A Comprehensive Guide to Swêbōz Gameplay

[WinsingtonIII]

Not much to add really, what you are also noticing is the high morale of Sweboz units, they very- very rarely break, perhaps even less than the Romans. In fact in my games the Polybians, at least, break more often than Sweboz, even crappy Sweboz. Get yourself some XP-adding temples and see them really kick behind. Ludens has a guide to them somewhere around here. There is in fact a Gallic Temple that equivalates the one that gives you 5 (I think it is 5) chevrons and the Gauls can build Huge Cities, and thus wondrous temples. I got one that way. Sadly it could only produce a few units.

Anyway, I am glad that our guides convinced you to come over to the Dark Germanic-barbaric Side. Just wait till you see what Slagonez does to armoured infantry :-D

I'm already building temples to Deiwoz in all my unit producing settlements. What level of settlement am I limited to? Minor cities? Or am I stuck at large towns? That would be unfortunate...

As for coming over to the dark side, I've always been a "barbarian" fan (especially Getai of course), so I think I was already halfway there, I had just been meaning to start a Sweboz campaign for quite a while now.

They are extremely cheap, which makes up for low range, ammo, and morale. Also the fact that their secondary weapon is actually useful makes them far better than, say, Toxotai.

Yeah, the major complaint I have with them is low ammo. They burn through it so quickly that I find myself trying to make every volley truly count, so that none are wasted on shields. But, now I'm going to be able to field Medjinikos soon, so that problem should be resolved.

Their "regional" variants (available in factional MIC) are even better. The Chatti ones have very slightly increased morale and range, whereas the Chauci and Gaut spearmen have better shields.

I noticed this when looking through the stats, right now the only ones I could recruit are Gaut Spearmen I think, but my MIC isn't high enough in Scandanavia anyways. Either way, when I said Dugundiz are the most versatile basic infantry unit in the game, I was including their other varieties in that category as well.

Just keep them covered with spies. If all else fails and they blitz the Gauls, raid their Italian cities. That's even historical.

I actually already sent a spy down as soon as I saw the message pop up, and the situation isn't as bad as I thought. The Romani do appear to be focusing heavily on the North, but they still haven't taken all of Cisalpine Gaul yet, and the Aedui still have their one Cisalpine settlement under their control. Venturing over into Transalpine Gaul I found that the Aedui actually seem to have the upper hand over the Arverni (but it's still very close, the Arverni could easily come back), which was interesting, I was expecting them to have been badly beaten by Arverni in order to have become the Romani's client state. I'm not sure what I want to happen here. Arguably, if the Aedui win and the Romani actually honor their alliance for some time, it may force the Romani south and thus away from me. On the other hand, if this same situation occurs, it could mean that I would be facing a united Aedui and Romani, which is not what I want. But if the Arverni win, they will probably be too weak to resist Roman expansion and thus I will probably be dealing with Romans who control all of Gaul and Italy. I'm just going to have to what a bit and see where it's heading before I make any decisions I guess.

[athanaric]

I'm already building temples to Deiwoz in all my unit producing settlements. What level of settlement am I limited to? Minor cities? Or am I stuck at large towns? That would be unfortunate...

Large cities.

Yeah, the major complaint I have with them is low ammo. They burn through it so quickly that I find myself trying to make every volley truly count, so that none are wasted on shields. But, now I'm going to be able to field Medjinikos soon, so that problem should be resolved.

Indeed. 25 arrows is better than 15, and 184 m range is better than 143 m.

I'm not sure what I want to happen here.

You want one of the Gaul factions to come out on top, and not the Romans. Why? Because of cultural penalty. You see, the Gauls (unlike you) can build stone walls, level 2 farms, garrison quarters, universities, public baths, hospitals, festival grounds, and most importantly paved roads - of Barbarian Culture.
If that fact doesn't make you devise a wickedly evil plan for your campaign, concerning, er, the "cultural enrichment" of Gaul, I don't know what will.

e: copied this into OP.

[Macilrille]

Yes, let them build up and max out, then take them. And unless you play with the mod making expansion historical the Romans will at some point come knocking on your door. And Romans are the absolute worst enemy I have faced as Sweboz. Great fun :-) Especially when you ambush them.

[WinsingtonIII]

Yeah, I already figured Roman domination was the worst case scenario, but this makes me even more sure of that. The annoying thing is the Romans have no enemies now and as such are free to throw troops at the Central European defensive stacks. But luckily they've been losing hard for the most part

[athanaric]

Updated with some concise unit descriptions.

[Andronikos]

Great thread. I started playing EB after some time and my choice were the Swebozez. I only began my campaign, but I must say that they are great. I conquered few towns with starting army (Dugundiz and bodyguards, disbanded cavalry, archers were used as garrison troops).
My expansion path was Ascaucalis, Gawjam~Rugoz, Gawjam~Kimbroz, Gawjam~Habukoz, Gawjam~Heruskoz and Arctaunon. Perhaps not ideal, but it worked. I got from debt and started assembling an army of Jugundiz, Dugundiz and Medijnikos for some further conquest.
I also like your description of temples (God of Badass, :D) and agree with Wathonoz as better boss than Zeus/Jupiter. Actually, Odin is one of my favourite gods. It is interesting that the savage barbarian Germans (and later Vikings) chose god of wisdom as their main god. I have read somewhere on the forum, that sweboz can add really high experience bonus with their temples. Temple guide by Ludens says, that level 3 Nerthuz gives +3 exp, but it is not aviable for construction. Does this mean, that I have to conquer town with level 3 temple of the god with same attribute (I think it is fun)? Is there some other building or wonder that gives exp bonus?

[vollorix]

It´s the temple of Deiwosz, not Nerthuz, which gives experience to your troops. Build level 3 Gouvernment and a field of games, and you can crank out 4 chevroned units ( best suited for Actauron, where you can get Chatti Spearmen and Chatti Jugundiz with low tier level barracks, otherwise you´d have to cheat and demolish your level 1 government building after constructing the barracks ).