HELLO!!!!!

[vartan]

Even when he's not starting threads but simply making posts, Brennus delights us with his integrated humor and game advice. What a champ. Ladies and gentlemen, Brennus!

[PelicanMan]

After all this time playing EB I had no idea this site existed:

http://europabarbarorum.heimstatt.net/
PelicanMan, as a veteran, yet unsuccesful Casse player (7 games, no wins) my advice about Casse ships is this, and I am very sorry if it sounds patronising, never ever load your best veteran army into one of the tier 1 Casse ships and hope to transport it for more than one turn. The English channel can swarm with pirate fleets and as soon as you think they have gone they will catch you, sending champions, chariots and Caledonians to the bottom of the briney blue before you can unload them in green Gaul.

Good luck with the Casse!

I noticed that every time I tried to swing around my navy ships to pick up the Army at my capitol; wow, 2 pirate ships against 6 tier 1 ships and I lost more then half of the fleet!!!! I ended up not going for Spain and took two rebel provinces in northern Gaul and do not know which direction to take afterwords. I will upload a pic tonight to show my current status.

THE P-MAN

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

The Casse either need to build a big pirate-bashing navy, or restrict their naval troop convoys to very short hops across the Channel (short enough to land the army in Gaul and then return the ship to port in the same turn) and then march the army to the target area overland.

[Brennus]

Even when he's not starting threads but simply making posts, Brennus delights us with his integrated humor and game advice. What a champ. Ladies and gentlemen, Brennus!

That message brought a massive smile to my face, thank you vartan!

[PelicanMan]

Hey guys,

So I put in some turns last night on my campaign and as you can see I have two standing armies which are about to back stab my allies(haven't done it yet). The Arverni Are left with two provinces and the Aedui are getting way too strong. I have marked up the image to show where my two armies are headed. Hopefully this doesn't break to many of my alliances. As for Britain, the Towns/Large Towns-cities are sitting comfortably raking in cash. I have built up Scotland to boost as much morale and experience as possible so that the Skirmishers come out as monsters.

Anyways, have a look, let me know what you guys think I should/could do.

[The Croatian Knight]

Hey guys,

So I put in some turns last night on my campaign and as you can see I have two standing armies which are about to back stab my allies(haven't done it yet). The Arverni Are left with two provinces and the Aedui are getting way too strong. I have marked up the image to show where my two armies are headed. Hopefully this doesn't break to many of my alliances. As for Britain, the Towns/Large Towns-cities are sitting comfortably raking in cash. I have built up Scotland to boost as much morale and experience as possible so that the Skirmishers come out as monsters.

Anyways, have a look, let me know what you guys think I should/could do.

Maybe just use your 2 armies to take the strongest town first?

[Arjos]

You can gamble it, by storming with two armies, but you don't want to leave Bagacos undefended...
Maybe a garrison of 4 spearmen and 2 swordsmen should be enough :)

[PelicanMan]

You can gamble it, by storming with two armies, but you don't want to leave Bagacos undefended...
Maybe a garrison of 4 spearmen and 2 swordsmen should be enough :)

Exactly what I was thinking; I have a unit in the capitol plus another one on queue; same with Bagacos (1 swordsmen unit there and another one in the queue)

Maybe I should send 2 units back from the stack? I do not have any movement points left so it would have to wait until next turn (and I will also see what the AI has planned.)

Any other suggestions are well appreciated!!

THE P-MAN

[d'Arthez]

Building up Scotland for morale bonuses won't really work. Issue being that there seems to be a bug in the Rome-TW engine that causes these morale boosting bonuses from temples and such not to be effective. You can use it for role-playing purposes, but do not expect the RTW engine to grant you an increased performance of your scottish (forgot the name of the city) trained troops on that basis.

The issue of the poor defence of Bagacos is mainly due to the Sweboz. You don't want to end up waging a two or three front war (which you could get yourself into if Lusotannan / Carthage have expanded). Just keep a solid garrison in Bagacos, and that should ascertain that the Sweboz will think twice before attacking you.

If you have an alliance with the Arverni, you may want to consider gifting them a town, if that prevents you sharing a border with another major regional power, to allow yourself some more time to build up your economy and your Gallic settlements. Even though you are playing on large unit settings, depopulation of some of those provinces can be a serious concern.

[PelicanMan]

Hey Guys,
So as you can see, I went for the attack.



My main general held the bridge against 4 full stacks and I demolished all of them ( three 10 star generals). I refilled the stack and sent back the other units for retraining. They should be back in about 6 seasons. = )

I personally think that the healing for their generals is wayyyy to powerful. So far, this campaign has been a breeze. But I guess it might change when I fight the Romans.

Anyways, I made peace with the Aedui and now I think I am going to turtle in Northern Gaul and go for all of Spain.

I decided that instead if conquering the whole known world, I might as well go for my objectives. If you guys feel otherwise, let me know what you think and I might change my mind. Oh, if you have any opinions on what you think might happen or what I could/should do, let me know.

Thanks!!!

THE P-MAN

[d'Arthez]

I don't know if you have read the FAQs, but you could be looking to get ready for the Celtic reforms? As well as develop the economy and population base in Gaul, so you don't have to depend as heavily on reinforcements from the Isles.

