. triarii were no problem as they tended to run to the site of a recent cavalry charge and if i charged on the left then the right. the triarii just ran back and forward across the battlefield then get the exhausted unit to followa cav unit while anotehr cav hits them in the back then slice down the routed unit. in my current game. julii are gone, SPQR is gone, Scipi only has thapsus and lepcis magna (both under siege from noble cavalary and ports blocaded) and the brutii hold corinth and athens. (both under siege and blockaded).
i had to move my capital down to patavium to cope with the culture penalties i was getting from the italian cities, since the barbarians dont have any benefit for being more populated than 6000 most roman cities have all the necessary building to get the highest quality troops i just exterminate them.
cav is the way to go :charge:
I'm about to complete a "short" Germania campaign that on VH/VH that requires the conquest of Dacia and Scythia as well as 15 provinces. In order to do that I had to first eliminate the Britons, and start eliminating Gaul. This brought me alongside the Julii, who promptly attacked...they are suffering for that now. In the end I will probably conquer 40 provinces before I am done, but the outcome is now certain.
Overview: Move FAST! Briton and Gaul are horrible neighbors, they will attack even if you ally with both of them. Start building armies to eliminate them both and keep them on defense rather than offense. There are rebel provinces all around. Be very aggressive in seizing them before your neighbors, it is the only way I could keep my finances positive while playing VH. Dacia makes a good ally if you have just enough forces on your border cities with them that they don't get any "bright" ideas. Scythia will also be a good neighbor.
Your Armies: Your problem is lack of cavalry accessibility early on. You only have one province that will be able to build them for many turns...and you must build the structure first. Buy merc cav and merc cav archers wherever possible. The spearband will provide the bulk of your forces. By maintaining 4 row/rank lines of spearband you can present a very wide front that is nearly impenetrable. I march them into the enemy as a contiguous line with my few units of cav on both flanks. I switch to phalanx as they close (guard mode on or off) and give them orders to march *past/through* the enemy line. I keep my cav tucked just behind the flanks and as they engage send the cav around the flank. The enemy end units crumple before or right at the time my cav hits them. The opposing line group routs and I chase down the remainder with my cav. (Typical battle on VH/VH will give me ~1,000 kills, with 20 or 30 losses. A close battle might cost me 150 men and once I even lost 250 because I had insufficient cav.)
Early Strategy: Take Bordesholm, Vicus Gothi, and Lugdunum ASAP. This will get you a nice income. I "occupied" because the province populations were low...and some time during the game I would like them to hit the next city size. Gaul will want Lugdunum, so they are going to attack. No matter, make it their honeypot. Keep a good army there to defeat their stacks repeatedly--you might need to reinforce it periodically, particularly with any cav you can get.
Send diplomats far afield. I sent one toward Dacia, then Scythia to secure alliances. I picked up alliances with Thracia and Macedon along the way. I also sent one on a long tour of Gaul and the Iberian peninsula. I managed to get alliances with all of Rome and trade with Spain and Carthage. The alliances with Rome unravelled when they attacked Macedon. But I was able to keep trade rights with some of their factions (although I don't know that I had much external trade.)
Midgame Strategy: Plan to take Samarobriva from the Britons ASAP. This will be their "honeypot" while you try to get a port so that you can invade and finish them. With the Gauls occupied in Lugdunum and Britons in Samarobriva, you can build a third army to take Alesia from the Gauls. It has lots of upgrades and population and will start producing some tough "chosen" archers and swordsmen if you don't. When you take it, "enslave" is a good idea: it sends population to your many small cities. Gaul will be on the ropes after this. Take Condate Redonum and you will have a port...this is how you invade Brittania without waiting for a port of your own. The hop to London is short, and the Britons will be busy in your neck of the woods, unable to defend their own. It will only take a few turns to finish them (exterminate or enslave as needed to balance money/population needs.)
Also, during the early midgame, you need to take Domus Dulcis Domus ("Home Sweet Home") and Vidus Venedae from the rebels. This will keep money flowing, and it will keep the Dacians in check since they run out of money with nothing to conquer. At some point in the midgame I had the money to build a small army to take Lovosice. I think it was in Dacian hands. After that Dacia was on the ropes. I quickly took Aquincom, and then sent some exploration to Iuvavum which was rebel so I took it as well. Dacia was wiped out by Thracia before I had a chance to finish them. Note: Dacia has falxmen, and when mixed with archers I've found them a bit tougher to beat on VH with spearband and cav. (Do not let Dacia hit you first! I got triple teamed by Dacia, the Britons, and Gaul in my first attempt at Germania. I could never get financial traction to finish any one of the three, and the Dacian falxmen eventually attrited my army away.)
Lategame: Take the rest of the Gaul provinces in France. You might want to exterminate to get some money from the larger population centers. Although enslave works better on some areas and especially if you need to rebuild stacks/build new armies with all those nice upgrades. Take a hop from the UK to take Hibernia. Take Cisalpine Gaul, Transalpine Gaul and Patavium. This will bring the Julii down on you. They hit me with three full stacks in Cisalpine Gaul, one for each of three turns. I had a powerful 1/2 stack army. After that I had finished the Gauls in Italy and turned my attention to the Julii. I hit them both in Italy and Iberia simultaneously.
Endgame. With all effective opposition silenced, turn on your Scythian allies. This will mean long marches. I am ready to start this phase.
Germania is great battlewise. Once you have managed to build a nice army, that is. Losses do not have to be heavy, just avoid autoresolve most of the time, as already pointed out by Magraev.
The key to victory, in my opinion, is spearmen and chosen archers. Form a solid wall of phalanxes, position some units of chosen archers behind these, and some cavalry on the sides to make sure they don't get any nasty surprises. The spearmen can be reinforced with night raiders and berserkers, great units for making the enemy rout. This makes them particularly useful against your neighbours the Gauls and the Britons, as these guys rout at the drop of a hat. I have yet to see this strategy fail.
Where to go? In my opinion every Germania-player's duty is to plunder Rome before Alaric. Which gives you hundreds of years, so no need to hurry, conquer Britannia and Gaul first.
Well, I have something to add to the German Phalanx:
Add one unit of Axes or Barb Merc and one unit of screaming Women.
Let both use their abilites when the enemy gets close.
The combined effect of the scremaing + the warshout is almost enough to "shake" some units, and certainly enough to make the pesky romans run earlier.
It also gives you the edge in Phalanx vs. Phalanx as their Phalanx will run before yours does.
Always keep 2 units of Cavalry, the other germans arent that good in chasing routers and german cavalry is good in protecting flanks.
Oh, I noticed that some well defendet border forts can occupy the Dacian/Thracian/Skythian mongrels with very little troops while your guys spank rome.
Does anyone have some tips on Naval warfare?
I am unable to put any kind of dent into the roman navys, which is quite pesky, I cant even get a diplomant to africa for getting an Alliance with Cartage/Egypt...
Well, I have saved the problem with the roman navy, by killing them all.
their navy is nto that scary if they dont carry any troops because soemone just spanked italy.
On hindisght, it was significantly more easier than anticipated.
The Julii armies were unxeperienced, my tpyical 4 Spears, 2 chosen Archer 1 general one gothic 2 Light Cav on Axemen on one screamer armies beat them up pretty well.
5 Star Spearman can still hold up Legions, mainly because they posses a bigger size and get a morale advantadge (well, you did use the scremaing women eh?)
I have engaged the Dacian/Thracian (the latter have absorbed Macedon), the Falxmen are somehow Cannon fodder (my Cav runs through them, they dont even get close to my spears and my Archers are shooting them up anyway.)
however the Thracian Pikes are pretty nasty, alas their small front size will mean their doom, in addition the AI cannot really use its Phalanxes.
I am doign a "Sitzkrieg" with the Skythians, pretty small garrisons (one General + 2 Spears +1 chosen Archers) are sitting in some border forts and protect the irver corssings, the Sykths dont even try to siege.
My Spy recently found out why the Skythies are so boring, the Scythies lost their leader + main army against the Amazons, however I dont have enough troops to garrsion the land which would be ripe for taking.
I have to confess that I dont like Berserkers, the require that you build a temple to Donar, however, Donar is inferior to Wotan in most respects (Wotan get more units and a better bonus) in addition, the priests of Donar help you helaing your wounded which I think is one of the best skills ever, the +2 command while using infantry is even better.
I can only recommend chosen Axemen coming from a level 3 Wotan temple city with a nice armour smith. Want to go toe to toe with the urban cohorts? Well, chosen Axes can do the trick, in additoon they are propably one of the best one turn units.
But they look SO cool! ~DQuote:
Originally Posted by Mightypeon
Seriously, Donar may be inferior to Wotan, but the berserkers do cream enemies in battle. I have seen these guys chase away Roman units many times their size. With the hitpoints, they don't go down as easily as you might expect either.
On the side, it's worth noting that the germanic god Wotan and the norse god Odin are one and the same, just a variation in the spelling from old norse to saxon. Same with Donar/Thor. So these fellas are actually the predecessors of the berserkers in Viking Invasion.
Ok I started off a game as the Germans last night to have a bash at them.
Theya re hard on the battlefield with those spear warbands... To be honest I thought they would have been higher upt he tech tree than they are. I was really amazed that while the Britons and Gauls get the default "Warband" the Germans got a Phalanx... Still they do need it more than the Britons and Gauls do, their lands are so dirt poor you have to Blitz the map to avoid early game stagnation. Especially with the Britons and Gauls.
For my part I ended up at war with both of these factions very early on. I got agressive and took Alesia from the Gauls (it is their Capital after all)... Then the Britons joined in sending an army to try to besiege Alesia from me right afterwards.
So I scraped an army together and attacked their Gallic foothold. Fortunately the moment my army got close to their city, the Big Briton army lifted the siege to rush back to defend. It was a big mistake and I took the town while they were stuck on the road... That army was later destroyed in a heroic victory near the town.
My eastern flank though is extremely weak due to the dirt poor nature of Germanic towns, fortunately I am allied with Dacia and am pursuing an alliance with Scythia, to hold them at bay.
I also started a German game. I play on medium so dont expect some genius insight from here. My very first target was the briton foothold which was promptly dispatched.
As soon as that was taken care of, i went for the gauls. At this point i still have to conquer the two mediterranean cities. In the mean time a full stack of brit troops lead by a 5 star general crossed the Channel and is menacing their former posession.
