Request advice on Aedui...

[Cute Wolf]

Don't forget uirodusios.... a line full of them should made hastati rout on contact... but beware with those missiles... Celts and Germans are highly missile allergic...

[Exosus]

I was just using the levy spearmen as an example - obviously you can't simply pick one unit and build an army with it. My point was that a cost-benefit analysis is an important part of making an army; even more so when you are having trouble with your monetary situation.

Regarding Rome having taken those 3 natural expansions by the time you are done with the Averni, that was not the case when I did it. Obviously if taking the Averni out means creating a border with Rome that does not apply, but that will not always be the case. Regarding their leaping over said territories to take Mediolanium et al, that is definitely a possibility. I have seen it happen, but it isn't all that common (imx) so leaving those cities will at least give you some chance of maintaining a peace long enough to improve infrastructure and pick up a few Eleutheroi territories before you have to go into total war mode.

Every campaign is going to be different, so none of our strategic hints will work 100% of the time: The key is to take it all into your decision making paradigm so that when a situation arises you will have a more complete view of your options.