Blood and Thunder: A Sweboz Guide.
This is my first post on these forums despite lurking and playing for a couple of years, so it might be a bit rubbish and unfortunately there will be no pictures as I am currently under the influence of multiple toasts to multiple acts of heroism (roleplaying, honest).
SWEBOZ
The Sweboz are a beautiful faction in Europa Barbarorum. Nothing cries "brilliance" like downing a few beers, firing up this Germanic tribe, getting stuck into it's cultural principles of bravery and martial skill and aggression and "I am better than or atleast equal to you" philosophy and watching it all pay off. Obviously I am a bit of a historical newb regarding the subtleties of this culture but I get the general point and in EB it is this factions biggest strength.
The essence of the Sweboz is morale and the martial ability of their leaders. From the outset this faction is geared towards conflict and battle, from the starting number of settlements to the morale bonuses of all their temples to the traits and unit quality of their generals. If the Romans gain their success from economics and politics, the Seleucids from organisation and the Gauls from individual strength, then it is from rampant aggression and bloodlust and personal achievement that the Sweboz derive their success. The utter success and utter failure of the Sweboz are two sides of the same coin. A coin that calls into question both your battlefield judgement and your balls, and for this reason it is my favourite faction.
Xosenthozes Xazdadoi
The Sweboz bodyguard unit in 1.2 is not the leader of your army, it is your army. This is where the entire playstyle of every other faction is rendered obsolete and the roleplay of this faction enters its own territory. For the next one hundred seasons there is no unit that you will come in contact with that will match the martial ability of these men in all contexts, barring the Helvetti phalanx or Gaesatae, but there is no unit you have that carries a higher cost, despite it's 0 upkeep. As Sweboz your army is untouchable, but only when it consists of familly members. Again in keeping with this amazing theme, you can magnify the capabilities of your troops beyond that of any other faction in the game at any point, but only if you put them on the front line of every battle.
As the Sweboz your choices are simple but brilliant in terms of roleplay, fight as the leading men of your tribe and become the ultimate warriors of your time and risk losing everything or lose everything while risking nothing.
Who can match these guys? The Spartans do not breed fast enough, the Gaesatae and Hypaspistai and Argyraspidai are not only expensive but require vast infrastructure, the Romani have a shout after the Polybian reforms but their "Italian Allies" are nowhere near as adaptable. Not only are the Sweboz bodyguards the match of any elite available at game start but they are free. Free upkeep, free respawn/retraining, and 0 recruitment fee. What can you do at game start with the equivelant of four Spartans as the core of your army in Northern Europe?
The point of these guys (whose name I cannot find the will to retype) is their superiority coupled to their risk combined to the simplicity of the surrounding starting settlements. By the time you have conquered your neighbours in true Germanic fashion you will have Gold Chevrons spare to throw into the Nerthu Weixo which will place you right at the top of actual combat ability, but only if you embrace the spirit of this faction and send your best in first to prove he is the greatest.
Roleplay is king with this faction, although it is also king with every other faction. Your Germanic Kings with their loyal bodyguards, each trying to outdo the other on the battlefield, are easilly some of the best units in the game. Play them all as leaders of their individual armies and you will be crushed. Play them too hard and you will run out of individual warriors with their fanatical retinues. Play them just right and you will have a band of brothers that cannot be stopped and whose fallen are worshipped and revered as heroes.
Strategy
The Sweboz strategy is pretty obvious for multiple reasons. If you didn't catch on to it with your starting position and the quality of your generals then the fact that every single temple gives you a morale bonus should really start drumming home the idea. Combine that to the fact that no temple gives you a trade bonus and the general idea behind this faction is really starting to hurt that unforgiving skull with it's incessant pounding. The Sweboz are built for one thing, fighting. To facilitate this epic and unceasing warfare they have two major temple bonuses. Population growth and morale bonuses. You cannot have both, and this is important.
Population growth allows you to recruit more troops before your settlement starts to degenerate, morale bonus allows you to recruit troops that do not flee. Your ultimate, epic, best and greatest troops are already free upkeep and free retraining and "free" recruitment so everything else is mere support, although it may end up as vital support. The point here is that you are very rarely going to recruit "line troops" for anything other than ambushes. To fight the big fights you have nothing much in your arsenal other than legions of familly members.
The troops you can recruit are generally basic troops that are slightly better than your neighbours basic troops. In a basic troop versus basic troop battle you will win. Your medium troops are all highly specialised and are based on either destroying morale or armor or in very rare cases holding a line thanks to their huge spears. The point being that all your recruitable troops beyond the initial superior basic troops are highly specialised whereas your generals are adaptable and uber. Everything you can recruit is meant to be recruited as a unit that can do a specific job for your massed general army and they either hold the line while your generals kill, or crush armour and morale while your generals hold the line. They are fundamentally support troops to your epic elites and should be understood as such.
The actual strategy for the Sweboz comes in two options. You either place population growth behind morale or morale behind population growth. As your best units are free I prefer to place population growth behind morale centres and disband troops in those settlements to make up the numbers.
As for army constitution you are already governed by your few elites and lack of medium troops, so you will have one main army with most of your generals and every other army will be an ambush force based around decent administrators you have kept back for region defence. You will not be able to field two real armies and the army you do field will be do-or-die.
Short guide but hopefully to the point, like the Sweboz faction. Brilliantly crafted and heaps of fun to play with.
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Originally Posted by Dayve
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