My biggest problem is population growth. The German cities grow VERY slow. Temples of Freya(?) may help there, but if you want berserkers and Gothic cavalry you have to please the other gods. The East so far is not a problem. I was slow taking the Helvetii town and lost the Tyrol to the Dacians. However my Eastern most provinces are providers of very interesting mercenary forces, namely Scytian Horse Archers and Samartian Cavalry. HA are useful as most of you can imagine, and Samartian Cavalry has an outstanding Charge bonus. Haven't used them yet, though.
The German spearband caused my very first defeat in RTW while playing the Julii and overconfidently assaulted a German settlement.
So far i've only used spearmen, cavalry and a few screaming ladies, besides the ocasional mercenary barbarians, when facing big numbers.
It's been quite fun, playng the Germans.
Oh.. watch your leaders... they can get some nasty vices from drinking too much ale.
I can imagine. Conquering Britannia before heading southwards solves this problem. Less men in the north equals more men in the south, and of course, you need everything you've got to deal with the Romans.Quote:
Originally Posted by MadKow
Freya's correct. The key to this one is balance, I would suggest building the temple of Freya in about 1/3 of your cities (more or less). Which cities must be decided according to location, the safe towns which are (or will be) in the center of your empire and far from the line of battle would be my choice, as you wouldn't want to recruit your berserkers and gothic cavalry from these places anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by MadKow
Now go get Rome! :charge:
I have found that the Germanic towns need farms, its the only way to get them up to scratch I feel given their natural lack of food & growth.
At any rate when I took the Briton foothold it was very early on and they had that massive army running around... I can only think that the upkeep has killed them because I have yet to see them come back against me. Even their navy is out of sight at the moment.
The Gauls are more of a challenge, but given they only have 3 provinces in mainland Gaul (this side of the alps) and one of them is besiged by me, they won't be much of a threat for much longer.
Oh well time to get some ports & boats and paddle across the pond...
The problems facing the German player are money and population growth. In my latest game I built few troops at first and went for the rebel provinces of Bordesholm and Vicus Gothi to the north. They're not cash cows, but they are easy to get and hold so attack them first while you send out your diplomats and develope your provinces.
The majority of my temples were dedicated to Freya. I wanted the fertility bonus but also knew that the towns I captured would be well developed to produce high quality troop so it's there I put my temples to Donar and Wotan.
As you build up for war remember your diplomats. Ally with Dacia and Spain and whoever will join you. Travel the world, establish trade and sell map info. Try to use this cash to build farms, markets and ports. Go easy on the troop production because their upkeep will drive you into the red after the these diplomatic windfalls run out. Another good use for this mad money is bribing troops. I took out a couple of Brit 1/2 stacks early on, and the Brits never recovered.
Your early strategic goal is to take Alesia and defeat the Gauls in the field but then eliminate the Brits. Take Sambrovia and Condate Redoran (sp?) and then jump across the pond (don't stay on board!) to take London. Usually the Brits oblige and send whatever they have left back to Gaul (you can wave to them as you pass!) so taking Britain is a walk in the park.
I focus on troops in London but concentrate on trade in the rest. That is why Britain is good to take first. It has all that extra trade income, and besides the occasional rebel is easy to maintain. Once Britain is secure it's easy to roll up the rest of Gaul.
I usually enslave as I go, unless it's a tiny settlement, then I occupy.
On to Rome!
Ah, Germania, always a lot of fun. Here's an interesting strategy I read on the boards at TWcenter and which I've pulled off with great success. If it works, you've won the game, it's as simple as that. When you begin take ALL your troops and gather them into two large stacks near the town below your capital, I believe it's called Mongotiacum. Don't spent money on your towns, you won't be staying in these worthless lands. Buy a couple of spearbands in Mongotiacum and Trier and send them to join your armies while you wait for the troops from Vicus Marcomanni to arrive. Build some diplomats too (another two will do), they'll be invaluable to get money, which you'll desperately need. Now march south into Noricum, but ignore the town, you have bigger fish to fry. Send your diplomats to sell trade rights and maps to everyone you come across, you can often make 5000-10000 denarii with this. March your two armies into Italy and cross the Po river into Julii lands. Attack the Julii and lay siege to both their main towns. Build some rams, attack the next turn and exterminate, you need the money and you an't afford to keep a large garrison. Make Arminium your capital, you are here to stay! By now all the Romans will be at war with so push on to Rome as soon as possible. The Senate army is your greatest foe, the Scipii are probably busy on Sicily and it'll take the Brutii some time to march some troops to northern Italy. Lay siege to Rome, but do not attack. Those walls are deadly! If you're lucky the Senate will do something stupid, like attack your besieging army (you did remember to bring as many troops as possible, didn't you?). Defeat the SPQR army (nasty buggers with good weapons and armor, so use your spearmen to hold the line and flank them with your cav), if you're lucky you can destoy the SPQR troops inside Rome as they join the battle and capture the city the next turn. Exterminate the populace. Congratulations, you've captured Rome, including some very nice 3rd tier buildings!.
By now the Britons will undoubtedly have attacked your deserted holdings in your old lands. Let them! The lands are worthless and you did sell all the buildings, didn't you? Let the Britons waste time and effort buidling up these tiny hamlets. The Gauls will also inevitably attack you with their crappy warband/swordmen combo armies. Easy fodder for your spearbands, just don't let them swarm you. In the mean time your diplomats are running all over Europe selling traderights and maps to everyone they meet. By now you will have built up a large deficit (-10000 k and you'll be losing money for some time) and you need to get out of the red fast! Your armies will have taken losses and you need pecunia to retrain and reinforce your troops!
Retrain and reinforce your army in Rome (be sure to build shrines everywhere, preferably to Wodan) and march on Capua. Be careful here, I suffered a nasty defeat when the Scipii faction leader sallied forth from the town. He's a nasty bugger who can devastate your army. I destroyed him in a second battle but he took a while to die, so don't overextend your forces!
The Brutii will keep sending small to medium sized armies to Arminium, so keep a sizable force there. Hastati and Velites are no match Spearbands and Barbarian Cav, so it's shouldn't be a prob. The Julii are effectively neutered with their two main towns gone. It's possible they've taken both Caralis and Segesta. Take Segesta from them to drive them off the mainland. They may land armies but it's probably just a ragtag band of Hastati, peasants and townwatch, easy fodder for your spearbands (great unit and the key to victory!) so ignore Caralis for now. After you've taken Capua reinforce your army and swiftly march on to Tarentum, siege it, take it next turn, exterminate and march on to Croton. Rinse and repeat.
By now the Brutii are stuck in Greece and the Dalmatian coast and the Scipii are probably holding all of Sicily. Keep a large army near Croton and Tarentum, both the Scipii and the Brutii will occasionally send armies to take those cities. In northern Italy the Gauls are probably making a nuisance of themselves, so help yourself and take the two cities they have there and reifoce the pass leading to transalpine Gaul. Your original homelands have probably been taken by the Britons or have rebelled due to unhappiness. No matter, you now possess all of Italy and you should be making a profit by now and have some cash in your treasury from all those sackings. Build up Rome to make all those highend units you normally can't build until 150 BC. It won't take long, due to the excellent infrastructure in the Roman towns. Now build up an army and a fleet. A small expedition will be enough to finish of the Julii. The Scipii will take more troops but shouldn't really be a problem. And what do you do when you've taken Sicily? By now you're in a practically unassaillable position to take over the world! Be sure to send the Gauls and Britons your regards, preferably by a large army made up of Gothic Cavalry! I'm sure their warbands will appreciate the gesture. :p
Interesting. It's also more historically realistic to have the Germans launch a huge raid on Italy than create a nation state in the forrests of northern Europe. But I just don't see it as a necessity.
It doesn't take to 150 bc to build highend units. As soon as you take London and build the temples to Wotan you can get Gothic Cav. That should happen in 20yrs/40 turns. It also only takes two upgrades to make chosen archers, which to me is a far more important unit and makes your slow moving spearbands truly devastating.
But the strategy does have a more barbarian slash and burn feel, so i might try it when I cycle through the factions again.
Rome fell with a whimper. You know Rome is weak when the Brutii and not the Julii have control of Massila in southern France. \
It was more a matter of logistics than tactics to take Milan and Venice (still Gaulish!) and the two Julii cities. I was surprised to see the "faction destroyed" flag when the Julii cities fell, usually they own Sardina/Corsica and survive till you get around to raising a fleet. The Brutii sent a few stacks out of Illyricum but they had little to guard their cities and they quickly fell. I besieged Rome until they emerged at the end to fall on MY swords. The Scipii but up a good fight and even brought troops over by boat to try to raise the seige. The second battle must have killed the last of their line because when Capua fell they were gone.
My anti Roman battle plan is a simple, one sided end run.
(OOPs wrong button.)
The side will change depending upon the terrain/circumstances but I find one overwhelming envelopment works best against legions. 4-5 spearbands with 4 archers, 1 screamer, 1 general, 3 lc 2 hc and the rest axemen and wildmen. I set my spears/archers in the center but only a few covering forces on the weak side and mass the rest on the other. I use my cav to keep the velites at bay because they can cut you up if you get bogged down fighting some experienced legions. They will also provide a final straw, if needed, to crack the Roman battle line.
Dacia is next, followed by Macedon. I wonder if Macedon will be tough.
I hope so.
