Casse Gameplay Guide
This guide is written for EB 1.2 on the recommended Very Hard/Medium difficulty setting, though much of what is said here will be applicable to other difficulty levels. I have played as many factions, yet the Casse are my clear favorite. Playing as the Casse, you have a unique, isolated starting position, which gives you as much time as you want to build up, as well as some of the most beautiful units in the game. You've also got Barae, in my opinion the best starting character in the game, as your faction leader. He is godly.
As always, the first thing you should do upon starting a new campaign is activating the script. To do this, click on your settlement. An advisor will pop up. Click on the "show me how" button to activate the script and get the full EB experience!
Now let's look at your starting position. You've got one city, and around you are numerous eleutheroi towns. Note that you start at peace with the eleutheroi, which is unique to the Casse. This peace is unlikely to last, however.
You're losing quite a bit of money per turn, and much of this is due to your fleet. So, first load your diplomat onto your fleet, drop him off on the mainland, and then return your fleet to the docks and disband it. You won't need a fleet again for quite a while.
Now move all of your units into your capital. Disband both units of Gaeroas (spearmen) and one of the Botroas (swordsmen). This should leave you with three family members and one swordsmen unit, which should be sufficient to defend your city.
Set taxes to very high and queue up basic roads and a sewage ditch in Camulosadae. Once these are completed, build a basic trading port. Now, around 90% of the time you'll get attacked by a small- but dangerous- eleutheroi army. This shatters your peace with all the eleutheroi and robs you of trade income, but even more dangerously, this army can easily capture your one settlement- and you will lose! Immediately sally out once the enemy beseiges you and fight for your existence!
The enemy army consists of five units of Caledonian skirmishers. They may not seem too threatening- after all, you have three general's bodyguard units. But remember that we're talking about Casse bodyguards here- the skirmishers will massacre them with javelins or spears. So careful planning is necessary.
March your army out of the city. The enemy army will flee some distance back, like it always does when you sally. The trick to winning this battle is to isolate individual skirmishers units, attack them with your swordsmen, and then hit them from behind with your chariots before the rest of the skirmishers show up. The enemy should route quickly, for chariots, though they suck at hand to hand combat, have a very useful fear causing effect.
Keep doing this until only two enemy units are left.
You can even route their general with this tactic.
Chase him down!
Once the general is gone and only one or two units of skirmishers are left, just charge them with your chariots. They should rout on contact. Losses were heavier than necessary in this battle, because I forgot about some chariots and didn't realize they were being attacked until I had lost quite a few of them. If you won the battle, congratulate yourself! You just beat the hardest part of the entire campaign.
Once the port is complete, stop building and start saving money. Once you have around 6,000-7,000 mnai, start building up your army. Exactly what you want in your army will depend on your personal preference, but slingers will be devastating against the enemies you will be facing and are particularly useful in the many upcoming siege battles. You'll also want some shock infantry to help capture settlements. My army consisted of 2 units of slingers (iaosatae), 2 units of shortswordsmen (kluddobro), 1 unit of spearmen (gaeroas), 1 unit of naked spearmen (uirodusios), 3 units of swordsmen (botroas), and 2 generals. This force was more than enough for me. Leave Margorix behind to govern Camulosadae while the rest of your forces attack your first target: Ictis.
Ictis, the town to the west of your capital, has a small garrison. But don't march on the city immediately. There is another eleutheroi army to the north of the city, and it will attack your forces from behind if you try to besiege Ictis before dealing with it. So you should seek out this army and destroy it before taking Ictis. Sometimes this army is hiding in the forest, so use your spy to find it and avoid getting ambushed. You have the advantage of numbers, so this battle shouldn't be hard. Soften them up with your slingers before charging in your infantry, then outflank them with your chariots, and they should rout.
Now besiege Ictis. You'll want at least three rams. The defending army is inferior to your forces, but could inflict significant casualties if you aren't careful.
Have your slingers fire over the walls at the enemy. They should wreak havoc on the lightly armored soldiers. Two units of slingers could destroy around 20% of the enemy army.
Use your rams to break down the wall in three places. Send your infantry in and try to outflank the defenders. Your infantry have javelins; use them, they're extremely effective. Also, move your chariots up just in front of the walls to give a big morale penalty to the enemy, but of course keep your chariots out of combat.
Once the enemy routs, chase them up to the town square. Try to lure the enemy out of the town square, and then make them rout. This will help you avoid unnecessary casualties. Don't worry about the enemy chariots; even levy infantry will make short work of them.
Occupy the settlement and move your army to take Ratae. You can use the exact same tactics, and it should fall easily. You'll probably have fallen into debt at this point, but that's fine. The rest of Britain and Ireland should fall easily- none of the garrisons is particularly intimidating. Remember that you can only build ships in two provinces; Ictis and Ivernis (southern Ireland). You'll want to set up a level 4 government in Ireland, giving you access to amazing Goidilic troops. When you do decide to invade mainland Europe, I recommend landing at either Gaul or Iberia. Stay away from the Sweboz; you'll only end up fighting hordes of enemies and conquering useless, rebellious territory. It's often worth using a Gallic faction as a buffer between you and the Sweboz.
Good luck!
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Re: Casse Gameplay Guide
Originally Posted by Ravenfeeder
from Hannibal Khan the Great, Brennus, Tellos Athenaios, and Winsington III.
Re: Casse Gameplay Guide
in a strange land... 
Re: Casse Gameplay Guide
Thank you!
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