A desperate plea on behalf of the Aedui and Casse

[Brennus]

Can people please offer advice for either Casse or Aedui games? I seem to have tried every trick I can think of. For the Casse I have tried migrating to Gaul early or trying my hand in Iberia later on with poor results whilst for the Aedui I have tried standing my ground, moving to Britain and trying to get to Iberia. Once I even tried to get to Noricum with the Aedui only to be cut to pieces by the Sweboz on the way. In the majority of cases I tend to get stuck in a vice between the Romans and Carthaginians. I play on H/M settings. Please help.

P.S. I accept I am not a very good strategist.

[Unintended BM]

For the Casse, disband all of your units but one swordsmen, then just build up for a while until you can afford a few more troops, then start conquering Britain. Make sure you don't build roads until you're ready to defend yourself though. One of the rebel stacks around there always seems to attack as soon as you have roads built. When it comes time to invade Europe, I find the northwestern coast of Gaul to be a great invasion site. If you go too far east, you'll get sandwiched between the Aedui and the Sweboz.

For the Aedui, just blitz the Arverni and go from there. The AI, I've found, doesn't really know how to use Celtic troops very well, for some reason, so none of those big battles at the start of a Gaul game are very hard. Just line your troops up and flank, and the other army will basically rout in a minute or two. After you defeat the Arverni, you could take the western part of Gaul, then move on to southern Gaul and eventually Rome. There's no need to migrate to Britain in an Aedui game unless that's really what you want to do.

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

As Aedui make sure you beat Rome early though. You don't want to be facing stack spam of PE and Triarii with unarmored units. To spice up my Aedui campaign, after I conquered Rome and Sweboz, I just held tide against Luso's and Maks at choke points and sent "Mercenary" celtic armies across the seas to fight in the hellenistic wars. Added quite a bit of fun I must say!

[Arjos]

For the Casse: take all the troops you have at the beginning, except FL and FH, and transport them in the Bellovaci's land, besiege Bratosporios, and end the turn. They will attack you, stand on guard with your infantry while you get around the enemy with your Cidain, be quick throw some javelins and charge, they will rout. Now deal with their cavalry, should be easy just combine your effort against the Remi. At this point charge at the gate with your infantry and fight your way into the city to slaughter the enemy's chariots...

Now your economy will boom, since you share borders with your gallic allies, now focus in building a decent army in Britain and take the whole island with all the time you may need. If you want try to take all of Belgica too, don't get involved into a permanent war with the sweboz, just build stone walls and guard them with your milnhat. Your goal is to gain controll of the isles, then is up to you ^^

[Intranetusa]

1. Disband any unneeded soldiers first. ie. navies

2. Attack only eleuthori, don't start wars with factions you aren't at war with

3. Try to get a ceasefire with factions you are at war first.

4. Try to get trade rights with ALL factions you come across with the diplomat (helps your economy a lot). Trade FTW

5. Your central cities and vast majority of cities should all be economy and population based. (don't build military stuff, just economic stuff)

6. A few cities should be military cities, and they should be population and military based (population buildings to ensure you have a large enough population to recruit from)

7. When you're ready to go to war, attack the closest enemy, don't start wars with random people you aren't bordering...

[athanaric]

There is a good Casse guide here.

[Apázlinemjó]

As Casse: First of all, don't take any Eleutheroi settlement, build up you economy. Roleplay that you are defeated by the other tribes on the Isles. Lead your people to the Mediterranean Sea with ships. --> Casse Kingdom in North Africa? Casse on the Pontic Steppes? Casse between Carthage and Egypt? Lots of opportunities.

[Intranetusa]

As Casse: First of all, don't take any Eleutheroi settlement, build up you economy. Roleplay that you are defeated by the other tribes on the Isles. Lead your people to the Mediterranean Sea with ships. --> Casse Kingdom in North Africa? Casse on the Pontic Steppes? Casse between Carthage and Egypt? Lots of opportunities.

Why not send all your FM/troops on ships and relocate to Byzantium? Casse capital and empire based at Byzantium will be hilarious...

[Apázlinemjó]

Why not send all your FM/troops on ships and relocate to Byzantium? Casse capital and empire based at Byzantium will be hilarious...

As I said, lots of opportunities, from the departure, you can settle wherever you want. Migration EB campaigns are fun.

[athanaric]

Casse on the Pontic Steppes?

That's actually a viable strategy. Casse are one of the relatively few factions that can recruit Roxolani Nobles.

[Intranetusa]

As I said, lots of opportunities, from the departure, you can settle wherever you want. Migration EB campaigns are fun.

I wonder if BI's horde feature will work with EB...

[Kikaz]

I wonder if BI's horde feature will work with EB...

I was hoping it would, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Possibly because EB doesn't have horde scripts and/or because EB doesn't have units designated as horde units.

[johnhughthom]

Have you tried reading some of the AARs to give yourself some ideas?

[Brennus]

Have you tried reading some of the AARs to give yourself some ideas?