A guide to the Germans
Troops
Type No /Experience /Attack /Total /mele/missil /Charge /Weapon Type /Defence Total /Armour /Skill /Shield /Hit Points /Recruit Cost /Upkeep /Special factors
Barb Peasants 120 0 1 1 light 4 3 1 0 1 150 100 Woods Snow
Skirm Warband 80 0 6/9 4 missile 3 0 1 2 1 220 130 Woods Snow
Chosen Archer 81 1 12/14 5 Missile 13 8 5 0 1 560 180 Flaming wod/snw
Spear Warband 121 1 10 8 light 12 3 4 5 1 510 200 Phalanx Wod/Snw
Screech Women 80 0 11 7 heavy 1 0 1 0 1 320 130 Woods Snow
Hounds 40 0 14 4 light 3 2 1 0 1 612 60 Woods Snow
Axemen 81 1 12 7 heavy 10 3 5 2 1 450 120 Warcry Wod Snw
Chosen Axemen 81 1 20 9 heavy 7 0 7 0 1 522 200 Warcry Wod Snw
Beserkers 24 2 22 8 heavy 7 0 7 0 3 756 120 Warcry Wod Snw
Naked Fanatics 80 2 16 6 light 9 0 4 5 1 430 130 Warcry Wod Snw
Night Raiders 80 1 16 8 heavy 11 3 3 5 1 486 130 Warcry Wod Snw
Barb Cav
54 2 11 9 Light 12 3 5 4 1 400 90 Wedge Wod Snw
Noble Barb Cav 54 0 11 10 light 15 6 5 4 1 600 160 Wedge Wod Snw
Gothic Cavalry 54 3 17 10 light 23 10 9 4 1 632 190 Wedge Wod Snw
Generals 24 0 14 10 light 14 4 6 4 22 940 92 Snow
Hastiti 80 0 8/12 2 heavy 14 5 4 5 1 440 170
Equites 54 0 8 7 light 12 3 5 4 1 390 110 wedge
Tech Tree
Town Large Town Minor City
Govern Warrior Hold (Peasants) Warlords Hold (Diplomat) High Kings Hall (Gen Bodyguard +1)
Walls Wooden Palisade Stockade na
Barracks Musterfield (Spear Warb) Meeting Hall (Axemen) Hall of Heroes (Chosen Axemen)
Stables na Stables (Barb Cav, Hounds) Warlords Stables (Barb Noble Cav)
Rangesna Practice range (Skirm warb) Archery Range (Chosen Archer)
Smiths na Blacksmith needs trader (weapons +1) Weaponsmith needs market (Weapons +1 Armour +1)
Port na Port (1 trade fleet)(boats) Shipwrght (2 trade flt)(large boat)
Farm Land clearance (food +1) Commnl farming (food +2) X
Roads Roads (trade + travel) x x
Tavern na Tavern (Public Order +5%) Bardic Circle (Order +10% Nightstalker)
Trade Trader (populus + 0.5%) Market (populus +0.5% Spy) Great Market (populus +0.5% Assassin)
Freya Happy +5% Populus +0.5% Screeching Women Happy +10% Populus +1% Happy +15% Populus +1.5%
Donar Happy +5% Happy +10% Experience+1 Happy +15% Experience +2 Beserker
Woden Happy +5% Experience+1 Happy +10% Experience+2 Naked Fanatics Happy +15% Experience +3 Gothic Cavalry
Short campaign set at medium/medium. Objectives 15 provinces and outlive Dacia and Scythia. These factions are very similar to Germania but the Dacians have some armoured infantry and the Scythians lots of horse archers but neither have any spears.
Overview
Your starting position is good because you have five provinces in Central Europe and these are surrounded by rebel ones. But you are going to need it because you have a small population, low population growth and low level technology (Germania can only build up to Minor Cities) and this can present a challenge in a long game. So the plan is to expand widely and fast before the other factions can get established and to challenge the Romans early as possible.
Development
You have 2 large towns Damme and Mogontiacum with 3000 souls and a technology goal of 6000 and these should be developed first into your troop producing centres and you should aim to get at least one of them up a tech level to Minor City. I had Mogontiacum, as a cavalry and missile troops centre for Noble Cavalry and Chosen Archers so that there was less of a drain on the population and built it first into a Minor City. I built the temple line to Woden to get Gothic Cavalry. Damme became the infantry centre and had the temple line to Donar and developed more slowly. Develop the other towns with level 1 items such as a palisade, farm, roads, trader and a temple to Freya for population growth. Have a garrison of 1 Peasant in each and 3 spear warbands on frontier towns. I doubt if there will be enough spare cash or people to develop any of the Towns into Large Towns early in the game but if you can, build a musterfield in Batavadurum and use this to supply extra warbands. Later you can build a port here when it grows into a Large Town. You only get four family members so have a governor in each of the two large towns and two armies. In the early game I make it a rule only to spend the PROFITS from each year and to leave the balance as an emergency fund. You will have to more population into the three towns that you are developing and you can do this by recruiting peasants, sending them to the developing town and then disbanding them.
Economics
Normally your low tech level, would be offset by trade income and you would have plenty of money. Not Germania. You will be short of cash all the game and I only managed to keep two 20 unit armies in the game with a 10 unit reserve and three frontier garrisons of four units each. About 65 units in total and about 10 diplomats and spies. Your farm income is low at between 300d and 450d a province and less than 200d in internal trade (due to poor roads) and you only get one mine in Vicus Gothi another 200d. External trade is difficult to get as you only have a port onto the North Sea and can only trade with Britannia and Gaul, both of whom are at war with you most of the time. My trade with Londinium was worth around 700d when it got going. Trade does build later when you capture the Black Sea and Gallic Mediterranean ports but by then you are facing the Romans, so you are going to need it. I kept two diplomats full time selling map information, one in Italy and Spain and the other in Greece and Anatolia. At between 5,000 and 15,000d a time this was a major source of revenue.
Tactics
Your troops are some of the best barbarian soldiers and the spear warband in phalanx formation is very powerful. Coupled with some Barbarian Cavalry to run down missile troops and routers and some axmen to cover flanks of the phalanx that is your early game army. It will defeat all the barbarian opponents, often when you are heavily out numbered. Just roll the army forward into the enemy and watch their centre crumble! Later you can add Noble Cavalry to crush the enemy’s cavalry and their flanks. When besieged just roll a phalanx into the breach and wait for the enemy to kill themselves. I normally have just three spear warbands so that I can cover all the breaches and a missile unit to keep off their missile units. I have seen just such a force kill an entire army of besieging Britons.
Against the Scythians, you will need to take armoured cavalry to destroy their cavalry and infantry (and survive the arrows) and as many Chosen Archers (guarded by 4 spear warbands) and Mercenary Horse Archers as you can muster. You will suffer casualties but your firepower should keep the Horse Archers at bay and they are not a strong faction.
Against the Romans, you need to guard your flanks but again you just need to roll the phalanx forward to destroy their centre. A single unit of spear warband is on a par with a unit of Hastatii so try and get all the armour and weapon upgrades that you can. Keep your units tight in a line so that you get local superiority when the Romans are more spread out trying to outflank you. What I find odd is that the recruitment cost of the Spear Warband is 70d greater than a unit of Hastatii and the upkeep 30d more. They have about the same combat power but you have a lot less money and population than any Roman Faction so these are relatively expensive units. You will need to fight every battle yourself so that you do not lose any men that you do not need to.
Strategy
You have a central position and will have to fight a war on two fronts using your interior lines to mass your troops against any threats that develop. Luckily you have the Alps to the south and if you can capture Iuvavum you can put a fort in the Alpine pass to the south to stop the Gauls/Romans coming that way. That leaves Gaul and Britannia in the West and Dacia, Macedonia and Thrace to the east. My strategy was to keep an army in the West and fight a slow war against Gaul and to neutralise Britannia through diplomacy – in the end they fought the Gauls instead. In the East, I sent every spare unit (about 30) to capture Dacia with Macedon and Thrace as allies and then sent a two pronged thrust into Scythia, one prong going along the Black Sea coast and the other through Pripet. I had just finished that in 243bc when the Brutii attacked from Pannonia but I was able to bring the army back from Scythia and Gaul to stop them. Game won. Continuing the game, I will take Greece to improve my economy and population and then southern Gaul and finally move into Italy.
Starting Strategy
270 BC Mass all your troops at Mogontiacum and your spy as your Eastern Army and send them to capture Lovosice, Vicus Marcomanni, Vicus Gothii and Bordesholm from the rebels. Move south to capture Iuvavum and built a fort in the pass through the Alps garrisoned by 3 spear units to stop forays from Italy. 263 BC Use Lovosice as a base to build up and retrain the army and then move into as much Dacian territory as you can before the Brutti get there. Capture Dacia by around 245 BC and then strike into Scythia using Vicus Marcomannias a base. The distances in the East are huge, so split up into small armies and try to capture as much of the Scythian hinterland in the first strike. It is not well defended as the Scythian army is at Campus Scythii facing the Thracians. Concentrate again at Tanais and destroy the Scythians in the province of Scythia around 230 BC. You are then positioned to move into Greece or against the Brutii as you wish but you have now won the short campaign.
270 BC In the West send the diplomat to Alesia to get an alliance with the Gauls and sell them map information and then onto the Britons for trade agreement and map information. Build an army Batavodurum as the Britons will attack soon. When they do, counter attack and capture Samarobriva which should finish the Britons on the mainland for a while. If the Julii fight the Gauls, you may get peace there for a long time but if they go into Spain then the Gauls will attack you. They attacked me around 263 BC and I captured Alesia and sent about 1,500 of its population to Mogontiacum which finally became a minor city in 253 BC. The Gauls kept sending small armies up to Alesia which were easy to kill and kept the Britons under control with a diplomat. Around 240 BC having destroyed the bulk of the Gallic armies, I captured Lemonum and the British re-appeared on the mainland, got a bloody nose at Samarobriva and so went off to besiege Condate Redonum- a Gallic town! Captured Massilia around 230BC but kept other Gallic provinces alive as a buffer against the Julii.
Gave up trying to control rebel armies, as I always seemed to have four and I could never seem to bribe them, even family members.
I quite liked playing the Germans but got fed up with the lack of money and always having to scrape together units to get together a decent attacking army. Also the task of taking on Scythia was very dull as the distances were so huge and you were vulnerable to an attack back home. But they have the best barbarian army and can take on anyone. Am now going to try this emigrate to Rome strategy. Sounds like fun!
Nice units but no cash.
I thought ppl were kidding when they said sell trade rights and maps for 10k or more...omg! it works ~:)
The Scipii refused my deal for map info for 10k (5k had been my highest attempt up til then) the counter offer was 1925k/turn over 9 turns :dizzy2: What could I do but (begrudgingly) say yes? ~:)
A common theme here, and something I have seen as well. The Romans seem to make no headway against Gual while you are fighting. My diplomat in Italy does not see many troops, perhaps the best plan IS the Roman Blitz detailed above.
edit:Lol, the only thing worse than your cash position is your population. It's now 230'ish and I have yet to see a city of 6000. When do these guys get archers? The Guals are spamming archers/foresters and chosen sword; despite losing every town outside Italy...none of which can produce archers btw ~:)
Also, I have been enslaving everything I get my hands on and the pop. in my main towns is still tiny.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HopAlongBunny
Pick which towns you want to become your top production centres and don't build anything there unless you absolutely need to {ie , you need Cav and non is available for hire and no other town can build them} . Your spears are the workhorse , but at 121 men per can drop a small population fast , use your secondary towns to produce these .
You might try building peasants in a town you don't mind depopulating , and sending them to your chosen towns in a steady stream {disband them when they get in their new home and increase that towns population by 120 per unit} .
Try getting the spearment to mate with the screaming women ~D
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Witch-King
Thats a good idea. ~:)
Playing as Germania I abandoned Germany after building roads and one unit of peasants in each province and a couple extra spear warbands, and then moved all my forces down to the mountain pass just above Mediolanium.