Keep a decent stack on the bridge near Avaricum, to make certain you won't be receiving stabbity stab from the Romans or from the Gallic factions. Send a spy / diplomat to Spain and see what is going on there. If either Carthage or Lusotannan expand up north, then you can have a very interesting theatre up there.

An option would be to take out the Sweboz, though their lands do not offer that much in economic terms.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

My advice is to keep the Romans at bay by stuffing Gergovia full of spies until it rebels - even if it takes six or even nine spies to get the job done.

[PelicanMan]

Hey Guys,

So far the campaign is going as planned. I have secured almost all fronts in southern Gaul.



I have been dealing with the Romans but they have only sent four 1/2 stacks and I demolished them. I had another battle where I was besieging Gergova (roman city) and I got attacked from the rear, so I had a half stack to my rear and the same at my front. That battle was pretty crazy but I basically handled one army as fast as I could before the other could reach; otherwise I would have been in for quite a bloodbath.

Now I plan to turtle and hold Gaul and start to invade Spain so I could reach my goals and finish this campaign.

I also had a bridge battle with the romans and annihilated them with minimal losses (pic below)



If you guys have any ideas on what you think I should do next instead of invading Spain, let me know. I haven't fully committed to taking over the luso's yet.

THE P-MAN

[athanaric]

You should watch your neighbours closely, especially the Lusitanians. If you campaign in Iberia, make sure to completely throw out the Carthaginians as soon as you share a border with them. Oh and keep at least two fleets of at least three tier 2 ships at all times. Otherwise you'll get flooded with elite phalanx, elephants, Balearic slingers, and Libyan spearmen. Yes it sounds fun fighting against them, but only the first three waves or so. For every unit you have, the Carthies have a nastier version with more armour and better missile range. Plus infinite money.

It's probably wisest to take up a defensive position in Belgium, since your victory conditions don't require you to hold Germanic lands and you can't recruit many useful units there (unless you play as the Suebi, Gauls, or Romans, which you aren't).

[Ludens]

It's probably wisest to take up a defensive position in Belgium, since your victory conditions don't require you to hold Germanic lands and you can't recruit many useful units there (unless you play as the Suebi, Gauls, or Romans, which you aren't).

Agreed, Germany isn't worth taking for the Casse. The provinces are poor; and you'll have to fight through hordes of Sweboz warriors to take them. If you aren't already at war with the Sweboz, this may be a good time to engage in some diplomacy. I find that paying other factions a token tribute (200 mnai) makes them far more reasonable in diplomacy. They'll still declare war if you have something they want, but they won't hate you quite so much. (My theory is that, like in M2:TW, diplomatic relationships with the A.I. deteriorate every turn unless a positive interaction takes place. Regular tribute, no matter how small, counts as a positive interaction.)

Whether or not the Sweboz are amenable, station a decent field army and a competent commander in Belgium. Chances are they will attack you there at some point in the campaign, and since you're their only neighbour.

[Ca Putt]

I'd also send a spy to iberia and Southern Italy, just to see where Carthagians and epirotes stand.

[Arjos]

If you are still eager to play this campaign, strengthen your Sweboz/SPQR border and start to invade Iberia with the goal to conquer it all; but if you are starting to consider a new campaign, I'd say just storm the victory conditions' regions :)

[PelicanMan]

Hey Guys,
Just a quick update.
I ended up sending spies to northern Italy and Central Europe and to my astonishment, Rome is having a b***h of a time dealing with the Gauls. I also took the advice of giving the Sweboz 200 mnai per turn for 30 years to keep peace with them (hopefully they do not attack!)

I defeated three small armies of the Romans and their diplomat came and offered a ceasefire. Instead, I counter offered asking for Massilia (don't remember how its spelled), trade rights, and money. Then counter offered giving up massilia and trade rights, and asked not to attack. I was surprised by the fact that they actually gave it up!!! unfortunately They gave me freed slaves as units and they completely suck so I sent all 8 units to attack Tolosa knowing that they would loose, but hey, I weakened them sufficiently.

Since I have secured my way points, and I just had a Family member trained in Ynes-Mon, I am building an Elite army and sending it off to conquer Spain. From then on, I will decide whether to continue the campaign or not.

Anyways, any advice would be appreciated!

THE P-MAN

[d'Arthez]

Sounds like a good plan. You could have disbanded the freed slaves in Massilia or elsewhere to give a boost to the local population. Darioritum is a prime candidate for that, though it is a long walk from Massilia to there.

The only thing you can do is try to achieve the reforms. Will provide you with a few extra recruitment options.

[PelicanMan]

Hey D'Arthez,

Time of Bondsmen
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
-Casse, Arverni, and Aedui must build at least 5 (forum)(L3 Market) collectively

Time of Soldiers
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
-Casse, Arverni, and Aedui must build at least 9 (forum)(L3 Market) collectively
-Casse, Arverni, and Aedui must build at least 5 Large Cities collectively
-Casse, Arverni, and Aedui must build at least 5 Large Temples ('awesome' level)(L3 Temple) collectively

So if I meet all those requirements in any cities, I will get reforms??? Will there be a pop up that lets me know about the reforms?

THE P-MAN

[d'Arthez]

Yup. There should be a pop up to tell you about the reforms (not really sure, my last Arverni campaign was 2 years ago), and you will see markers in all your owned cities for "Time of Bondsmen" and "Time of Soldiers"