Good idea! I will have a skim through them.

Thanks for the advice guys, I will give it a shot as soon as I get a chance. Although any tips for beating the Romans early (apart from the slightly obvious one of "Kill them before they kill you")?

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Well you really can't beat the romans early as the Casse. Aedui are in best position to hurt Rome early. In my campaign, I had two armies, one north of the alps which was about 10 units large and a southern one which was about 6-7 units strong. This army started out conquering Patavium because you are going to need another recruitment base or Mediolanium will run out of population. Use about 2 units of slingers, 1 or 2 Gaeroas, and 2 Botroas along with your general and starting leuce epos. Beef up your barracks ASAP so you can retrain that Leuce Epos unit. Try to sack Arretium and Arimnium asap and if you can, Rome and Capua. Exterminate and destroy barracks, you don't need to worry about holding them because chances are you won't be able to afford it. After a few sackings you should have some spare cash while your army up north destroys the Arverni and some rebel settlements. This should give you the cash you need to beat the Romans.

As far as battles go, only match your Gaeroas against cavalry or Roarii, Hastati, Principes, etc. Use your Botroas against Triarii or PE as they won't melt away as easily. Slingers can flank and pelt Roman heavies with stones and then charge home with your cav.

Another note, you don't want to deal with Romani and Sweboz simultaneously. This happened in my Casse campaign. Try to beat the Romans or at least cripple them before you have to deal with the Sweboz.

[Gonras]

Me, I defeated Rome after nearly 20 Years of war (that was my first campaign, I even cheated me some money once *ducksfromthetomatoes*) and a lot of good luck in the battles. Nearly every battle (and they were countless) was won by my hero, baraes son (don't remember his name, my barae was the awesome one >D).
And i reloaded many times when being defeated. It ended up in a stalemate, then I was able to blitz rome (that was close) and ended up tearing everything in that city down I could. That was a hit in their spine, and thus I slowly conquered Italy. 20 Years of war. Devastating imagination.

[Brennus]

Me, I defeated Rome after nearly 20 Years of war (that was my first campaign, I even cheated me some money once *ducksfromthetomatoes*) and a lot of good luck in the battles. Nearly every battle (and they were countless) was won by my hero, baraes son (don't remember his name, my barae was the awesome one >D).
And i reloaded many times when being defeated. It ended up in a stalemate, then I was able to blitz rome (that was close) and ended up tearing everything in that city down I could. That was a hit in their spine, and thus I slowly conquered Italy. 20 Years of war. Devastating imagination.

cheat! lol

THat's the thing I tend to lack in my campaigns, determination.

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

See thats the thing you need: determination.

Especially after that Roman general who escaped with 1 bodyguard after a huge victory by you recruits a 20 unit merc army...and you need to immediately divert your northern army south to deal with this sudden threat.

[Arjos]

Roman general who escaped with 1 bodyguard after a huge victory by you recruits a 20 unit merc army...

Absolutely I'd rather lose a battle if allows me to kill the roman general, instead of letting him live XD

[Brennus]

Oh yes, chop of the head and the body will die. Once in my most succesful AS game so far I used my main army as a hunter killer group, searching out Ptolemic family members, it had great success and really weakened them.

[Gonras]

Well, after I conquered Rome, it was much easier to deal with the swebozez. I rather swept them away, All they had were Gaisofulco Frijod. Easily defeated. From then, Casse ruled from French to Italy to Poland :)

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Well, after I conquered Rome, it was much easier to deal with the swebozez. I rather swept them away, All they had were Gaisofulco Frijod. Easily defeated. From then, Casse ruled from French to Italy to Poland :)

Yeah when you can focus soley on the Sweboz they aren't that difficult. It was the same for me. After I had more or less defeated the Romans, my Aedui faction leader rolled up the Sweboz in about 10 years game time. Unfortunately conquering those lands isn't much of an incentive since they are so poor.

[Brennus]

Oooh I am so frustrated right now! Last night, following people's advice I started a new Aedui game, I fought three Averni armies outside Viennos, slaughtered them, took Viennos. Today it seems the autosave didn't bother to kick in so I had to fight the battle again, after three attempts I ended with a slightly poorer but still acceptable victory.... then my Rome TW CD decided to close down. Aaargh. Ah well, back we go!

[Unintended BM]

You shouldn't rely on autosaves anyway. Whenever I load from them, it's always the wrong season according to my FMs' traits, so it obviously screws something up. Anyways, I thought I'd share some of my pictures from my old Aedui game that was very fun.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Start with this.

Then go to this.

Then work on getting the reforms so you can get incredibly overpowered armies like this.

Then kill them.

After all that, I made my way into Iberia, but I quit before I ever finished killing those Lusotanans and Carthaginians. It was a very fun game.

Basically, to fight the Romans, you need a lot of swordsmen. Those guys do the best, but these guys do a great job too. Slingers and cavalry are important too. Romans fight pretty much like the gauls do, except they have way more armor at the start, and their cavalry isn't nearly as dangerous as yours. Just make sure you constantly out manuever them, because in a head on battle, you'll lose.