I took Mediolanium, built a fort blocking the road to Masilia to stop Gaul reinforcements and then took Patavium. Building up some more units over the next few turns (some axemen and naked fanatics), I also hired some barbarian cavalry mercs Then it was war against the Julii and other Roman factions. The battle against the combined Julii/SPQR armies was something fierce but from a good defensive position I let the Roman armies break on my wall of spears.
Overtime I lost all of Germania to the Britons, Gauls and rebellion but I have all of mainland Italy and just took Sardinia (a quick hop from Rome and the AI usually won't attack ships in port).
I couldn't have done it without the money gained from selling maps and sacking cities but now I have such an extensive domain I have money rolling in and two major armies in the field.
The Julii are gone, the Brutii have been reduced to Salona and Apollonia, Rome is taken and is now my capital.
The Scipii control all of Sicily, Thapsus and they're about to take Carthage, so I'll need to take them but it shouldn't be too diffcult with some smart transporting.
Of course when I start going up against some phalanx armies my battles will probably get more difficult but a spear wall works wonders against the Romans.
Great game, great idea mate ~:cheers:
Edit: as this is a guide I should probably add some better tips:p
Here they are.
* Spear walls are your friends, if on the defensive then find a place where you can protect your flanks and plant a wall and let your enemy come to you, place some axemen behind the line to send in as reinforcements to endangered parts of the line. Hold back your cavalry to chase routers or destroy missile troops that hang around after you've smashed their heavy infantry.
* If on the offensive then march your spear wall right up to the enemy and then stop, same effect instead this time the mountain is coming to Mohammed. Just watch their cavalry around the flanks, use your own cavalry to intercept these or pin them until something better can arrive, standard stuff.
* The AI will hardly ever attack forts, just four well placed forts in Northern Italy will help guard your back whilst your armies conquer their way South, at the worst case the enemy will attack, you won't be able to bribe them and you will lose the fort and the single unit inside. However you will have bought time to rush one of your armies north to reinforce your two northern cities.
* The AI will hardly ever (if ever) attack ships in port, Sardinia is just one quick hop away from Rome, Sicily from Capua and Carthage from Lilybaeum, you don't have to engage the Roman navies just avoid them when you transport an army.
* A tactic I considered when going up against the Julii/SPQR army, its a gross exploit so I didn't use it, by result the battle was much closer but I felt more manly ~D but if you're stuck then maybe its for you.
Plant your spear wall right in the corner of the deployment screen on defensive battles with a flank on each edge, as soon as the battle starts move them backwards so that there is no way around their flanks at all, stick all your other units behind them. Use screeching women/warcries whatever to buck up your line, maybe stick some skimirshers behind it too.
Unless you fight like 'an old woman or an idiot' you will not lose that battle.
I did this also, but keep one of your heirs at the western border and build peasants for Garrison in Germania after you reached Italy. When you attack the roman Cities, enslave their population and the northern villages will soon grow fine... Then you'll be having two Empires, the grown-up Germany and the captured Italy. If you connect the two pieces to one by captuering Iuvavum, Mediolanum and Patavium from the Gauls you have the H.R.E.o.G.N. in the Ancient!Quote:
Originally Posted by The Witch-King
Other emigrations do also work, you can easyly win the short Campaign if you travel to the Balkans and put up somekind of Austria-Hungary in the West or Ostrogoth-Empire in Romania...
Just finished my first campaign as Germania on m/vh. Really fun. A few points I noticed:
First I tried smashing the Britons right off the bat. This did not work. The problem was that by attacking Samarobriva I overextended myself and invited attacks by both Britons and Gauls. I took Samarobriva, but had to fight off three major armies in about 6 or 7 turns. I defeated them all, but my army was battered and the Gauls immediately took the city back. I spent a lot of money and was back to square one.
I started again and went with the "let Trier be Verdun" strategy-- build up Trier as a defensive town to suck in the inevitable attacks by Gaul and Britannia, while concentrating on expanding into north and east into the Baltic in particular. Once I had some good incom from places like Bordesholm and Vicus Gothi, I could hold off both Gaul and Britannia. After building up a while I got Batavodurum to build a ship, landed and took Londinium. After that, the Brits slowly weakened and I turned my attention to Gaul. They were fighting the Julii so it went easier than expected. I took all of France and made some forts to guard the Pyrrennes and the Alps. Then I invaded northern Italy (taking out Dacia, which was one of the conditions for short campaign victory), pushed into and took about 2/3 of Italy, including Rome. Things slowed a bit after that as Marius' reforms meant his troops outclassed mine (and I was getting to lazy to fight each battle--autoresolve sucks!). Then I sent my fastest troops and mercenaries east to take Scythia. That took a long time, as he had stretched all the way to campus Alanni, and it took 15 turns just to get there!
In terms of tactics, chosen archer warbands are great against the Romans pre-Marius. I just set up my phalanxes and dared him to attack; if he didn't, my archers decimated his troops; if he attacked, my spears pinned him while my cavalry flanked. I hope they work on the AI for the patch, as it is pretty stupid.
Never found naked fanatics to be of much use-- too fragile. Gothic cavalry are good; I also bought some Sarmatian mercenaries but I was disappointed in their performance.
I found out that it is possible to hold the western border, expand into Behmiea, civus Gothi and Bordesholm and crush rome in the same time.
However you would have to do some "phase spear" or deploy at the end of the field abuse for it.
For those who dont know: phase spear takes advatnadge of the affect that Phalanx troops can attack through Walls. Place you Phalanx directly beihind a gate (put guard on). You should see their spears sticking out on the other side.
The approaching enemy rams will not be able to do damage because your spears are long enough to kill the first 2 soldiers who man the ram.
The other abuse invloves setting up in the edges.
4 Phalanxes can esily strecht an edge, make sure that there is no room to flank you nad have a field day.
If u dont wonna have the pleasure in dealing with those Gaul forester warbands, expand towards Alesia and dispatch an army from there east towards patavium and mediolanium.Make sure u take the road through the mountains(less chanche in getting ambushed and in my game it was unprotected) , it leads right into the area of these 2 core troop producing cities.Use a spy to scope the area first though cause they usually have a field army nearby.Then attack and pillage both cities, it will make good money.Leave the cities for the Gauls while in the meanwhile u can expand your kingdom towards these cities and by the time u get there they might be rebuild making them ideal to help forge an army for your move towards Rome.
G'day,
I am new to this. However i would like to offer my oppion on the Germans..
I have been playing Rome total war for awhile and Germania is the best Culture. Why?
because of thier spear-warbands (i put unit scale to huge, which means spear-warbands are 241men). i personally only used these at the beginning. i am a peaceful player however when i am prompted into war i am ruthless. i made an alliance with the Dacians, the sythians, the britons, the Gauls. i knew from exprience that the Gauls and the Britons attack you, sooo i exploited the idea of forts. There is a bridge near Batavodurum, i put a fort within march of the bridge and that helped stop attacks from briton getting to far. than Trier. i built one fort with a small garrision where the gap in the forest joins Belgica. i than set up i think about 5 forts in a line along the border of Central Gaul. i set 400 men in each fort than placed another fort behind the middle on with 800 men to help reinforce any attack. this stops the Gauls. well, forwhile.
i took Bordesholm, Vicus Gothi and Lovosice before the gauls broke thier allaince and attacked me. they didnt get past my forts and were soon running home with very deep wounds to lick. Briton felt over confident and attacked me. i took Samarobriva, i massacared the poplace. i than left the town for the Rebels to take and the Briton to be pre occupied while i delt with Gaul. i than took Alesia and it suffered the same fate.
Soon i the Britons attacked again so as i recruited an army to destroy them, i sent emesarries to Rome. i gained all roman factions on side and i tried to convince Julii to attack Gaul, funnliy enough they would have none of it so i went to rome and offered them 10k gold and thus the Gauls had a very distracting nieghbour to thier soul.
Now i finally took Samarobriva. the british decided to drop men off with their navy i than saw a Gaulish navy near-by. so i searched and in Armorica had a port, thus i split my forces in Samarobriva and took Armorica with little trouble thanx to the Julli. i than created my navy, i destroyed the british navy. thus like some of you have said i thought it was safe and turned all of my armies south wards. the british snuck a small army over so i pulled all forces north and dropped them in britian. i currently hold all of Britian and ireland, however i am having trouble with Rebels. so if anyone knows how to stop Rebels appearing...
i have currently destoryed Gaul...well i control all thier terrioteries. i stopped the Romans from annoying me by building forts in the mountian passes in Transalpine Gaul and Iuvaum.
now while i was worrying about Briton Thrace and Dacia went to war. i didnt care about them so i let them settle it. Dacia was almost destroyed, Thrace descieded to attack me, every turn either Lovosice or Vicus Marcomannii is under siege. i than countered this but building 500 night raiders (tough lil buggers) and i use them to weaken Thrace i have currently weakened them by taking thier cities and massacring the and than leaving a brilliant stratergy, becase you dont always have time to take and settle the settlements to destroying them and giving them back is better because they are unable to attack you.
i am focusing on taking Rome and than Spain, than the Balkans, Russian, Greece because of thier huge trade income.i than plan on moving on to old Persia thand africa than finially Egypt...
if anyone has any comments they would be gratly aprrcienated... or if you wish to contact me McDoogle@toowoomba.com just tell me your from the forums..
thanx hope this helped..
Just a question. When I played as Germania, after I sacked Roman cities which by the time they are very advanced and have buldings that produced seige/artilleries , why can't I use them ? I don't expect to produce German Legions but it would be nice to throw in some heavy artilleries once in a while. MAkes the sieges quicker.
Hello: I think this is because Germania is a barbarian tribe, so you are not allowed to build such advanced units. You can check which units you can use by a unit guide (you can find the link in SP forum's index), or just go to a custom battle and see which units are available.
Germania is probably the best barbarian faction in the long run. However, they start out very poor, their settlements are small and their population growth is extremely slow. Your main unit of choice in the beginning will be the spear warband. Send a few units to Alesia as soon as possible to get some income. Once this is done, take some important gallic settlements (such as longdunum) and 1-2 Dacian settlements to cripple both factions. They will almost certainly stop attacking then. After that, make sure you take the British foothold and expand into Britannia, taking all of their provinces (even Tara). The british have fairly weak units in the beginning. From there it will be easy for a while. Your army should consist of lots of spear warbands, a few units of night raiders (the only large axe unit worth getting) and some berserkers. Then, Gothic Cavalry and chosen archers will greatly help, too. The key thing to remember as this faction is to avoid pulling punches with the Romans early on. They will destroy you. Once you take patavium and everything north of the Julii settlements, stop there. Place 3-4 units of spear warbands (and archers once you get them) on each of the 2 bridges to keep the julii from attacking once they declare war. The spear warbands will almost always hold bridges. The only time you might have trouble is when the enemy uses archers. To deal with this, bring some chosen archers. The Brutii will eventually attack from the east (if they already took those settlements) and might really mess up your plans. Hopefully you have enough of an army by now to attack the Julii's relentless attacks. Take their big settlements first and make sure you still have an army north of there to guard patavium! Also, don't launch an attack on rome across the bridges until you have a very good income. In my game, my faction basically became bankrupt while fielding a few units against the Julii. Expanding just isn't worth the risk of losing Patavium. If you aren't ready, just hold the bridges with spearmen while you expand farther into Gaul and Spain to take their settlements (and their money).
