Low Gaul morale

[Unintended BM]

Yeah, overpowered when fighting the AI is what I meant.

On a slightly unrelated note, I had one unit of Gaesatae rout during a battle with the Sweboz, and it was just fighting some random levy spearmen unit. It was very odd. The Gaesatae wasn't even that depleted, it still had around 100 guys in it.

[Geticus]

On the other hand if a barbarian faction conquers and rules an ahistorically large empire, like the Sweboz conquering and ruling all Germania and Gaul at the same time, or the Gauls conquering and ruling all Gaul and Italy and Gallicizing the majority of Italy, and maybe adding Britain to the list, then one is controlling much greater economic resources than any historical Gallic/Swebian king ever did, and it is appropriate at that point to not limit oneself to historical examples since those historical kings controlled much weaker economies. The factional goals of non-Roman factions are to some extent ahistorical anyhow, especially if one includes "house rules" to vanquish the SPQR outright like I generally have.

[Power2the1]

On the other hand if a barbarian faction conquers and rules an ahistorically large empire, like the Sweboz conquering and ruling all Germania and Gaul at the same time, or the Gauls conquering and ruling all Gaul and Italy and Gallicizing the majority of Italy, and maybe adding Britain to the list, then one is controlling much greater economic resources than any historical Gallic/Swebian king ever did, and it is appropriate at that point to not limit oneself to historical examples since those historical kings controlled much weaker economies.

True, however, the power would still have been helmd in the hands of the few, as with the Celts in the Late La Tene period. Large swaths of terrritory doesn't automatically equate with an all elite force. The Seleucids, for example, had a grat amount of territory, yet, the Royal Guard was a minority (20,000 iirc) when it came to facing large battles. Here we see settler units, archers, slingers, other levies, easterners, etc...such as what was found at Magnesia where the Royal Guard was much less than half of the total force assembled. Same goes for the Ptolemies calling up the settler phalanx (kleruchoi and katoikoi) only during certain times of emergencies. The great expense of maintaining a standing army was just vast, and most cultures, especially in Northern Europe, could not afford this year long. When a great danger loomed, then a levy was imposed upon the region, when that danger passed, the levies went back home and would not be called until a great need had for them had presented itself.