To take out the Sweboz, a similar strategy can be used, except by that time, you'll have probably gotten the reforms so you can use some great heavy infantry. It shouldn't be too hard, really.

[Gonras]

Yeah when you can focus soley on the Sweboz they aren't that difficult. It was the same for me. After I had more or less defeated the Romans, my Aedui faction leader rolled up the Sweboz in about 10 years game time. Unfortunately conquering those lands isn't much of an incentive since they are so poor.

Didn't say that my casse were rich ;)

[Brennus]

Lovely shots Unintended BM!

[ARCHIPPOS]

Can i offer some advice on a Casse Campaign ??? Do the following
1.Use your fleet to move your diplomat to the Continent.Start using your diplomat to make peace treaties and get trade rights etc with all your neighbors (Sweboz,Aedui,Arverni,Lusotannan).
2.Move your fleet into your capital's port and disband it.You won't need it for quite some time.
3.Compare the managerial skills of your starting 3 FM's. Move your best administrator into your capital.Set taxes to Very high.Build roads.
4.Start training a unit or two of slingers.
5.Move your spy around into the eleutheroi regions.Locate the enemy halfstack which should be roaming somewhere in the West (in the border between Cassemorg,Corieltauvae,Cambriae,Cornovae).Keep an eye on that army.
5.Take your two remaining FM's your two Boatroas, your two Gaeroas, your one (two?) units of Laesotae and siege Ratae.Build rams.(by the way your general should be given all the cool retinue members that heal casualties and give extra morale-druids,armourers,witch doctors, bards and so on)
6.Attack on next round.It is very important that you get Ratae with the minimum possible casualties.Proceed as following.
-Open multiple (3) breaches on the enemy walls.have your lusotae shell the enemies from distance.Targets of preference should be low quality infantry.By the time your slingers are out of ammo you should have taken out 15-20% of the enemy.
-Move your gaeroas and boatroas forth towards the breaches.Let them throw their javelins on the enemy's FLANKS as the stupid AI moves his troops up and down along the breaches.By now 20-25 % of the enemy are dead.
-Move your chariots forth.Have them stand by the two breaches and let them fire on will.Move your infantry boys by the third breach.have the boatroas rush through quickly followed by the gaeroas.Order them to stand ground facing the enemy contigents in a 4-unit front.By now the enemy should be charging your boys but you have an advantage.You face each enemy contigent with four of yours.2 spears and 2 swords contigents chewing up the enemy's one-by-one charges.Plus your chariots are taking easy shots on the enemy's flanks and backs and adding considerable scare factor. Continue until all enemy troops are decimated/routed/fallen back to the town center.By now you should have killed off the enemy chariot commander too.Extra morale penalty for the enemy.
-surround the last defenders and kill kil kill them...
7.Ratae is yours.Your army should be now reduced to 60% of what they were due to casualties.You'll probably have a contigent of gaeroas and boatroas and the other two units will be probably depleted to 1/3-1/4 of their original size.Your slinger boys should be alright (you shouldn't use them in melee).However by now there should be an enemy ministack of ferocious caledonian skirmishers standing right by your Capital.Do not panick.Use the extra cash (reduced army upkeep remember???) to train two units of Kluddobro.then unite those guys with your
remaining troops and your FM and attack the enemy.
-shell the enemy from distance with your slingers and lure him into facing your troops massed together and in good order(one united front of spears and swords and shields).Always use the higher ground to your advantage.If possible move your chariots behind the engaged enemy to scare him.
OK.repeat steps 5,6, and 7 accordingly to get all the eleytheroi settlements up to Ireland.Train more and better quality troops, upgrade their armour etc as you find preferable.Build up your economy by lowering taxes, building roads,ports, markets, granaries,mines.See to it that your populations are booming using hygiene infrastructure. As your treasury grows the task of unifying the Island of Britain and Ireland will become considerably easier.After unifying the Islands under your rule you will easily be the richest faction around. Then you can train some badass troops like milhant, champions, sword masters, heroes etc and invade the continent.That's what i'm about to do now playing at VH/M difficulty settings

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Here's a nice pic from my Aedui campaign.



Only my second completed campaign.

[Arjos]

Took a vacation to Egypt? XD

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Yeah I RP'd the Hellenistic powers hiring out my warriors to serve them in their ongoing wars. I tried to nip the Yellow Fever in the bud by invading Egypt though I must say the trip to Alexandria by boat was harrowing and I lost a previous army to pirates. I conquered Alexandria, Memphis and was sieging Diaspolis-Megale when I was hit by an all-elite Ptolie army which hurt me badly. I retreated north but was sandwiched between two more armies in a battle which I came within a hair of winning. My army was destroyed but I was able to hold out in Alexandria which let the AS conquer back a few territories from the Ptolies and reach the Mediterranean again.