The key thing to remember is to take Patavium and those bridges as soon as possible. Once the Julii start their expansion, they will become truly unstoppable. Actually, they are already fairly difficult to stop even with their first 4 settlements under their control. I guess taking those might help with stopping them. In my game, I had a fairly sizeable army and I had to fight against a battle against the julii, brutii and the SPQR. ALL IN ONE BATTLE! I found a nice hilltop and just pelted them with arrows and flanked them. I lost about 90 units and they collectively lost around 1600. The next few turns, I became bankrupt and they beseiged 3 of my settlements in the same turn. I just gave up at this point.
Well, it is true that the roman legions can get pretty nasty, however people are forgetting two things:
A) You tend to get your chosen Axes before they get their legions
B) If you have chosen Axes, you dont have to worry about legions that much.
C) However, if they get legionarys, they happen to produce hem faster than you can pump out your elites.
As the Germans you have 2 windows of opportunity to sack rome.
1: Right at the start: Take your spears, go south and show the romans the real meaning of Phalanx warfare, clever positioning can easily beat the senate army
2: If youre good with cavalry: As soon as you rpduce walour 2 weapon one Barb Light Cav from Damme and Montigiacum (+Aleisa if you took it)
This Cav is lightears ahead of anyhing mounted the romans can build, but it tends to be used against the pesky Britons, Gauls whatsorver.
3: If you have just enslaved Gaul (you have to, they will attack you and they wont make peace) grab some chosen archers get you vet spears and smack the romans.
I took them on right after Gaul. The Gauls developed Mediolanum really well and have a +2 missile weapons temple there so I am just churning out chosen archers there. As far as I'm concerned those legionairs don't function all that well with lots of arrows sticking out of them... ~D
Only thing I wasn't aware of is the fact that Germans don't sap... I was besieging Arretium and built two sap points but couldn't get anyone to dig some tunnels! Fortunately my spy opened the gate for me (lost over 500 men though, most of them on the bbq).
I love the Germans, in fact they're my favorite faction (would've never guessed, huh?)But...a serious issue with the Germans is their lack of siege weapons. They don't even get a single onager. Nuthin! But fear not, for most of the time this allows you to make more men than would be usually made due to the fact that you don't have to worry about siege equipment. Go out there and use those siege ladders!
I just had some experience of Germania (Vh/Vh/Huge/patch1.1). I followed the advice of taking Rome very early on. Now it is 262BC and I have 21 settlements - Germania is invincible. I blieve with some practice, everybody can easily take out an little-missle enemy that is 3 times as large on an open field - or definitely more than that in a city as long as time is enough, and yes, on VH. The key is simple:
- Spear Warband is GOD!
Seriously I think spear warband should belong to at least the 2000 level town barrack, or even 6000. They are just way too powerful. It is the only melee unit that I could win, 1 vs. 1, in a 10 to 1 kill ratio in VH. In fact, I just routed 3 units of rebels (naked fanatics + 2 bar. warband) with 1 unit of spearwarband. All I did was camping them at the corner.
These phalanx are supposely to be the crap, but they turn out to be the best. They never switch to that f* little knife whenever an enemy comes close, and they come in great numbers. I defeated the Senate army with 7 units of spear warband holding everything - Roman generals, trarii, everything.
Against regular infantry on the field, you only need 3 rank deep of spears for them to become invincible, since only the first three rows will ever touch the enemy. The trick, as many others have pointed out, is to form a LONG, THING WALL OF SPEARS, and let them "walk to a distant point beyond the enemy in phalanx mode". Always works, always invincible. This way, the formation is not disrupted as they would when you order them to simply attack (annoying). To keep the wall continuous, you need to stop the advance of all other units when any one is engaged. This way, you have no weakness exposed. The AI is pretty smart somtimes, that it will try to flank your phalanx. So you really don't want to disrupt your wall or things will turn out to be very ugly.
Formation also tends to screw up when the engaged enemy routs. You might think "guard mode" will help - NO! When you leave the guade mode on you will see your spearmen do all the funny things, sometimes rotate 180 degres to show their back to the second wave of charge. They way I do it is to hit "stop" when the enemy routs, and point to their new movement destination. Just keep them occupied.
The greatest weakness of phalanx is missle - but you don't have to worry, you have chosen archer warbands - long ranged! If you take Rome early on, you can mass produce them off the bat. Barbarian cav. is good enough for all kinds of flanking and chasing purpose.
Germania does not have any weakness - just full of strength. With that only working RTW phalanx you only need to worry about "other phalanx", but you have long range weapons and cavalry - no worry at all. ~D
Yeah, the german phalanx is good. But i used them only 4 the beginning. Now i'm a german cavalery man. I use horses in masses, and some night raiders and berserkers to climb up the walls :D. And of course elite bow men :D 4 support.
I found Germania pretty easy on Medium/Medium
My experience has been a long blitz. Here's what I found useful:
TACTICS
- Spear warbands rule. In fact, they are overpowered. As other posters said, stretch them out a bit, then advance them to march beyond the enemy line. Their one downside is their lack of speed and maneuvrability. Try turning off phalanx to run, and then turning it back on just before engaging enemy. Even then they are still cumbersome. This lack of maneuvrability is compensated by Barbarian cavalry, one of the speediest units in the game. Barbarian cav is key to totally annihilating your enemies by chasing all routers. My armies consisted mainly of center line of 2-3 spears and the rest is flanking cavalry.
- I did not see the need to produce any missile units (in fact I hate them because of the friendly fire which causes more causalties than the enemy). A combo of spears and barabarian cav could annihilate anything. Most of your early enemies (Gauls/Britons/Early romans) do not deploy much long range missiles, so you can handle them with spears and horses. Avoiding the missile line of development saves money on the range buildings.
STRATEGY
- Early eastward expansion into Lovosice and Iuvavum will deprive Dacia of "lebensraum" while giving you extra money/land and potentially a way into Italy (via Iuvavum). I thought it was worth sparing some troops from the Briton/Gallic front.
- German towns are poor and low population. Trade income is meager. Since your main income is taxes, which depend on population, you must watch your population closely. I therefore used barbarian mercs liberally to avoid draining my population. Build all farms levels in Germany.
-Trier works as a great focus for conducting the war against Britain and Gaul. A single army there can threaten Samarobriva or Alesia while defending your hinterlands. I managed to pick off Gallic and Briton stacks one by one using one large army based around Trier . The spy you get early is key to keeping an eye on them.
-It is possible to blitz across Gaul quickly once you take Alesia. I took Alesia in 262 BC. 6 years later (256 BC) all Gaul, including Massilia was German. You incur no cultural penalty in Gallic lands, and their low population means you can garrison with one or two units and move on to the next town.
-Moving against Rome early is better than late. I captured Rome in 252 BC (and almost got it in 253 , having captured the town square 30 seconds before the darn timer expired). I did this with mostly barbarian cavalry and spears. The Julii and Brutii were still fielding Hastati and Velites mostly. Pretty easy targets.
I am now poised to strike at the heart of the Brutii and Scipii lands. I may run into trouble, but it is starting to have that inevitable win feeling.
Yeah, a little update. 2 huge armies are sitting in 2 forts in front of rome (at the bridges in front of the italian homeland). But i have time :D. First i conquer the world and than i destroy rome. The romans can't left their homeland *lol*. So i enjoy the harmless attacks with my german super men.
These spear phalanx are rediculously over powered.
Yep. In multi-player battles we have a name for this tactic -- "corner camping". Many tournaments have a rule which bans it. It is ok to use a feature of the map like a village, rock outcrop, or water to anchor one or even both ends of your line, but using the edge of the map is considered cheesy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Es Arkajae
Big object of emphasis for Germany: TAKE ROME EARLY. I decided to conquer all of Gaul instead of heading down to Italy, and by the time I got there, things didn't seem so bad. The Julii had idiotically allied with the Gauls and had about 3 provinces, so were no problem. The real problem was the Brutii. In my campaign, the Brutii had all of Greece up to Macedonia, and all of Southern Italy. The Scipii were all in Africa so not a problem. Apparently, 3 of the roman factions sat around and did nothing, while the Brutii became unstoppable. Right now I'm at around 173 B.C. and in a continuing deadlock with the Brutii. They are at the point where they can just send a continual river of full stack armies to my 3-4 cities in north Italy. I'm trying to go through their back door by sending armies through the balkans to greece. But right now they show no signs of stopping. Hopefully I'll make a breakthrough soon and deal with the other, weak romans. Believe me, fighting 20 legions every turn isn't fun. :dizzy2:
I finished my German campaign yesterday and am here to pass on the learnings.
The campaign was set on VH/H and resulted in victory around 200 BC.
The basic order of events was:
1) Grab nearby rebel provinces. I was able to quickly get up to 10-11 contiguous provinces bouned by Domus Dulci Doums and Vicus Venedae to the East, and the Gauls and Britons to the West.
2) Fend off the Gauls and Britons. Formed a big army to push the Britons off to into the sea. Fought scrambling rear-guard action versus the Gauls in my homelands until big army was done with Britons. Sent big army to take Alesia and the Gauls were on the defensive the rest of the way.
3) Taking Britain and France. As soon as a boat was available I got an army over to Britain and took London. A huge plus to the economy. The rest of Britain fell easily. As for Gaul, I pushed west first, taking the Atlantic coast of France. Avoided contact with the Julii, who were rampaging their armies all across the Mediterranean coast of France and Spain. While taking northern france, I built up some big "roman ready armies" of upgraded CAWBs and Spears in Alesia and Trier. Eventually, Julii attacked and I drove these armies to the southern coast of France, splitting the Julii in two.
