Britania, with Vanilla Play Balance Mod

[RLucid]

The majority of the balancing mods do make things a fair bit harder for the player (or the AI for that matter) to simply go on a massive blitz and destroy every last army in their path.

The problem with the VBM is that things on the campaign map appear to overall happen much slower. Gaul may in the end beat the Julii back into Italy rather than the Julii beating them. You may wish to send spies out to monitor the war in that region and use the time when the Gauls appears to be drawing troops from elsewhere in their empire to attack them.

The Gauls start with Sambo., Brits only have Londinium (built 300 yrs early it seems) and a town in west. The Rebs in Ebacurum fall 2nd turn.

@samety :

I can't blitz because I have to build a fleet, and a campaign army and get it on the mainland, without bankrupting myself. The only troops I can immediately retrain or recruit are basic Spear Warbands. Early turns I invested in the mines, and land clearance, and a port to improve finances. There seems little point in sending over a small force which is outclassed by the production of Alesia, never mind all the other provinces Gaul has. The pirate fleet has 3 ships, and if they're the large boats normally seen off there, then it'll take a while to defeat them.

The Gauls are quite capable of building stacks with 10 or so warbands, plus Noble cavalry, in response to invasions, their main problem is that they're suffering strategic overstretch with lots of potential enemies on many fronts, Julii, Spain, Britons & Germania.

The Briton starting forces are weighted to family chariots, 1 light archer, 1 slinger, 3 spear warbands plus the chanting Druids. Not exactly a great army for sieges, though I'm sure with bolstering the chariots could disrupt, infantry nicely in open field.

The Jullii AI is very slow to get going and take Rebel towns and a piece out of the Gauls, so if I rush a premature attack, I am quite likely to be defeated in detail, by Northern Gaul forces, at a time when they're quite wealthy. A border with Germania, also is more likely to lead to premature attack by them on me, because the Dacians (who are Germania's real target eastwards) take some time to make it over to Luvavum & Losice.

Also the Gauls are currently my only worthwhile trading partner, so once I engage in hostilities, I loose 400+dn/turn which would slow development considerably.

Seems to me, securing Tara, and developing, getting the spies over to see what's going on. If the Gauls attack Germany, or vice-versa then I can hope to bargain with one side or the other and land in rear.

Your plan does sound quite good though, but, now your already bordering Germania, and they're drawing up a military plan with you in it, a friendly chat with them may not do you much good.

If they do accept an alliance, offer them a small fund each turn to stay parners with you. The AI does occasionally give it all back if you pay them a visit on another issue, so little harm will be done.

If that's addressed to me, I only have a sea border with Germania, I think some of the northern towns are rebel held, but also are pretty much worthless backwaters. The Germans won't have a decent trading port.

As you say, the Gauls have a decent chance of giving the Julii a hard time, that would appear to make a Blitz on Gaul with starting army a guaranteed strategic failure, even if it achieves early tactical success.

I think I need to methodically take Hibernia and clear sea of initial pirates, rather than immediately build military for war, due to upkeep and investment reasons, and build a war chest. Hopefully with an edge in troop quality, plus larger population base to recruit from.

Seems I'm a 2nd class land power, need to control the seas first, and then pick on weakness, when comparatively small forces can take advantage of weakened opposition. The relatively wealthy trade is going to be eaten up by naval costs, and disappear once the war starts.

As this campaign appears to require much more patience than str8 RTW-1.5 with a mighty faction, I'm hoping someone would share their experience of Britons in the Play Balance mod. May be, I ought to replay and ensure I don't lose the light chariots, but I expect the stables will provide for them so didn't see them as critical.