4) Spain and Northern Italy. Most of the Julii's big armies started coming back from Spain. These were mosty pre-marian troops that were quite easy to defeat even in full stacks. Julii areas of Spain were defenseless and taken, around to Corduba. I would have left the Spanish alone - they only had two provinces in North Spain, but they attacked me so I dispatched them. While all this was going on, I sent a couple new armies through the Alps and took Mediolanun from the Julliu and Patavium from the Gauls. At this point, the Gauls collapsed, their one province in Spain going rebel. I took it, uniting all of Northwest Europe under my banner.
5) On to Rome. Actually taking Northern Italy and Rome was a piece of cake. I had 4 or 5 strong armies flowing back from France and Spain. Southern Italy proved to be the toughest point in the campaign. The Brutii, having taken all of Greece and most of Macedonia including Byzantium had full stacks of post-Marian troops everywhere around Tarrentum. Capua also was a struggle because the Scippii got some help from the Julii and shipped in a couple stacks. But I had a decent bank account from all the exterminating I had been doing, and good troop centers in Northern Italy so I eventually ground them down. The Italian penninsula added to my collection, but still need 10 more provinces or so to win.
6) Next stop Greece. Big problem now is I've built up a huge army paid for with all those 20,000+ denari exterminations that i can't afford straight up. Despite owning huge chunks of land, I'm losing 6000 per turn. I should have mentioned that the Brutii were actually up in my homelands attacking places like Iuvaum and Lovosice while I was busy in Italy so I've got troops up there too. Anyway, a big expensive army is the sort of problem that comes with its own solution. Soon I have 5 or 6 full stacks with good generals in the Greek country side. Again, some tough times with the Brutii, a few lost battles when they manage to get 3000+ guys in the same place at the same time, but eventually I get my 50 provinces.
Basic tips:
- Throw away everything you know about buildings from playing as Romans. Build Farms and fertility temples. Population growth is a big issue.
- Avoid building excess troops. Money is a big issue too. Your garrisons should be kept frighteningly thin.
- Avoid investing in all but a few military buildings you probably won't have enugh money to use them early, and you won't need them late.
- Early on, spear warbands plus a general can handle just about anything the Gauls and Britons throw at you.
- Take out Alesia ASAP. You get CAWBs and prevent the Gauls from getting those Forresters. Keep the Temple of Abdenola for the upgrades.
Fighting the Romans:
My basic Army was spears and archers. As the romans got tougher, it was more important to have Cav as well. A good mix for a tough Roman army would be 8-10 spears, 5-6 archers, and 3-4 cav.
Others may had some success using axemen or cav heavy armies, but I can assure you this one is capable of quite successfully taking on Rome's best. The beauty of it is, the tech-levels required for are so low it can be raised/retrained just about everywhere you go.
The eternal question is archers in front of or behind spears. This is compicated by two issues: 1) whatever CAWB's are "chosen" for apparently doesn't include being smart enough not to shoot spearmen in the back; and 2) nor does it include being able to skirmish their way back through a tight phalanx. Left unattended, either way you get an ugly mess.
Plan A is to leave the archers out front with Phalanx off and skirmish off. As enemies approach, you direct the archers back throughthe line, and when they reach safety, set the phalanx. Good in theory, but lots of micro-management Virtually impossible to pull off when being charged by horses.
Plan B is to put the archers in back of the spears, and let them fire at will until the enemy get close. At that point, turn off fire-at-will and individually direct the archers to safe or strategic ("strategic" meaning "I'm willing to shoot a lot of spearmen in the back to get this unit") targets. Of course, you need to watch out for archers wandering around after their targets this way.
After much experience, I generally lean to Plan B. Trying to get cute with the phalanx is risky, and the archers probably get off just as many or more rounds standing back (despite being a further distance) than they lose because of the need to skirmish back. As it is, they still keep the skirmishers and softer troops from even getting close. The harder troops (cohorts) are reduced somewhat by arrows, then left to the spear wall. After a little of that, unleash the cav from the flank and the rout is on.
I might use Plan A with a good hill and an enemy without much horse, and just try to shoot em all before they reach the line.
I think the germans have a hard time. They have a lot of land but they can be bottlenecked in when enemys put forts between the forests.Plus the german towns basically have no buldings :furious3: in them, even your capital. It's very difficult.
Oh, yeah what i did was attack :charge: the britons and the gauls right away.(we all know it was to happen).we went to war and I took most of their lands (destroying briton and nearly wiping out the gauls) the gauls then accepted a diplomatic resolution. which favored me. I then regroped :book: for 10 turns, rebuilding towns, and rebuilding armys. That's what i did.
but i don't know what to do now. move south to finish off the gauls and take out the spanish. or move south and try and take out the julli and theirs allys.
Tell me what you would do. Write me your answer
Even though I'm only playing medium/medium I've gotto say, I love the Germans. Even against the legions of Rome, a few spear units with archers behind and some heavy cav on the flanks works like a dream. Mind you, I've started experimenting with chosen axemen instead of spears and the results are highly impressive if you fancy being more agressive.
One thing I am struggling with though, is the culture penalties. Can anyone enlighten me as to which buidings impose a culture penalty when you sack a city (apart from the shrines obviously). This is driving me nuts, and it may be in the manual but the manual is that useless I stopped referring to it.
Any help would be appreciated.
One more thing, has anyone else noticed that if your town is beseiged, you only need to have a few units of archers inside to cut the enemy into pieces?
Just attack the beseiging army from inside the town as soon as they beseige you. Leave your archers behind the stckade or on the walls, use one unit to run outside the walls to entice them closer, and... blammo. They havent had time to build seige units but they will come too close for their own good and your archers can practise their archery with impunity. The real beauty is that you let the timer run down, then do the same thing again on the same turn. Not in the spirit of the game, but just wondered if others had noticed this.
Hi,Quote:
Originally Posted by Slug For A Butt
All buildings of other culture types (ie the non-Barbarian ones) impose the culture penalty. To reduce it, either upgrade them to the next level if possible, or destroy and replace (beware of destroying buildings that carry a happiness penalty, for example, as it may cause a problem while you are waiting for the replacement).
Cheers,
Rob.
Here’s my first post. The guide is an excellent work. Thank you, Mylady!!
It really helped my armies in many battles.
Germania is my third campaign, after Julii and Carthago. I played hard/hard with the unpatched version.
Germania has really strong spearbands, but it is poor and so you will not have much fun if you are passive. I tried first to be defensive in the west and start collecting the rebel provinces in the east. It didn`t work. I could easily win Saxones, Gothi and Locus Gepidal but that doesn’t help. I found myself in massive defensive battles against Gauls and Britons very soon. It took too long to win and conquer Gaul. When I finally made it the Julii were very strong and killed me. So I tried again.
De Bello Gallico
I gathered my armies near Trier. While waiting for the troops coming from the east I produced new units (spearbands, light cav, women) nearby, fought rebels and took Saxones. Then I marched directly to Alesia, the capitol of the Gauls and attacked it at once. I didn`t have many troops and they were inexperienced. But I made it after a tough fight. Holding Alesia breaks the backbone of the Gaulish and it is a good production center. If you get it so early, however, there is not much infrastructure here.
I refilled my army and rushed south the valley of the river the natives call Rhone. The garrison of Alesia was build by reinforcements I received from home. I took Lugundum. I didn’t go directly to Massilia, because I expected to meet the Julii there. So I took Narbo Martius. I had to reject an Gaulish attack near Alesia. The resistance was poor. I installed a steady flow of reinforcements from Damme, Trier and Alesia south. I also send an army towards Samarobria. They should watch and catch the Britons if they try to invade. Here I had my first major battle.
My armies used to have spearmen and light cavalry. First to hold the front line second ones to flank and attack. In this battle I had three spearbands, two light and two heavy (chief’s) cavs. I had also some naked fanatics, two skirmishers and one unit of screaming women. I attacked an army of the Britons that was twice as strong in number.
The battlefield: hills on the right and forests on the left. I told my fanatics to hide in the wood as well as the skirmishers and the women. I posted my spears in the middle of the field and my cav at the right.
The Britons had a longer frontline than I. They had chariots at both flanks.
I waited for them to attack. However, that was exactly what they didn’t. I advanced my spears a bit. Nothing happened. I grouped my cav in two pairs (each heavy and light) and let the first pair advance and the second follow. When I almost reached the enemy the chariots on this side attacked. Now there was a big gap between my cav and my spears and another gap between them and the forest. Fortunately my cav killed all the chariots on the right flank easily. The general of the Britons finally decided to attack. His infantry moved to my spears and the chariots from the left came to attack my cavs on the right. My cavs hit them hard and as soon as it was clear that the chariots would loose I sent one light cav in the back of the enemy’s infantry. My spears engaged them frontal and my forest troops attacked screaming on the left flank. Not many enemies left the battleground alive.
Then I attacked Massilia. I besieged it and took it. Then I built a fortress with a garrison at the mountain pass to Italy. They should protect me from the Julii. With new reinforcements I sent troops to the border of Spain and then north along the Atlantic coast. I walked over any Gaulish troops on the way.
When I besieged Condate the Britons came with another full army. Again they had more troops with a lot of chariots. The field was plain. I had 4 spearbands, 2 skirmishers and cav. We stood face to face but their frontline was much longer, especially at my left. So I sent my cav there. It was defeated. I send my chief and some skirmishers. My chief was killed. I sent a spear unit to support the left flank. Right then the Britons started to attack my center with chariots and warbands. The chariots broke through (!) and my spears flew (!!). This battle was a disaster. :furious3:
I was seeking for bloody revenge. The rest of my beaten army was strengthened by troops from the homeland and the victorious army coming from Condate. Together they had lots of spears, few cav. skirms, women and even some peasants. I besieged Samarobriva. They tried to burst with their infantry. I absorbed them with my spears, softened with skirms and flank them with cav. Their attack collapsed and only few men could run back to the city. I took the gate and send the women and peasant to chase the refugees. Right then the chariots attacked my troops outside the town. They flanked them before they could build their formation. Inside the town the women and peasants took the centre without losses, outside the rest of my army was slaughtered. They run away, followed by the chariots. So my troops in the town were left alone. I had lost this battle but won the town.
That is not true. Not every building imposes a penalty. Razing and rebuilding the temple will usually reduce the penalty from 50% to 20%. Upgrading the governor's building as well will eliminate it outright.Quote:
Originally Posted by RJV
It's truly not worth it to rebuild anything other than the temple and the governor's house should be upgraded ASAP anyhow.
Despite culture penalties, temples esp. high level ones can yield difficult to get bonuses and interesting ancillaries.
Similarly, getting a colliseum as other factions allow you to keep the population happy easier etc.
@Franconius, you don't need to build up to attack Alesia. Sending the army in Trier is already sufficient. You can siege Alesia on the 2nd or 3rd turn (as fast as you can get there). Usually, most of the Gauls will be in a captain led stack outside and the faction leader with small force inside. During the AI turn, the captain led stack will attack you and you can easily shatter them, picking them apart before the faction leader's army arrives as reinforcements.
Note: it's very important to kill the faction leader and try to run down all the routers from the town as then the town will fall without needing to assault.
You should rely heavily on your spear warbands. stretch them out 2 ranks deep and have 2 right inside each other with skirmisher warband right behind with skirmish turned off and screechers behind as well. Keep your general in the center of the line. When the enemy general charges your line, they might break through which is troublesome. To prevent this, time a simultaneous countercharge by your general. This will throw enough mass to prevent the enemy cav from breaking through. The enem general will then get bogged down in the spear wall and subject to javs.
The screechers will cause warbands to rout practically the instant they touch your spear wall. Have the barbarian cav ready to give chase.
While one army is taking Alesia and gaul, send all the other troops down to Italy, sacking the rebel and Gaullic towns along the way. In this way, I took Rome in 263. Spear warbands and screechers are the best town level combo ever. They are also ridiculously easy to retrain.
Enjoy. Don't forget Temples of Woden which can turn your spearwarbands into even better meatgrinders.
In addition, Germans as well has Scythias have supersized wardog units of 60 instead of 48 base size. Fell free to abuse those. They can eat up unarmored units like warbands easily.
Thanks Katank! Good advice! I agree. Most important thing is to attack Alesia at once and then keep on pushing!! ~:)
Here`s the rest of the story!
Franconicus ante porta
I owned whole France now. I had an alliance with Dacia and agreements with Scythia. The Britons had to leave the mainland. I could not follow because I had no fleet and no harbors. Fortunately the Britons offered peace and I agreed. The Romans didn’t attack so far and all I had to worry were marauding groups of Gauls and rebels. I had now enough income to survive, but without sea trade I wasn’t wealthy at all. My original towns began to grow. Damme and Alesia were my manufactories for troops. The rest of the Gaulish towns were still poor after enslaving.
My diplomats told me that the Gauls still held the two towns on the other side of the Alps. I wondered what the Julii were doing all the time and decided to attack the Gauls in Italy. I expected to get in conflict with Romans there. I wanted to fight them asap. Mediolanium was the first town I attacked. I had to beat a relief army of the Gauls but then I took the town. Now the Julii attacked me, but not from Italy but coming from Spain. They had their main army in Osca.
Narbo Martius was attacked by two roman armies, from North and South. I sent reinforcements from Alesia and Samarobriva. The Romans attacked before the reinforcements arrived.
:duel:
They had one full army coming from South and a ¾ army from North. They had Hasati, Velites and one Generals cav each. They had no artillery. My troops were 4 spears, 2 light cavs, 1 women, 1 skirm, 1 axe + Chief. I divided my troops and placed 1 spear, one women and one light cav at the northern gate. The Romans here didn’t attack. They moved south to join their other army. My light cav. made a sally and attacked and killed the velites there. Then they got caught by the Roman general. Only few could retreat to the town. Meanwhile the Roman attacked the south gate. They had three battering rams and broke the walls three times. My three spears sealed the holes. Many Romans died trying to break the spear wall. They attacked even with their general’s cav. When the spears were tired my horses and axes attacked from the side and gave them a break. When the situation became critical my spears from the north arrived and could break the Romans attack. My cav killed many retreating Romans. When the northern army arrived, the battle was almost over. The rest of the Romans marched back to Spain. ~:cool:
I refilled the troops in Narbo. When the troops from Alesia and Samarobriva arrived I started a raid to Osca. I tried a new tactical element. I am not a fan of spies. I took light cavalry for reconnaissance. They are fast and they have some advantages. First they block the trade routes in the enemy’s backland. When they attack the cav. it retreats. This gives my army more time to keep the initiative. Occupying harbors with light cav. before attacking the town is very successful. Usually the enemy will send troops. If they are few your main army can destroy them, if they are many, you can separate them from the town.
:charge: This time I besieged the Romans in Osca. They attacked me. I had 5 spears, 1 skirm, 1 bows, 1 light cav and my chief’s cav. The spears formed one solid line with skirms and bows behind. My chief was on the left my light horses on the right. The Romans came through the gate, velatis first, then triari. It was the first time I met triari. Several hasati were following. My spear line advanced and my chief attacked the velatis. Most of them were killed but then my heavy cav was engaged by the triary and had losses. My light cav attacked the triary from the rear and the chief retreated. My light cav was closed in and abolished. Suddenly several units of Roman general’s cav came from the right. My spears at the right side marched to the city walls and smashed two Roman units. One had already passed. They changed to the left flank and attacked my spears from the side. I send my remaining cav to help there and finally the Romans went back into the town. I didn’t try to follow and the town capitulated in the next round. I sent the conquering troops further to the remaining Gaul settlement. I conquered my first harbor here.
After Mediolanium I took Patavium, the last Gaulish town and I won the first harbor in the Mediterranean. In this battle I could use special reinforcements – a cav army. I had sent a chief from Damme with one Gothic cav down the Sythian route. He hired all mounted mercenaries he could get and attacked all rebels he could find. When he arrived in Italy he had his own bodyguards, 1 Gothic unit, 1 heavy lancers and one mounted archers. They were quite experienced, but they had not full size, because it was impossible to refill them. :charge:
Roman counterstrike
Now I was in a good position to invade Rome. But first I had to secure my new colonies in Italy and stand a Roman counterstrike. There were small groups of Julii seen in my counties and sometimes Brutii. I decided to do some fore checking to interfere their offensives while I was preparing my invasion. My towns grew, I got some harbors at the coast of Germania, Gaul and the Mediterranian that boosted my economy. And I had some good manufactories in Damme, Alesia, Mediolanium and Patavium that produced spear bands, light cavalry and the new excellent archers and Gothic cavalry. I was also waiting for my Spanish army to come to Italy. ~:cheers:
The Brutii were much more active than the Julii. They sent a strong army and two independent family members to Dacia to invade my hometown directly. I tried to counter this. I took Noricum, which was still a rebel town. I built forts at all fords and bridges across the river Danube. I send a small army to help the Dacian. They were besieged by superior Brutii. I was not strong enough to attack the Brutii but I could keep them busy. I chased their smaller armies and retreated when the big army stopped besieging and tried to attack me. You can call it Mao Tse Tung strategy. So I managed to keep them from conquering the Dacian town and moving to Germania.
In Italy I besieged Segesta, just to keep the Julii busy. I also send an army to the Brutii town west of Patavium. I sent my horse army (+one spear gang) and besieged it. I didn’t expect to conquer this town, just tried to keep the Brutii busy. What a surprise when I found myself surrounded by three Roman armies (first the small garrison with gerneral :charge: , second a general with guard :charge: and a third a General with more than 3000 hasatii and velites :charge: ). My army was some 400 and I could withdraw. I decided to show the Romans how Germanians (and their mercs) die. I guess you learned about this battle in school - but here are details you may not know ~;) The battle was in winter. The terrain was a valley with high mountains on each side. There was some forest in the valley. The earth was covered with snow. I decided not to hide in the wood. I placed my troop on top of a mountain. Spears on the left, then mounted archers and lancers, gothic cav, light cav and chief. Then I saw them coming. It was just the third army and the 3,000 Romans filled the valley as far as the eye could see. They started climbing up the mountain. 3 units of velites tried to flank my left side. I attacked them with my chief and made them run away. Then the light cav attack followed. My horse soldiers dived through the hesatii which were already exhausted from climbing. Then my riders returned to the top of the mountain. All the time arrows were raining on the climbing legionnaires. The Roman general saw his right wing running and he tried to help him. Now I attacked with chief cav, light cav., gothic cav and lancers. The Roman general was killed and the complete first battle line run away. No I even sent my spears to keep them running. My cavalries dived several times into the mass of Roman infantry. The Romans had terrible losses and were running as fast as they could. I gathered my tired troops on top of the mountain again. The second Roman army was approaching. It was just one general with his heavy cav.. This time he was the one who was outnumbered and I was the one who was exhausted. I managed to kill him and his guard flew. The garrison didn’t arrive on the battle ground and so I was the winner. I lost about 100 men, over 2.000 Romans were killed. Although there were still other big battles especially against the Brutii this was the decisive one. The Brutii left the town. The Brutii in Dacia were cut off from reinforcements. I could kill them soon. The Brutii on the Balkan gathered and attacked me again with 2.000 soldiers. This time in summer. I had my horse army reinforced with troops (spearbands, light cav, archers, skirmishers) coming from Patavium and I could slaughter them again. Then this army moved south to conquer the Balkan.
In Italy the siege of Segesta was going on. I send a 2nd army to block Segesta from the south, but this army was encircled and killed. The Spanish army arrived and another one coming from France. So I was able to attack all three Julii towns simultaneously. Of course I took the harbors first, so the Julii had a significant lack of money! One town after the other capitulated or tried in vain to break through the siege ring. As soon as an army was free I send troops to Rome and built a fort there to stop reinforcement. First Scipii appeared as well as senate’s troops. Here I saw for the first times more advanced troops than hasati and velites. Although they were many they didn’t attack.
Before I could concentrate on Rome I had to deal with Albion once again. They send a small army to France and three round later they attacked. They defeated one small army but then were hit by a big one I had gathered from Alesia and Damme. Very good soldiers, even night raiders. While still fighting on the continent I landed at the British islands. I send another army to Londonium. The garrison tried to break out. Again a very hard battle against chariots. My army consisted of 2 and 2/3 spearbands, 1 screamimg women, 1 skirmishers and my chief. The Britons came with all kind of infantry, were stopped by my spears and killed by skirmishers and heavy cavalry. The rest flew back into the city followed by my chief and his guard. At the centre place they met the chariots, were encircled and slaughtered. My chief died. Battle luck changed. The chariots hit my infantry which had just passed a whole in the walls and was unorganized. They blow away two spearbands, the skirmishers and the women. My last 2/3 spearband hadn’t passed the wall yet. So they took their position and blocked the whole. The other troops had the chance to leave the town. The chariots attacked my spearband several times and had heavy losses. My spearband didn’t move. The rest of my skirmishers and the women saw this and decided to join the battle again. Together with the spearband they pushed back the chariots and conquered the town. The rest of Briton was easily done.
In Italy the last Julii town was occupied and the Julii blasted. Their towns were now manufacturing troops for me. I besieged Rome. The senate lost his nerves and attacked me at once. I killed many of them and Rome fell immediately. It was best troop production city. It was even producing berserkers. I pushed three armies south to attack the home towns of the Scipii and the Brutii. I besieged every town. When the garrison tried to brake I entered the town. Berserkers are excellent street fighters. So I rushed until I hit the tip of the boot. I moved my capital to Rome and called myself now Imperator Chief. My wealth was beyond compare!
Final
My Balkan army attacked the Greece and another army coming from Dacia attacked the Macedonian from the north. None of them could stop my armies. I had some troubles with Sparta. 1000 men burned at the gate when I conquered the town. But then they were eliminated.
I started building boats in France, Italy and Greece. I landed in Sicily and took Messina. The Scipii had lots of troop on the island and besieged me. I landed another army in the western part of the town and a third one to relief Massilia. The Scipii army was attacked from both sides and destroyed. I took Syracuse and besieged the last Scipii town on the island. I didn’t attack because it was filled with troops. I blocked the harbor, of course.
Meanwhile I landed on Crete and Rhodes and took these islands as well. This even increased my income. The Scipii on Sicily capitulated without even fighting. I landed with three half full armies in Africa. One of them was faced with a big Scipii army. The chief hired as many mercs he could get including some elephants. When the Romans attacked the elephants hit their flank together with other cav units. I could besiege the last three Scippi towns simultaneously. Two of them gave up and suddenly the game was over.
Resume
Blitz as fast as you can. Attack the Gauls first and aim their capitol. The rest is easy. Destroy the Britons on the continent. Then rush to Italy. Don’t bother with the Spanish. The Julii are very lacy. While I conquered whole France they just took Osca and Segesta. They still fought with hasati and velites. Brutii are more dangerous. They have already the Balkan and big well trained armies. The Scipii are easy even though they had the best troops (post Marius). At that time you have archers, Gothics, Berserker as much as you want. If you have Italy nothing will stop you. No faction ever had artillery against me!!
Tactics: Rely on your spear. They are excellent until they are hit from the side or from behind. They are even better with women and skirmishers behind them. You can use them even against the best Roman units. Only chariots were able to break the spear line. Light cav. is sufficient to flank, chief’s guard is excellent. If you have Gothic knights the Romans don’t have anything that comes close. Your archers are excellent. You can soften any Roman legion while hiding behind the spear wall. I read that they are excellent fighters too. In my game they never had to. Unfortunately Germania has no access to artillery. This really slows your blitz.
~:cool: congratulations on that campaign, it sounds like a complete success! well done! ~:cheers: ~D
i found germina a lot of fun they are the strongest babrian faction but i had a problem to begin with money they are a great team and bersekers are an amazing unit .i did some reasearch on these and apparently they use to get so anrgy they found sheilds with bits of them chewed off and they found heads with huge holes in from a blow to the head with an axe or other weapon they were extronary warriors.gettin back to the game to take areas around u it is easy u have the best troops around so u should take places easyly briton i found harder than the gauls because they have armies full of warband(crap units)so germinia are my favourite babrian faction. ~:)
Good research on the beserkers ~;) Well done Littlegannon!
the germans killed a quater of a million leginories .the german even put julius ceasear himself into a hard battle at Vosges in 58 BC but were evntually beaten but did alot of damage to ceasears army.axmen were a strong part of there force they found hundreds of skuls shatered completely .
When you say "they found hundreds of skuls shatered completely"Quote:
Originally Posted by littlegannon
who's they? the skull-finders? or do you mean archaeologists?
Just a short comment:
The warriors of Germanis were very successful against the Romans as long as it was cold. If you look at Cimbern and Teutons they beated the Romans even when they were outnumbered and circled. Note that they were one head larger than the Romans. So the bonus fighting in snow is historically correct.
When they managed to leave the Alps and entered Italy they had to fight in the sun and were beaten by the Romans. Note that they were strong and wild but due to malnutrition they had bad condition. :duel:
German cavalry seems to be more wellknown than the spearbands. Julius Cesar had mercenaries from Germania, when he attacked Gaul. The riders from Germania defeated the outnumbering Gaulish cavalry several times. So they guaranted the success of JC's campaign. After that Cesar always had cavalry from Germania in his army and so did other Roman emperors. :charge:
That's right, the Batavians (from the Lower Rhine region in the modern-day Netherlands) were particularly known for their cavalry and the ability of their horsemen to swim across a river in full armour while accompagnied by their horse. ~:eek:
Most Romans seem to not to have been able to do that, so large numbers of Batavians were employed in Roman armies... In the year 69 (the year of the death of Nero and 2 other succeeding emperors), they rose up against the Romans and the Romans weren't even able to punish them properly (although admittedly also due to their political troubles at home).
:charge:
wow you guys are the best history teachers ive ever had........ Thanks guys !.........
Well, well. :-) Germania was the very first faction I played after I finished my first Roman campaign. I'm quite frankly in love with it, it's got something to deal with every single faction available. The berserkers are wonderful... *drool*
What's your opinion of Germans fighting in square in defensive battles? I used it often, my grandest victory was when three 20-unit armies attacked me at the same time (one Julii, one Scipii, one Senate) and I simply formed up into a...square? octagon? lopsided polygon? with my 12 phalanxes, stuffed my cavalry into the centre, and simply waited it out while the Roman tossed all they had at me... Admittedly, I lost a lot of men to velite fire, but eventually, after the hastati and principes, routed I just broke up my cavalry corps and destroyed what ranged units they had. A great victory, 3 full-stack Roman armies shattered (when you're playing on huge scale and only 25 men from each army escape, that's shattering) for about 30% casualties on my side. How's that? Go Germania!
Well, that's a well fought battle for you. The Germans seem to be a quite balanced faction but they lack cavalry in the early game and that annoys me.
but babrian cavalry are one of the best light cavalry groups and are very good so they dont have a big selection but i love infrantry more than cavalry so it dont bother me
Y'know, littlegannon, that love for infantry of yours is going to hand you some pretty bad defeats one day... I mean, I'm in love with infantry too, but I always have Valens and the battle of Adrianople at the forefront in my mind... You can't rely on barbarian cavalry forever, as good as they are. Though I do agree they rock :-)
Mmm craterus, I was mildly annoyed by the lack of cavalry too, but I made up for that by concentrating all my family members into my armies and making use of every horse they could give me. Risky, I know, I could lose the core of my faction, but it serves my purposes very well. I only needed to bear with it for awhile, because my Germanic strategy is always to abandon Germania and pour into Italia.
It's fascinating what an all-family-member cavalry army can do to Roman armies. Never lost a single family member, but I just took huge slices out of their hastati formation after steamrollering their generals, before withdrawing and bringing on the infantry to finish off in the next battle. I kept getting more family members all the time because I kept sending single spear phalanxes against the two-hastati armies the Brutii nuts kept sending up north :-) When I finished with Italy I had about 12-13 family members. How's that for the heavy cavalry :-)
The one thing that annoys me about Germania (and I mean REALLY annoys me) is the lack of siege weapons. I mean, even the Scythians have onagers. Come on!
I do not think that Germania has bad cav. They have barb. cav from the very beginning. This one is much better than everything the Gauls have. British chariots can become a problem but they are in a small number because they are much more expansive. The Romans: I could beat the Roman cav whenever we met. Most of the time they have only General's cav. So these should be your enemys in the beginning. Later in the game you have Gothic cav, and they outperform any opponent. Try and combine Gothic and barb. Let the Gothic attack first and break the line and the barb follow.They will finish the job and keep clear the back of the Gothics.
You only have a lack of range cav. But your enemys have none and you can easily hire some Scythian HA. They are effective like hell. I had one cav army of Gothics, barbs and one Scythian HA. Unstoppable!!
Well where range is concerned Chosen archers are good enough for me. My Germanic battles are always fought under the umbrella protection of my archers' fire, except when victory is already a sure thing upon which I let the cavalry leave the umbrella and skewer the fleeing cowards. It seems to me that the Germanic legion does not need a missile cavalry capability in their destined theatre of operations, i.e. the west, which fits me perfectly since as good as HA are, they are only available in the far east, so it may be a little inconvenient to bring up reinforcements when you are in, for example, spain.
I tend to use family members quite a lot with limited-cavalry-factions but there is always the worry that there may one day be a "drought" of family members resulting in the fall-apart of your faction but barbarian families tend to recover from losses incredibly well..Quote:
Originally Posted by pezhetairoi
Well, in the old days, it was a question of honor that the generals fought in the first line. Remember what Julius wrote in his Bello Gallico? (Although he lied a lot!!) Or Ilias?
No soldier would follow a general that is not willing to risk his own life!
Aye, how historically true. RTW is just chock full of that historical sense I love so much. But anyways. It is extremely fun to send all-cavalry armies, especially when the Germans are so virile that they, pardon the expression, are like sows dropping piglets everywhere.
i am a good all round commander but i just find i am better with infranrty and enjoy that more pezhetairoi but i did use gothic cavalry and that
Yeah, I'm an all rounder like you, really, though I don't particularly have any preference for either cavalry or infantry. If there's a summary of my battle concept it'll have to be you can only win with both. Which is why Scythia started out as a challenge for me because I kept using infantry tactics at the beginning. Gothic cavalry? I never got it--kept building the wrong temples. >.< Or was that berserkers?
How many beserkers do you get in a unit on large unit settings?
24 Iirc
I thought it was low, so 48 on huge? They're good men though.
True. They are very low. They have 3 hp each though. They have 19 attack and 5 defense. Making them yet another awesome flanker.
They are like unbalanced stat version of Roman gladiators.
With 48 men in a unit and 3 HP per man, it's like 144 unbalanced (both stats-wise and mentally) men charging at you. I bet they could even take down hoplite formations, though I haven't tested that hypothesis yet.
It's not quite a matter of multiplication. The 48 guys can only attack 48 times. I'd rather have 144 men all with 1 hp with equal stats.
That said, multiple HP means that they can "heal" automatically between battles and need no retraining (ie. lose 2hp per men each battle evenly distributed doesn't show at all).
They can actually wade through the spears and reach hoplites in melee. However, frontal charging phalanxes still does not prove too wise a strategy.
I used Berserker as street fighters. There you have only a small line and the number is not as important as the skills.
Good tatic. I love beserkers great for geting Cohorts in the rear. Burn a whole right throught them.
Franconicus, your tactics in this regard is much like mine.
I use galdiators, arcanii, and berserkers on the walls and in the streets. They are great for those cramped spaces since their individual melee prowess come through and they are less easily swamped by superior numbers.
Furthermore, those small units pop through the siege tower a lot faster. They also come out of the gatehouse down into the street a lot faster. Nice delivery of high melee power in small package.